BRYN ATHYN CHURCH: AN EPISCOPAL SOCIETY 1973

BRYN ATHYN CHURCH: AN EPISCOPAL SOCIETY Rev. WILLARD D. PENDLETON 1973

     Vol. XCIII     January 1973     No.1

New
Church Life

A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS

REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

The Bryn Athyn Church: An Episcopal Society     Willard D. Pendleton     1
     Apathy
          A Sermon on Revelation 3: 15, 13
               Peter M. Buss 11
     Total Submission to the Word
          George de Charms     16
     The Divine Inspiration of Swedenborg
          Geoffrey Childs     22
     Affirmation
          Robert S. Junge     27
     Hypocrisy     Lorentz R. Soneson     33

Second Canadian National Assembly
     Report of Proceedings     iticn Rielert 38
     Editorial Department
     "With a Perfect Heart     42
     The Faith of the General Church     43
     The Intermediate Years     44
     Communication

     The General Church of the New Jerusalem
     Council Ltd
          Roy H. Griffith 45

Church News
     Announcements
      26th General Assembly-June 12-15, 1973-Notice     47
          Annual Council Meetings-March 4-10, 1973-Notice     47
          Baptisms, Confirmations, Betrothals, Marriages, Deaths     47

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THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM

BRYN ATHYN, PA.

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     Vol. XCIII     February 1973     No. 2

Eternal Life Through the Word
     A Sermon on John 6 47, 58, 63
          Paul! fT. Heinrichs 49
In Our Contemporaries          54
God
     Willard D. Pendleton     55
The Gorand Man
     Victor J. Gladish     62
The Ten Blessings
     Alfred Acton II     67
Living Prayer
     Harold C. Cranch     73
Worship From the Love of Use
     Dandridge Pendleton     77
The Formation of Woman
     Robert H. P. Cole     82

Review
     Essays on the Lord's Prayer
          W. Cairns Henderson 87

Editorial Department
     The Lord's Brethren     89
Accommodation and Application     90
The Mystery of Regeneration     91
     Conjunction Through the Writings     92
Church News     93

Announcements
     Baptisms, Confirmations. Betrothals, Marriages, Deaths     94
Annual Council Meetings-March 5-10. 1T'73-Program     95
26th General Assembly-June 12-15, 1973-Program     96

Vol. XCIII
March 1973
No. 3

Man and the Church
     A Sermon on Genesis 7:1
          Roy Franson 97
The Word
     Willard D. Pendleton     103
In Our Contemporaries          110
Science and Cognitions
     Reginald W. Brown     111
The Gorand Man
     Victor J. Gladish     118

Sincerity
     Daniel W. Goodenough, Jr. 124
Male and Female Created He Them
     College Chapel Talk
          Robert S. Junge 130

Review
     Book of Worship
          George de Charms     133
Editorial Department
     Leading By Influx          135
     Face To Face          136
     "He Poured Out His Soul Unto Death          136
Communication
     Permission and Natural Disasters
          Erik E. Sandstrom     138

Church News
Announcements     139
     Baptisms, Confirmations Marriages, Deaths.      142
     26th General Assembly, June 12-15, l973-Program     143
     Academy of the New Church: Calendar 1973-1974     144

Vol. XCIII
April 1973

Putting Off and Putting On
     A Sermon on John 12: 23, 24
          Louis B. King
Children's Easter Address
     David P. Simons
Man
     Willard D Pendleton
Science and Cognitions
     Reqinald W. Brown
The Gorand Man
     Victor I. Gladish
The Spiritual Elijah
     Frederick L. Schnarr
The Reverend Henry Algernon
     George de Charm
The Power of Panorama
     Leon Rhodes

Communication
     The Book of Worship
          George de Charms

Editorial Department
          "Behold the Man!
          The Scope of Redemption
On Counseling

Church News

Announcements

     Baptisms, Betrothals, Marriages, Deaths
     26th General Assembly-June 12-15, 1973-Program
     Academy of the New Church: Calendar 1973-1974

Vol. XCIII          May 1973     No. 5

     Church of the Los Angeles Society     Frontispiece

The Vineyard of Naboth
     A Sermon on I Kings 21: 2, 3
          Willard D. Pendleton 193

The Use of Sensuals in the Formative Years
     A Review of the Contents and Uses of the
     Sensual Degree of the Mind
               Frederick L. Schnarr     198
Science and Cognitions
     Reginald IV. Frown     208
Father Waelchli: Church Builder
     1?ieliard Kintner     215
The Dedication of the Gabriel Church
     La Crescenta, California
          lie/en .S~crinishen'     222
     Dedication Sermon     Rev. Geoffrey Howard     225
Beautiful People     Donald L. Rose     230
Editorial Department
     No Uncertain Trumpet     233
     Repentance and the Holy Supper     234
     The Unpardonable Sin     235
Church News     236
Announcements
     Joint Meeting of Faculty and Corporation-May 18, 1973-Notice     238
     Swedenborg Scientific Association Annual Meeting-May 2, 1973-Notice     238
     Baptisms, Betrothals, Marriages, Deaths     238
     26th General Assembly-June 12-15, 1973-Program     240

     Vol. XCIII     June 1973     No. 6

     The Growth of the Church
      A Sermon on Revelation 12: 6
          W. Cairns Henderson
     Messengers of the Second Coming
          A     New Church Day Talk to Children     Frank S. Rose
     The Use of Sensuals in the Formative Years
          2.     The Special Use of the Sensuals of the Word
          Frederick L .Schnarr
     The Nature of the Celestial Marriage
          Address to Council of the Clergy
               Geoffrey II. Howard
     The Holy Supper
          Compilations of Passages

ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS
     Council of the Clergy Sessions
          Norbert H. Rogers
     Joint Council Session
          Norbert H. Rogers
     Annual Reports
          Secretary of the General Church     Norbert H. Rogers
          Treasurer of the General Church     Leonard E. Gyllenhaal
          Corporation of the General Church          Stephen Pitcairn
          Editor of New Church Life      W. Cairns Henderson
          Educational Assistant to the Bishop          David R. Simons
          Publication Committee          Norbert H. Rogers
          Sound Recording Committee      W. Cairns Henderson
     Editorial Department
     As It Were a New Song
     The Second Advent
     A New Heaven and a New Earth Communication
     Science and Cognitions
          Horand K. Gutfeldt
Announcements
     Baptisms, Confirmations, Betrothals, Marriages, Deaths
26th General Assembly-June 12-15, 1973-Program

     Vol. XCIII     July 1973     No.7

The Woman in the Wilderness
     A Sermon on Revelation 12: 13, 14
          Godmund Boolsen 305

The Use of Sensuals in the Formative Years
     3. The Use of Sensuals From Nature and Science
          Frederick L. Schnarr 311
Sharing
     Richard Lindquist 322
In Our Contemporaries     330

The History of the Sharon Church (1903-1973)
     Robert H. P. Cole and Michael A. Nash 331

Editorial Department
     The Love of Knowing     337
     Questions the Lord Asks     338
     Peace Through Conflict     339
     Church News     340

Announcements
     Baptisms, Confirmations, Betrothal, Marriages, Deaths     343

August 1973
No. 8

TWENTY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 12-15, 1973

The Organized Church
     Address at First Session
          Willard D. Pendleton 345

The Tabernacle of God Is with Men
     A Sermon on Revelation 21: 3
          Norman H. Reuter 358

The Use of Sensuals in the Formative Years
     4. Elevation Above Sensual Things
          Frederick L. Schnarr 363
Commencement Address
      George de Charms 374

Ordinations
     Declarations of Faith and Purpose
          Mark Robert Carlson, Michael David Gladish, Thomas Leroy Kline 379
Editorial Department
     On Being Perfect     381
     Anger and Zeal     382
     "The Lord Shall Fight for You     383
     Internal and External Evangelization

Church News     384
Announcements
     Ordinations, Baptisms, Confirmations, Betrothals, Marriages, Deaths      385

Vol. XCIII     September 1973     No. 9

Worship
     A Sermon on Habakkuk 2: 20
          Alfred Acton II 393

TWENTY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
BRYN ATHYN, PA. JUNE 12-15, 1923

The Priesthood
     Address to the Second Session
          Elmo C. Acton     399
     Assembly Impressions
          E. Bruce Glenn     411
     The Assembly Banquet
          Richard R. Gladish     414
     Assembly Notes     417

Editorial Department
     What Makes the Church     421
     Parents, Beware     422
     The Concept of Providence     423

Communication
     Sharon Church: A Correction
          Eldric S. Klein 424
     Directory of the General Church     425

Announcements
     Charter Day -Oct 15-9).      45
     Baptims, Marriages. Death     451

Vol. XCIII     October 1973
No. 10

Why Must We Shun Evils as Sins Against God?     433
     A Sermon on John 7: 7
          Ragnar Boyesen
Limitations of Missionary Work     439
     Donald L. Rose
The Teacher     443
     Edward B. Lee, Jr.

TWENTY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
BRYN ATHYN, PA., JUNE 12-15, 1973

Response
     Address to the Third Session
          Louis B. King     446
Journal of the Proceedings
     Norbert H. Rogers     462
Report to the General Assembly
     Extension Committee     B. David Holm     466
Assembly Messages     468

Assembly Notes
     Young People's Entertainment
          Dirk Junge 469

Editorial Department
     The Use of Rewards     470
     A Cardinal Teaching     471
     The Educational Arm of the Church     472
Communications
     Conjugial Love 49e: A Promise Or a     Statement of Fact?
          Ormond Odhner     473
     Further on Sharon Church
          Robert H. P. Cole, Michael A. Nash     475
     Sharon Church: A Correction           476
     The 1970 New Church World Assembly
          Roy Griffith     476
Church News               475
Announcements
     Charter Day-October 18-20, 1973-Notice and Program          479
     Midwestern Academy Annual Meeting, October 26, 1973, Notice 479
     Baptisms, Confirmations, Betrothals,     Marriages, Deaths 479

Vol. XCIII     November 1973
No. 11

The Gifts of Thanksgiving
     A Sermon on Exodus 23: 15
          B. David Holm 481
Twelfth Peace River District Assembly
     Report of Proceedings
          Merle Hendricks 486

Giving the First Fruits
     A Thanksgiving Talk to Children
          Mark Carlson     487
Man's Development
     Benjamin I. Nzirnaisde     490
Reflections on the Assembly: A Study of Friendship
     Stephen G. Gladish     498
Dr. William Whitehead
     A Memorial Address
          Elmo C. Acton     505
Truth in Ultimates
     Norbert H. Rogers     509
"In Remembrance of Me
     Morley D. Rich     514

Editorial Department
     Sowing in Tears, Reaping in Joy     519
     Eternal Life     520
     Conflict and Healing     521
Local Schools Directory     522
Church News     524

Announcements
     Baptisms, Confirmations, Betrothals, Marriages, Deaths     527

Vol. XCIII     December 1973
No. 12

The Reverend William Whitehead      Frontispiece
The Desire of All Nations
     A Sermon on Haggai 2: 7
          Victor J. Gladish     529
A Christmas Promise
     An Advent Talk to Children
          Thomas L. Kline     536
The Gates and Keys of the Kingdom
     Charter Day Address
          Donald L. Rose     538
The Most Ancient Church
     Julie Conaron     543
Reflections on the Assembly: A Study of Friendship
     Stephen G. Gladish     547

TWENTY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
553
Report-Part IV
The Church in the World
     Report on the Fourth Session
          Frank S. Rose
The Fifth Session
     Editorial Note
Roll of Attendance

Clergy Reports
     The Bishop of the General Church     Willard D. Pendleton     560
     Council of the Clergy     Norbert H. Rogers     562
Review
     A History of New Church Education. Section IV     569

Editorial Department
     Unity in Trinity     570
     The Lord's State at Birth     571
     Past, Present and Future     572
Communication
     Parents, Beware     Mrs. Kenneth Rose     573
Church News          574
Announcements
     Baptisms, Confirmation, Betrothals, Marriages, Deaths          576

NEW CHURCH LIFE
     VOL. XCIII     JANUARY, 1973     No. 1
     (Delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Bryn Athyn Church, September 29, 1972.)

     The General Church of the New Jerusalem was organized in 1897 under the leadership of the Right Reverend William Frederic Pendleton, who became its first Executive Bishop. In that same year Bishop Pendleton, who had been serving as the pastor of what was then known as The New Church Congregation Worshipping at Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, went before the congregation and advised them that the time had come when there was no longer a necessity for his pastoral supervision and that they were now free to proceed to the selection of another pastor. Acting on the Bishop's recommendation, the meeting proceeded to the selection of the Reverend Homer Synnestvedt.* In this connection it should be noted that it was not until September, 1899, that the name "Bryn Athyn" was finally adopted as the name for the new settlement.** What had been known as the Huntingdon Valley Congregation was then referred to as The Bryn Athyn Society of the New Jerusalem Church.*** It was not until September 29, 1905, however, eight years after its first organization, that the name Bryn Athyn Church of the New Jerusalem was adopted as the official name of the organization.**** Prior to this time, however, that is, in June, 1902, the Reverend Homer Synnestvedt, having served for five years as pastor of the society, submitted his resignation in order to devote his full time to the work of New Church education.*****
     * Minutes of the Meeting of the New Church Congregation Worshipping at Huntingdon Valley, July 18, 1897. See also NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1897, p. 128.
     ** History of the Bryn Athyn Church to Oct., 1907, Emil Stroh, See also NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1899, p. 159.
     *** See Minutes of same for years 1900-1904.
     **** Minutes of Annual Meeting of September 29, 1905.
     ***** NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1902, p. 596.
     In reviewing the history of the early days of the Bryn Athyn Church, the question arises as to why it was that following the resignation of Mr. Synnestvedt the Bishop did not immediately proceed to the nomination of a successor. With the help of Professor Klein, the Academy Archivist, I have searched the record in the hope of finding some statement which would explain why Bishop Pendleton did not do so. Unfortunately for us at this day, many of the records which were kept at that time were incomplete, and much that would be of value to the student of church history is missing. Judging from the minutes of the Consistory from 1905-1915, in which the main topic of discussion was the order and organization of the General Church, it becomes increasingly apparent that as early as 1902 Bishop Pendleton had already been giving serious thought to the need of bringing the Bryn Athyn Church directly under the government of the office of the Bishop of the General Church. In any event, it is to be noted that when Mr. Synnestvedt resigned as pastor, Bishop Pendleton, acting as General Pastor, that is, as Bishop of the General Church, temporarily assumed the responsibilities of the pastoral office. In order to understand this, I would call your attention to the provision which was later formulated by Bishop Pendleton, when in 1914 he issued the first Statement of Order and Organization of the General Church. The statement reads: "The Bishop takes charge ex officio of a society in the vacancy of the pastorate."* This statement was later changed to read: "The Bishop ex officio administers the ecclesiastical affairs of a society which has no pastor."**
     * NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1914, p. 501.
     ** NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1925, p. 183 and all subsequent Statements of Order and Organization, 1935 1952, 1970.

     It is evident to me that Bishop Pendleton handled the situation in this way because, although he was already convinced that this society should serve as an episcopal society, he did not wish to force the issue. Believing, as he did, that, "A doubt gives occasion for delay," and that, "Important action should not be taken without essential unanimity,"* he let the matter rest. The following year, however, that is, in September, 1903, the Bryn Athyn Society issued an invitation to the Bishop of the General Church to serve as its pastor. The invitation took the form of a resolution which was presented to the Society for action. The resolution reads: "Whereas the Council of the Bryn Athyn Society of the New Jerusalem Church has recommended that the Bishop of the General Church of the New Jerusalem be requested to continue in charge of the society ex officio, therefore, be it,
     * Principles of the Academy: NEW CHURCH LIFE 1899 p. 118.

     RESOLVED, that the Society hereby expresses its approval of the recommendation of the Council, and cordially extends to Bishop Pendleton an invitation to take pastoral charge of the society."*
     * Minutes of a Special Meeting of the Bryn Athyn Society of the New Jerusalem Church, September 6, 1903.

It is further noted in the minutes that, "The resolution was seconded by a number of members, put to a vote, and unanimously carried."*
     * Ibid.
     I would call your attention here to the fact that the invitation was not issued to Bishop Pendleton as a person but to Bishop Pendleton as Bishop of the General Church. I am confident that he would not have accepted it on any other basis. The question, of course, is whether this invitation which was issued to Bishop Pendleton as the Bishop of the General Church applied to his successors. I assume that it did; at least, I assume that it was interpreted in this way in that I can find no record of a similar invitation having been offered to his immediate successor. When Bishop N. D. Pendleton became Bishop of the General Church, the first Statement of the Order and Organization of the General Church had already been published, and it reads that, "The Bishop is ex officio Pastor of the society of his residence."* In any case, we know that following Bishop W. F. Pendleton's resignation as Bishop of the General Church in 1915, Bishop N. D. Pendleton became Acting Bishop, and in his report of his activities for the year, he states, "In addition [to other duties], I became ex officio Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church."**
     * NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1914, p. 501.
     ** NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1916, p. 494.
     What apparently was well-understood by all concerned in 1915 is not understood by many today. I say this because I have frequently been asked why the Bishop of the General Church, who has so many other obligations, should be expected to serve as Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church. It was for this reason that I was asked by the Joint Council of the Society to address you on this subject tonight. For my own part, I would state that I am convinced of the wisdom of this provision, and in this I share the conviction of those who preceded me in office. There are, as I understand it, two reasons for it: The one is a matter of order, and the other pertains to the use which this society serves.
     According to the order of the General Church, "the Executive Bishop is the chief governor and general pastor thereof."* It is not of order, therefore, that in the society of his residence, which is the episcopal seat of the Church, the Bishop should be brought under the government of a subordinate. This, as already considered, was tried and failed. What is more, I am quite certain that the reason it failed was because conflicts of leadership arose that adversely affected the uses which this society is organized to serve.

Here it is important to note, and this is the key to it, that the uses of an episcopal society are not restricted to local ecclesiastical affairs but are inextricably bound up with uses which directly relate to the Church as a whole. To understand this, bear in mind that the Bryn Athyn Church is the home society of the General Church; it is also the home society of the Academy schools. In each of these relationships, we have obligations to meet that are not required of other societies, and, as I understand it, these are the reasons why Bishop W. F. Pendleton reversed his original position in regard to the pastorate of the Bryn Athyn Church and accepted the office as the Bishop of the General Church.
     * Order and Organization, 1970, p. 11.

     I am fully aware that over the years there has been dissatisfaction on the part of some with this provision. There are, as far as I can determine, three reasons for this:
     The first is that it has not been fully understood.
     The second is that there have been those who have felt that this provision does not allow for the full freedom of the Society in the determination of its own affairs.
     The third reason is that due to the numerical growth of the Society and the increasing responsibilities which the Bishop of the General Church is called upon to perform, the Bishop, as pastor, has become a rather remote figure to many people in the Society. The title of pastor implies a close personal relationship and a concern for each individual which is diluted as numbers increase. This raises the interesting question of how many souls any one pastor can effectively serve.
     In addressing you this evening, it is my hope to dispel any dissatisfaction which is directly due to a lack of understanding as to why it is that since 1905 the Bishop of the General Church has served as pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church. In this connection I would observe that, to the best of my knowledge, no formal statement explaining the reasons for this provision has ever been issued. This does not mean that it has not been explained when inquiries were made, and I am confident that at the time the step was taken, it was carefully considered and discussed. In reviewing the record, however, it has become apparent to me that most of the discussion took place in councils and most of what was said was not transferred to the record. In any case, we can be sure that the step was not taken lightly and that there were at the time good and sufficient reasons for what was done. Were this not so, the provision would not have been incorporated into the Statement of Order and Organization of the General Church.
     It is not to be assumed, however, that an understanding of the reasons why this step was taken will necessarily result in agreement with it.

Over the years there have been those who have felt that the episcopal direction of the affairs of the Society does not, as already stated, allow for the full freedom of the Society in the determination of its local affairs. This is understandable, particularly in situations where the interests of the Society have seemingly come into conflict with the needs of the General Church and the Academy. As an illustration, some of you will recall the issue which arose in 1928 which centered around the construction of this building in which we are meeting tonight. A group within the Society urged the abandonment of the plans to construct this building for the use of the three organizations in favor of a building designed to provide solely for the uses of the Society. Behind this, on the part of some, lay the deeper desire for a society which would be as any other society, that is, for a society under the direction of its own pastor. What we must bear in mind, however, is that true freedom is always in accordance with the use that is served. This applies to every calling, profession, organization and human relationship. Due to the very nature of his responsibilities, the life-guard on the beach does not have the freedom to leave his post while on duty, whereas you or I may walk out of our offices at will. The married man does not have the same social freedoms in relation to the opposite sex as does the man who is single. The general of an army, the priest of the church, the judge on the bench, each has responsibilities that are peculiar to the use he performs. As the episcopal seat of the Church, we, too, have responsibilities that are not required of other societies; and if in this we forfeit certain freedoms, at the same time we gain others. What is true freedom but the freedom to be of use? In the exercise of its responsibilities to the Church as a whole, this society has reaped many blessings and benefits. I shall not take the time here to enumerate what these are, for on reflection, I am sure that we can all see them for ourselves.

We come, then, to the third and very obvious reason why some question, and others are confused by, the existing structure of the pastoral office. The problem here is that there are those who feel that they have no direct relationship with the pastoral office. Concerning this I quote from the report of the Contributions Committee, which was presented to the Board of Trustees at this time last year. The report reads: "We believe that a full-time pastor (pastors, pastoral assistants, or some other arrangement or pattern) should be established that will have the effect of providing an undiluted, direct, personal pastoral relationship for all society members."* Commenting on this statement, the report raises the question of whether this criticism of the pastoral office is substantive or psychological.

If it is substantive, they recommend that additional help be provided for the pastoral office; if it is psychological, they feel that an explanation should be given as to why things are as they are. So it is that the Contributions Committee concludes this part of its report by saying:
     * Contributions Committee Report, 1971, p. 10.

     "We recognize the above as an extremely complex and knotty problem, contemplatable and decidable only by the Bishop-but even though we run the risk of sounding audacious by recommending its further consideration, we felt we should at least recommend that the subject be publicly discussed with the membership-and perhaps even the challenge of raising money for additional pastoral salaries might be a very constructive challenge."*
     * Contributions Committee Report, p. 11.

     In responding to this recommendation, I assure you that I do not regard the suggestion as audacious; I feel that it is both timely and needful. Because of the many other responsibilities which require his attention, the Bishop is somewhat removed from the realities of society life. It is only through reports of this kind that he can be made fully aware of situations as they exist. I have not been unmindful of the fact, however, that there are those within the Society who have felt the lack of direct pastoral contact. This is not a new situation; it goes back many years; but as our numbers have increased, it has become more acute. As Bishop Acton said in his response to this particular recommendation of the Contributions Committee, "Much of the discontent with the pastoral office is due to size."* While it is true, as the Writings teach, that uses are perfected by numbers,** it is also true, at least in this world, that as the membership of a society increases, so also is there an increase in the number of those who feel that they have no significant part. I am sure that there must be a solution to this, but as yet it has not been found. What is needed is a greater sense of participation and involvement on the part of all concerned. This requires, however, not only a more effective structure but also a willingness on the part of the individual to serve the needs of the Society without undue emphasis upon the relative importance of the uses he performs.
     * Response of the Board to the Contributions Committee Report, p. 12.
     ** Lord 12.
     In speaking on the subject of the pastoral office, I would note that for many years both the Bishop and the Assistant Pastor were deeply involved in Academy and General Church uses. This is the reason why, when I became Acting Bishop, I proposed the office of Dean. What I had in mind was the need for a priest who would act for the Bishop in society affairs on a full-time basis. I believe this was a step forward.

While it is true that several years ago Dean Acton was elevated into the third degree of the priesthood for the purpose of rendering assistance in the work of the General Church, I would note that my requests upon his time have been minimal, and I am convinced that what has been asked of him has in no way interfered with his responsibilities as Dean.
     For the past eleven years, therefore, this society has had the full-time services of a priest in the pastoral office, but I gather from the report of the Contributions Committee that more assistance is needed. This does not come to me as a surprise. For the past six years, that is, since 1966, when the Reverend Lorentz Soneson, who had been serving as an assistant to the Dean, was called to the pastorate of the Los Angeles Society, Bishop Acton, with such help as I could give him, has carried the large share of the administrative responsibilities of this society. During these years I have been fully mindful of the need for an assistant to the Dean. The reason we have not had one is entirely due to the pressing needs of the General Church. In staffing the General Church, we are at all times dependent upon the number of graduates who come out of our Theological School, and in recent years they have been few. I can report, however, that in this respect the future looks bright, and within the next year or two, I am reasonably confident that we can again have an assistant to the Dean.
     While this provision will alleviate some of the pressure on the Dean's office, I do not believe that it will, of itself, solve the problem raised by the Contributions Committee. Even if we have two or three assistants to the Dean, some of the confusion that exists in regard to the pastoral office will still be with us. Let me note here what is said in the report concerning this:

     "Perhaps [some] are confused or misled by the multiplicity of different hats that members of the clergy who reside in Bryn Athyn wear-as teachers, ministers, General Church positions, Academy positions, Bryn Athyn Society positions, involvement with the Elementary School, etc. Perhaps, we speculate, the society membership already has all the pastoral support it needs but does not realize it because of communication barriers as to precisely which of the clergy are to be utilized for which clerical use."*
     * Report of the Contributions Committee, p. 11.

     Ideally speaking, I could wish that every minister resident in Bryn Athyn were employed by only one organization this would help to clarify the situation. The fact remains, however, that there is a decreasing minority of priests who still wear several hats.

The reason for this is the mutual benefit which accrues to each organization through the interchange of certain services. This is another illustration of why all three organizations should come under one head in that each is in many ways dependent upon the other. The willingness of each organization to support the others has been one of the great strengths of our movement, and up to this time, at least, the arrangement for the interchange of services under the direction of the Bishop has served us well. Our real problem is not the confusion which arises from the fact that there are priests among us who wear several hats. To uncover our essential problem, we must turn our attention to the nature of the pastoral office.
     Generally speaking, we tend to think of a priest as the good shepherd, that is, as the pastor of the flock. As already mentioned, this implies a close personal relationship which cannot be sustained as numbers increase to the point that no one shepherd can provide for all. When this takes place, there are only two alternatives: One is to divide the society into two or more societies; and the other is to seek more assistance in the pastoral office. In the hope of preserving the unity of the Bryn Athyn Church, we have adopted the latter course. Because of the limitations of manpower in our priesthood and also because we may have not been too successful in structuring such manpower as we possess, we find ourselves in a situation in which an indeterminable number complain of the lack of a meaningful contact with the pastoral office. This, as I say, is understandable, and the question is how to set it aright. The only solution I have to this is to increase the number of priests assigned to the pastoral office and seek ways in which all will feel free to make their needs known to those who serve the office. Yet I am not willing to do this if it means, as it has of recent years, that some other society or some district of the General Church will be deprived of a pastor in order to meet the requirements of the Bryn Athyn Church. What is more, I know that you would not ask this of me, particularly in view of the fact that here in Bryn Athyn we have been enriched by the presence of many ministers, some of whom are retired, some of whom serve the Academy, and some of whom serve the General Church, and a few of whom serve two or more organizations-yet all of whom have willingly given of their time to serve as consultants and friends to anyone who has sought their help.
     So far I have been speaking of the pastoral office in terms of those uses which are enjoined upon the priesthood where it is said;

     "Priests . . . ought to teach men the way to heaven, and also to lead them . . . according to the doctrine of their church from the Word. Priests who teach truths, and thereby lead to the good of life, and so to the Lord, are good shepherds of the sheep."*
          * HD 315.

     But there is another aspect of pastoral responsibility, for priests also are said to be governors of the church; that is to say, they are charged with the responsibility of preserving order within the church and of providing for its uses. Hence we read;

     "There must ... be governors to keep the assemblages of men in order, who should he skilled in the law, wise, and who fear God. There must also he order among governors, lest anyone from caprice, or ignorance, should permit evils which are contrary to order, and thereby destroy it. This is guarded against when there are superior and inferior governors, among whom there is subordination. Governors over those things with men which relate to heaven, or over ecclesiastical affairs, are called priests, and their office is called the priesthood."*
     * HD 313, 314.

     I emphasize this teaching at this time because it brings us full circle to the reason why I believe that the Bishop of the General Church should be the pastor of this society. For the past sixty-nine years this society has been the episcopal society of the General Church, and I hope that it will remain so. As the episcopal society of the Church, it seems to me that as a matter of order it should come under the direct supervision of the Bishop. I am not speaking here of the administration of the daily affairs of the Society, neither am I referring to the purely local uses of the Society which have no direct bearing on the life of the General Church. What I have in mind are those uses which this society performs as the center and home of the General Church and the Academy. It is true that we cannot always distinguish between these uses because, as I have already said, they are in many ways inextricably bound up together. What is important, however, is that the Bishop should be in a position to provide leadership in those matters which in his judgment affect the life of the Church as a whole. This, for the most part, is a matter of policy, and it is in the realm of policy that the Bishop of the General Church should serve as the pastor of the episcopal society of the Church, and this, "Lest anyone from caprice or ignorance should permit evils which are contrary to order, and thereby destroy it."*
     * HD     313.
     The question which may well arise here is, what about other societies? They do not come under the direct supervision of the Bishop except when the need arises. The answer is that an episcopal society is not the same as other societies in that, as already emphasized, many of the uses which it serves are General Church uses as distinguished from local uses.

What takes place in this society is, therefore, of immediate concern to the Bishop, and, as Bishop W. F. Pendleton came to see so many years ago, it is of order that the Bishop should be in a position to direct the policies of the society of his residence. It may be that this could be provided for in a different way than it has in the past. To my mind, it is not essential that the Bishop retain the title of pastor if the same objective, that is, his direct leadership in the formulation of the policies of the Society, can be achieved in some other way. If, as some may feel, the title of pastor, as applied to the Bishop, is a cause of continuing confusion among us, it could be that a definitive statement of the Bishop's responsibilities in the government of an episcopal society would suffice. In this case, however, I would recommend that the title of pastor be omitted and that it be thoroughly understood that whereas in other societies we have pastors, in an episcopal society we have a Dean who acts for the Bishop in all matters save questions of policy. I am not recommending this; I am only suggesting that if the title of pastor, as applied to the Bishop, is a source of confusion to our people, a way should be found of clarifying and at the same time preserving the Bishop's peculiar relation to this society.

In conclusion, I would observe that in the world around us there are many kinds of organizations, and our natural tendency is to seek out what seems best to us in the organizational structures of these institutions and apply it to the needs of the church. We must bear in mind, however, that all structures should be determined by the use which is served, and we must differentiate between strictly temporal institutions and an organization designed to serve the uses of the church. Unlike a business organization which is organized for profit, unlike a charitable institution which is concerned with social affairs, unlike a political organization which is devoted to civil needs, the primary function of the church is that the Divine may be made known among men. It is with this in mind that we should proceed to the development of an organization which is structured in such a way as to serve best the uses of the church. What we seek, therefore, is not the government of men but the government of the Lord through men. This is the reason why the Lord has provided that there may be a priesthood; that is, a body of men who by virtue of the office which they serve are authorized by the Lord to serve as governors of the church. What we are speaking of here, therefore, is government by illustration; that is, the illustration and enlightenment which come from the perception of use. Concerning this we read: "Enlightenment is from the Lord alone and exists with those who love truths because they are truths and make them uses of life."*

Hence it is that all who love the Lord are in enlightenment; yet we are told that: "Enlightenment and instruction are communicated especially to the clergy because these belong to their office and inauguration into the ministry carries these along with it."** I am not so much concerned, however, with the forms of organization as I am with its spirit. In whatever steps we take, therefore, either now or in the future, in providing for the government of the Church, and in this instance, for the government of the episcopal society of the Church, let us counsel together and turn our thoughts to what is essential, that is, to what is of use.
* SS 57
** TCR 146.
APATHY 1973

APATHY Rev. PETER M. BUSS 1973

     "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: would that thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit thee out of My mouth." (Revelation 3: 15, 16)

     What is the greatest threat to the New Church today? Is it the growing spread of open evil, which is luring even sincere members to view certain malpractices with less than disdain? Is it the rejection of the doctrines by the learned world, or will it lie in the fact that in time to come the church will be beset by the carefully reasoned arguments of other churches, of atheism, or of materialism? Does our greatest danger lie in the threat that one of the more virulent forms of so-called communism will sweep the world, and discourage worship?
     We commonly fear that it is from forces like these that the church stands in the greatest danger. Yet these are pressures from without, and to a large degree are beyond our control. We must believe that the Lord will see to it that the New Church is not destroyed by outside forces, as long as there is good within the church. He is all-powerful; and therefore all the evil in the world, the cleverest of reasonings, the greatest world powers, will not stop the New Church from growing, and eventually filling the earth. The threat to the church is not from without, it is from within. Will its nominal members become living members, or will they destroy the church in themselves, abuse their freedom of choice between good and evil, so that eventually the church ceases to have a heart?

It has only a body, which must eventually return to the dust.
     The greatest danger to the church is from within; and here again we may fear only to a degree the result of open evil, or deliberate rejection. Perhaps the more serious threat comes from apathy towards the things for which the church exists. If this feeling grows among our members, it will destroy the church as certainly, and as finally, as any open sins, or any false argument.
     The Greek word "pathos" means suffering or feeling, and so apathy means to be without feeling, without interest, to be indifferent towards something. Herein lies the terrible power of apathy. If a man is strongly opposed to something, there is a forum for argument. If he openly loves something we consider evil, there is basis for discussion. But if a man is indifferent, how can he be reached? He cannot. There is nothing to which one can appeal, for the simple reason that he does not care. He does not feel strongly either way. If this is his feeling towards the teachings of religion, then any human attempt to help him towards seeing their value has little chance of success. "Would that thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit thee out of My mouth."

     We cannot deny that apathy is within the church, and that it is a serious concern in a world which begs us to care deeply instead for the material and social pleasures. But let us not be misunderstood. It is wrong to class as apathetic all those who have had slight contact with the Lord's New Word, and understand nothing of its importance, or those who are associated with the church but are not convinced of its teachings. Before one can be apathetic towards something he has to know of its existence, and accept and understand it to some extent; otherwise his sin is ignorance, not apathy. We are speaking therefore of acknowledged members of the church.
     There are two kinds of indifference within the church which are destructive. The first is admirably summed up in the third lesson. The natural man cares not at all for the interior things of the church (even such terms as the word "interior" can raise a mental block in his mind). He says that they can't possibly be important to him, and that in any case he does not understand them. But if the same man is presented with a far more difficult problem involving his business; or if he is told how to work his way into another's confidence, and so secure his help, then he not only understands, but from his own ingenuity can produce various refinements on the subject. "But," the passage concludes, "when spiritual good and truth are in question, he feels the subject irksome, and turns his back on it.

These things have been said in order that the quality of the existing man of the church may be known."
     Obviously this is speaking about a man who is nominally of the church, and has-as we all have-the ability to see truth; but he is indifferent to it. "He feels the subject irksome and turns his back on it." How can such a man be reached? How can his friends help one who feels no need of assistance?
     He may find some excuses for his apathy. The instruction he has received has been poor; his education has made it difficult for him to understand the language of the Writings: pressure of business has kept him too long from church, and now he has got out of the habit. Yet the real source is in himself. He may not see all the responsibilities of membership in the church. Yet in presenting himself for membership he acknowledged the basic tenet-that it is vitally important to understand what the Lord has said in the Writings! This much he does know; and his apathy towards this is his own responsibility.

     The second kind of apathy is deeper, and more lastingly destructive. It is with those who have acknowledged, and also to a degree investigated, the truths of the Word. They have acquired-maybe in their youth, maybe in early manhood-a personal understanding of truth. Yet as time has gone on, and the world has spread its allures, their interest has waned, and they have become content to live on what they learned as young men, without progressing any further. This apathy is hard for the ordinary observer to detect, since knowledge that is merely of the memory can often pass for a conviction which is living, present, and heartfelt. Yet it will be apparent to those who have loved and admired a man, relied on his judgment and concern for the truth, perhaps, and as time goes on receive less and less; for through neglect the fruitful fields of thought once in his mind have become wastelands.
     Apathy is not restricted to those who know a little; for a man's knowledge and understanding of truth-and let us never forget this-a man's knowledge and understanding of truth is no guarantee that he will care for it. Indifference is a state of the affections, not of the understanding.
     Perhaps the greatest appeal of apathy is that it seems to be its own excuse. A man says, "Perhaps I should care. Maybe I should really try to understand the Writings, and be a good church member. Maybe I should think about the teachings a lot, form my conclusions from them, and teach my children properly. But I don't want to. It simply is not that important to me." In that, he feels is his excuse. If he does not feel this way, and if he is leading a fairly clean moral life, he sees no reason to try hard to overcome what he acknowledges as a weakness.

     This is because he does not appreciate the true danger of the weakness! He thinks of apathy as a neutral feeling: he is not strongly for the church, but surely he is not against it!
     He could not be more wrong.
     No one can be indifferent to the truth, once he knows it and acknowledges it. He either espouses it, and tries to learn to love it; or he hates it. He cannot be neutral towards it. Apathy towards the Writings is just a shell. Within is positive dislike. We cannot be indifferent to what we know the Lord has said.
     Perhaps this is a startling thought, and will take time to digest. Yet the Lord Himself said, "He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth abroad."* (He doesn't just not gather, he scatters what others have gathered!) The truth is that the human mind must have some affections, and the two great divisions of affections are good ones and evil ones. There is no neutral feeling towards religion and the good which it teaches. This truth is symbolized in the story of Lazarus and the rich man. Lazarus could not alleviate the rich man's torment, because between heaven and hell there is a "great gulf" fixed, and no meeting of the two is possible.**
     * Matthew 12: 30.
     ** Luke 16: 19-31.
     Apathy is an active or a growing dislike of religion, covered over with the cloak of indifference. It is one of the most skillful ruses of the hells-to make us feel no positive antipathy towards the teachings of the Word, no strong dislike, merely a disinclination to investigate them.

     Let us trace briefly the path of apathy, to its inevitable end. It starts because people have a great, perhaps too great interest, in something else-in the interesting things of this world-and the things of religion take up too much time, and anyway they seem by comparison unimportant. To salve his conscience, the man keeps most of the moral truths of life- but this is not difficult, since to get on in this world that is necessary anyway. And slowly, he loses all positive feeling for his religion. He may support it infrequently, and still say he believes, but his belief is a lie if it does not touch his behavior. Over the years, through this apathetic attitude, he will feel the truths of the Writings to be more and more foreign, strangers to his way of thought. Finally, if not in this life then certainly in the next, he will cease altogether to pay even lip tribute to a creed which has long meant nothing to him. The church in him has been destroyed; not with a bang, through reasoned rejection, but with a whimper-it has merely faded out into nothingness, with never a battle. And what about his children?

How much, with such an example, are their chances diminished of regarding religion in a serious light?
     The inevitable end of apathy is disbelief and rejection. It is not a neutral state, it is a cloak of evil, and in so far as we let it dictate to us, to that degree we are rejecting the church, every bit as much as if we were turning to open evil. Apathy is a disease, not a benign one, but a deceptively malignant malady, consuming under the surface every scrap of man's spiritual life. Not just a disease, but an infectious one, because when a man's friends within the church see his condescending disinterest for something they are trying to learn to revere, it lessens their determination, makes them feel a bit futile, even foolish in their efforts. A friend's condescension makes our attempts at sincerity more difficult.
      The New Church stands or falls solely on how much interest its members show in what the Writings say. We exist because the Lord God has been pleased to come again and tell us all we can know about His laws. If we have no interest in these laws, if we do not trouble to investigate them for ourselves, then our church is a shell, its worship a parody, and the confessions of its members are lies. The responsibility lies squarely in our hands. Each individual has the power to make himself, through self-discipline, seek to understand and care for the truth that the Lord has shown. It is vital for him to know that if he chooses apathy as his course, he is not being neutral, he has chosen a path which is positively against the Word. It will harm the church, and it will almost certainly harm him to all eternity. Amen.

     LESSONS:     Luke 16: 19-31. Revelation 3: 14-22. Arcana Coelestia 4096.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 425, 473, 448.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 131, 134.
MINISTERIAL CHANGES 1973

MINISTERIAL CHANGES 1973

The Rev. Alfred Acton II has accepted a call to the pastorate of the Immanuel Church, Glenview, Illinois, effective September 1, 1973.
The Rev. Morley D. Rich has announced his resignation as Visiting Pastor of the Central Western District, resident in Denver, Colorado. His resignation will take effect in the summer of 1973.

TOTAL SUBMISSION TO THE WORD 1973

TOTAL SUBMISSION TO THE WORD Rev. GEORGE DE CHARMS 1973

     In its essence the life of religion is a willing obedience to the law of the Lord as it is revealed in the Word. Such obedience is directly contrary to human nature, that is, to the nature which man derives by inheritance from parents and ancestors. By birth everyone feels as if his happiness depended upon his freedom to think and act just as he pleases. To be denied this freedom appears to him as intolerable slavery. How, in spite of this inherited nature, he may be led at last, by secret Divine means, to find his freedom and his highest happiness in obeying the law of the Lord, this is the miracle of regeneration. It is vividly described in the book of Genesis by the story of Joseph, when that story is spiritually understood.
     Joseph represents the state of innocence with which everyone is endowed by the Lord during infancy and early childhood. This innocence is not derived from man's heredity, but is an immediate gift of the Lord through influx out of heaven. It is Divinely provided as a counter-foil to man's inborn nature. In all the conscious experience of the mind, this Divine gift imparts a vague perception of something deeper, something more wonderful, to be discovered. It inspires a delight in learning, and a willingness to be taught and led. Especially does it open the mind to the teaching of the Word, from which everyone derives ideals of love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor, of justice, mercy and gratitude-feelings which, without it, no one would ever know.
     In the process of growth this innocence recedes and is replaced progressively by an ever stronger insistence upon one's own will. But it is never completely lost. It remains a blessed memory that is recalled from time to time, especially in states of trial, discouragement and temptation when man's self will is challenged by forces that cannot be overcome. One may then return to the ideals of childhood that seem to give hope and promise of success. In such states these ideals seem more desirable and precious than do the pleasures of self-will. Herein lies the beginning of a religious conscience.
     All this is possible because man is created for spiritual life. His mind is an organ capable of being touched and moved, not only by the forces of nature, but also by the forces of the spiritual world, that is, by love and faith.

Because of this deeper sensitivity, man can understand the truth of the Word and from it can derive an idea of God. He can feel a sense of awe, and reverence and holy fear, and be instilled with a desire to learn and do the Lord's will. This indeed is what makes him to be human, and it raises him distinctly above the nature of the animal creation. Everyone alternates between glimpses of this heavenly vision and an overwhelming sense of the necessity to achieve his own will as the only source of freedom and happiness.
     The land of Canaan, where Jacob dwelt with his twelve sons, represents man's inner mind, where ideals are formed in the imagination. They are shaped by parental teaching and education, especially by traditional modes of religious life and worship in the home. They impart a sense of security, of trust and confidence, which is eminently delightful, something to be cherished and protected. These affections from the Word inspire the hopes that give rise to the boundless idealism of youth, which, however, is no more than an insubstantial dream.

     Because of this representation, Joseph is said to be a dreamer of dreams. For this reason he was the favorite son of his father Jacob. But his brothers envied him, and in anger sold him into Egyptian slavery. By this is meant that his dreams were rejected as being impractical, and dangerous, when confronted by the actual circumstances of human life.
     According to the story, therefore, Joseph disappeared completely from the lives of his family in Canaan and was mourned as dead. Yet he left behind a deep sense of sorrow and of irretrievable loss: this because although the ideals of childhood are regarded as impractical they are nevertheless remembered and loved.
     Meanwhile, Joseph prospered miraculously in the midst of adversity. Even while he was a slave in Egypt he continued to dream. Even while in prison he interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh's butler and baker, demonstrating thereby an ability to foretell the future; and when Pharaoh had a dream which his astrologers could not understand, he called upon Joseph to interpret it. Joseph told him that the dream was a warning that there would be seven years of plenty, to be followed by seven years of famine. Because Pharaoh believed that Joseph had prophetic insight, he made him ruler over all the land and empowered him to store up the surplus grain during the seven years of plenty against the threat of starvation that would surely come.
     Dreams have no substance as long at the mind is not equipped with the knowledge and skill necessary to make them come true. Yet they inspire a search for knowledge. That is why the idealism of youth opens the way to all accomplishment. This is what is represented by Joseph in Egypt-a growing perception of the imperative need for knowledge and a persistent urge to seek it.

However, the process of learning is slow and painful. It leads to frequent disappointment and apparent failure. Joseph is at first a slave, yet he continues to dream. Only by persistent effort in the face of seemingly insurmountable difficulties does anyone achieve success. The struggle is necessary, yet by itself it never leads to the perception of new truth. Man can gather knowledges in great abundance but truth is always a miraculous gift from God. In the midst of man's labor, the Lord orders in the unconscious mind a background out of which truth may arise. This He alone can do, and only after this has been accomplished does new truth appear, suddenly, as if by chance, without man knowing whence or how it has come.
     The seven years of plenty represent the period of learning which is always necessary before actual accomplishment is possible. The world of nature, like the soil of Egypt, contains a rich harvest of knowledge, only waiting to be garnered. So also the letter of the Word is a source of unlimited knowledge concerning spiritual things whereby one may acquire a truer understanding of one's childhood ideals. Only from these two sources together can one derive genuine intelligence and wisdom. Only as these two foundations of truth are brought into harmony can one hope to make his dreams come true. Not otherwise can one's childhood ideals be brought to fulfillment in actual life. If this is to come to pass, Joseph, the love of spiritual truth, must be made ruler over the whole land of the mind, and must be given authority to store up the grain of knowledge against the expected famine.

     During this period there is no serious conflict between the ideals of religion and the loves of self and the world. One's faith is purely theoretical, and its impact upon one's life is not perceived. But the time comes when one must seriously consider how knowledge is to be used. Confronted with this necessity one suddenly realizes how little of it is really understood, and how lacking he is in the ability to accomplish his real purpose by means of it.
     Then it is that the famine strikes, and it is said that the people came to Joseph, asking for grain and bringing silver to buy it. What one buys with his silver he owns, and he can do with it whatever he pleases. The silver here meant is the truth of religion which one has received from parents and teachers. This has been accepted and adopted as his own, not because he has deeply understood it, but rather because of confidence in the wisdom of his teachers. By such teaching one may learn how to conform to the external requirements of the church and of a religious life, but this will be a traditional faith. It will lack insight, the inner vision that is the life and soul of religion.

It will move the body, but will effect no vital change in man's character. It will not quench the fires of self-love and love of the world that smolder within. It can never fulfill the dream of a heaven on earth, because it has no power to establish the kingdom of God in the human heart. It must lead in the end to disillusionment and frustration, and this brings on the famine once more

Again the people come asking for grain; but now they have no silver with which to purchase it. Instead they offer to trade their cattle and their horses, and in exchange for these Joseph agrees to provide the food they seek. Man cannot easily be induced to give up his own will. This appears to him to be his very life. Having learned that his traditional faith is not competent to achieve the ideals for which he hoped, everyone still clings to the belief that he can by his own intelligence discover the way to do this. Although he may no longer rely upon the teaching of the Word which he received in childhood, he still has a store of knowledge acquired by his own experience on which to draw. This experience, unlike the teaching of the Word, is not a story told to satisfy a child's imagination. This is real, down-to-earth and practical. Surely it can be used to satisfy the needs of society, to relieve suffering, to lighten toil, to supply all that is desired to bring greater happiness to mankind? The cattle and the horses given in exchange for grain represent the natural affections that look to use, and the reasonings by which the forces of nature may become the tools for the realization of man's natural hopes and desires.
The fact that Joseph accepted these gifts means that man must be permitted to test the powers of his own intelligence. Until he has done this, and discovered for himself how limited they are, he will not abandon the attempt to serve both God and mammon. Indeed an apparent success in this endeavor is not difficult to achieve. It is not hard to understand the importance of morality as a means of promoting mutual co-operation and external order in human society. One must adjust his life to an accepted code of moral conduct if he would win the confidence, the good will, and the approval of others. If one would succeed he must establish a reputation for honesty and fair dealing. But if one does this merely for the sake of himself, his apparent friendship and concern for others are but a hypocritical pretense, and as far as he can gain by defying the moral law secretly and with impunity he will not hesitate to do so, regardless of the injury this may inflict upon others. This kind of morality will not produce the peace on earth and good will toward men that are the promised kingdom of God. Because Joseph is still the ruler in Egypt, because the innocent love to the Lord and charity that were instilled in childhood have not been completely lost, there is still a conscience to be reckoned with.

When this is aroused it cannot but bring a revulsion of feeling, a sense of shame and self-contempt, and at last a frank acknowledgment of the futility of such a hollow profession of morality. One cannot but recognize his own inadequacy, his need for some Divine help and guidance.
     And so the famine strikes again. The people come to Joseph begging for the food to sustain their life. But now they have nothing to offer in return. Their money has been spent, and their wealth in herds of cattle and horses has been dissipated. They can only trust their lives to the mercy of the king, offering to relinquish all claim to the land on which they dwell and to become his servants. He accepts their plea:

     "Behold, I have bought you this day, and your land, for Pharaoh. Lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the ground. And it shall he in the ingatherings that ye shall give a fifth part to Pharaoh, and four parts shall he for you, for the seed of the field, and for your food, and for them in your houses, and for your little ones."*
     * Genesis 47: 23, 24.

     Here is the great paradox of human life, that all sense of freedom and of the happiness that freedom gives comes from willingness to obey. The laws of nature are inflexible and pre-ordained. As far as man learns what these laws are and acts according to them he succeeds in accomplishing whatever he desires, he overcomes restrictions, and he greatly expands his sense of freedom. To their willingness to obey the laws of nature men owe all the wonderful discoveries of modern civilization. So also the laws of spiritual life revealed in the Word are eternal and immutable. Nor can they be discovered there unless man submits his mind without reserve to the guidance of the Word. Nor can anyone do this without sacrificing his own will, in order to follow the Lord's will. Only then can the Lord enlighten him with such intelligence and wisdom that he may understand the laws of spiritual life, and by applying them gain increased freedom from the bonds and restrictions of self-love and love of the world. This is the only way to a truly religious life, a life that is not a pretense but one that springs from the heart, one into which the Lord may breathe the spirit of His life that man may become a living soul.
     The literal appearance is that the Egyptians lost their freedom when they mortgaged their lands to Pharaoh and agreed to serve him without recompense. So also it appears to every man as long as he insists upon his own will as the supreme goal of freedom and happiness. But the whole purpose of the Divine Providence over human life is that with patience and gentleness man may at last be brought to a total submission of his will.

Only when this is the case can he be gifted with a new will, a new sense of freedom, in which there is the eternal blessing and happiness of heavenly life. This is the goal toward which the dreams of childhood and the ideals of youth are Divinely intended to lead. It is of the Lord's mercy that these dreams and ideals should be preserved in the deepest recesses of man's mind and heart all through his determined struggle to attain his own selfish will.
It is of Providence that, by means of these early affections of innocence, every man should be endowed with a conscience whereby he may be turned at last to the Word for instruction and guidance. Through all the temptations of life it is provided that there may be a Joseph as the secret ruler of Egypt, with power to gather and order all man's knowledge and experience for the sustenance of his spiritual life. This is the only source and origin of true religion.
FREDERICK EMANUEL DOERING TRUST 1973

FREDERICK EMANUEL DOERING TRUST 1973

     Applications for assistance from the above Fund to enable male Canadian students to attend "The Academy of the New Church" at Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., for     the school year 1973-74 should be received by one of the Pastors listed below before March 15, 1973.
     Before filing their applications, students should first obtain their acceptance by the Academy, which should be done immediately as dormitory space is limited.
     Any of the Pastors listed below will be happy to give any further information or help that may be necessary.

The Rev. Harold C. Cranch
Two Lorraine Gardens
Islington, Ontario

The Rev. Frank Rose
R. R. #3
Preston, Ontario

The Rev. Christopher R. J. Smith
1536-94th Avenue
Dawson Creek, B. C.

DIVINE INSPIRATION OF SWEDENBORG 1973

DIVINE INSPIRATION OF SWEDENBORG Rev. GEOFFREY CHILDS 1973

     When the Lord was on earth He said: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth."* Here was a direct prophecy of His second coming, when He would reveal "all truth." Of this coming it is said:
     * John 16: 12, 13.

     "The Lord will now appear in the Word. The reason why He will not appear in person is that since His ascension into heaven He is in His glorified Human; and in this He cannot appear to any man unless the eyes of his spirit are first opened. [Rather] He will appear in the Word, which is from Him and is thus Himself."*
     * TCR 777.

     "This second coming of the Lord is effected by means of a man [Swedenborg], to whom the Lord has manifested Himself in person, and whom He has filled with His spirit, that he may teach the doctrines of the New Church from the Lord by means of the Word."*
     * TCR 779.

     This is our faith: that the Lord has made His second coming through Swedenborg, who was His scribe; and that the Writings are therefore the Lord's alone, and not at all Swedenborg's. This belief is the rock upon which our church is built. Yet there are those who would reject this rock as the head of the corner; for there are those who have read in the Writings and do not consider them a Divine revelation. Most of these describe Swedenborg as an amazing genius and as astonishingly prolific in his ideas. But they readily and easily ascribe these ideas, these truths, to Swedenborg, and not to the Lord. They ignore what Swedenborg himself testifies about the authorship of the Writings.
     Those who doubt the Divine authority of the Writings have a probing question to ask: How can a man, who is finite, write what is Divine? This is a valid question, for Swedenborg was only a finite man. To see how the Lord could nevertheless reveal the Divine Word through him is a vital point of doctrine. For since we believe that the Writings are true, we must have a rational answer to critics.

     Here we can turn to the past, for knowledge of how previous revelations were given will enable us to understand Swedenborg's inspiration in clearer light. Thus, the Old Testament was written through Divinely chosen scribes-Moses, the prophets, and others Divinely chosen. How is it, then, that what they wrote was the Lord's, and not their own? It is because they wrote down, verbatim, what was dictated to them by the Lord. In this, the Lord used angels as His spokesmen. We are told: Sometimes the Lord so fills an angel with His Divine that the angel does not know that he is not the Lord."* When so infilled, the "angel speaks not from himself but from the Lord." His words are the Lord's.** All that is the angel's own is quiescent. Such "subject angels" appeared to the scribes of the Old Testament. "They [these scribes] wrote as [subject angels] dictated, for the very words which they wrote were uttered in their ears."***
     * DP 96:6
     ** AC 1745:3.
     *** AC 7055:3.
     This literal dictation was a necessity in the Old Testament, for in it the very Hebrew letters-every jot and tittle-have a Divine correspondence. Yet the dictation was not as arbitrary as it sounds; for the Old Testament scribes were first prepared and instructed before such Divine dictation was given to them. They were Divinely educated for their roles, and were thus enabled to co-operate willingly, where necessary. The eyes of their spirits were opened, and the things about which they were later to write were portrayed before them. But when they actually wrote their portion of the Word they were not in the spirit but in the body. Then they heard interiorly the literal words, Divinely dictated, which they wrote down, letter by letter; and this they did with joy, as servants of the Lord.

     Yet, as scribes, they were far different from Swedenborg. For these early revelators did not understand the meaning of what they wrote; or rather, what was written through them. It is true that they had often seen in the other world the things later written through them; yet they had no idea of the inner meaning of what was dictated. "They were not illustrated as to the understanding."*
     * AE 624: 15.
     However, the words chosen for them to write were such as they would natively use.* The distinctive style of each scribe was kept. One reason for this was for the sake of the freedom of the scribe. Also, if the entire Old Testament were written in exactly the same style, and yet by many different writers, this would compel belief in Divine authorship. And compelled belief is always avoided in the Divine Providence, for it can lead to one of the worst of all evils-profanation.

What any evil person believes through compulsion he later rejects, and in so doing comes into what is profane.
     * WE 6955.
     It is a fascinating testimony to the Divine Omniscience that the words in the vocabulary of each prophet were correspondentially highly suitable. Astonishingly, and yet understandably, the Lord supervised the education of each scribe from his infancy.
     The Gospels of the New Testament and the book of Revelation were written in a similar manner to the Old Testament. Each of the writers was first thoroughly prepared. They were Divinely led to inquire into all the details of the Lord's life on earth, to come into a deep knowledge of it. Where it was necessary, their spiritual eyes, too, were opened; and when their education and preparation were full and complete, then subject-angels came to them as well, and they received a literal dictation from the Lord through an angel. For in the New Testament every Greek word has its correspondence and therefore needed to be Divinely chosen. Nevertheless, the New Testament writers could comprehend something of what was written through them: they knew of the Lord's life, and they had an understanding of His moral teachings. But the spiritual sense of what they wrote: this was unknown to them.

     As with the scribes of the Old and New Testament, so with the scribe of the Second Coming. There are striking similarities. But there was also a great difference. It is known that Swedenborg was prepared for his use as a revelator from his infancy. His whole life was guided by an especial Providence. Thus Swedenborg testifies: "The Lord prepared me from childhood." "From my fourth to my tenth year I was constantly engaged in thought upon God, salvation, and the spiritual affections of men. . . ."* He was carefully withheld from confirming the false doctrines of the Old Church, or even from studying them in any depth, for this might have clouded his mind. It was also of the Divine Providence that he loved the sciences and philosophy. He was asked why, as a philosopher, he had been chosen as a revelator; why, for instance, was not a learned priest chosen instead? He answered that the spiritual things which the Writings reveal are to be taught and understood naturally and rationally. For this reason, Swedenborg reveals, "I was introduced by the Lord first into the natural sciences, and thus prepared; and indeed from the year 1710 to 1744, when heaven was opened to me."*** The human race as a whole was reaching adult status and attaining scientific rationality.

That is why a new revelation was needed: the human race was ready and needed to hear Divine truth on a plane that was not before fully opened. This is why a man like Swedenborg was chosen, a scientist and a highly rational man. The Divine love and the Divine wisdom were now to be revealed on the rational plane. God was to be with us in His glorified Human.
     * Letter to the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, PTW I, 590.
     ** Letter to Dr. Beyer, PTW I, 8.
     *** Letter to Oetinger, PTW I, 571.
     Because the Writings were to be a rational revelation, the Lord willed that Swedenborg understand the new doctrines to be revealed. Therefore before he became a revelator he underwent a lifetime of preparation. First he was led towards spiritual truth through science and philosophy. Then, when he was ready, the Lord appeared to him, revealing the use that was to be his role and honor. But then there were still years of preparation. His spiritual eyes were opened only gradually, and at first he saw the light of heaven dimly. At the same time he read the literal Word, and the universals of its spiritual sense were unfolded to him. For four years this special spiritual education continued; more and more the nature of the spiritual world was revealed to him; by experience he came to know the truths of heaven and the glory behind the clouds.
     It was only when he had a real grasp of the heavenly doctrines, of correspondences and of the nature of the other world that he was permitted to enter into his role of revelator. Then, when the Arcana Coelestia was started, the Lord began to reveal the Writings to mankind. And it was the Lord who did this. Thus Swedenborg says: "As for myself, I have not been allowed to take anything from the mouth of any spirit, nor from the mouth of any angel, but from the mouth of the Lord alone."* Many spirits and angels spoke to him. But through interior perception given to Swedenborg the Lord chose out what was to be used in the Writings; it was the Lord who chose and ordered and it was from His mouth, using subject spirits and angels as means.
     * Verbo 29e.
     Concerning the Writings Swedenborg states: "When I think of what I am about to write, and while I am in the act of writing, I enjoy a complete inspiration; for otherwise it would be my own; but now I know for certain that what I write is God's living truth."* His inspiration is defined in these words: "Inspiration is not dictation, but is influx from the Divine."** There is a number in the Arcana that reveals how the Lord inspired Swedenborg. We read:
     * Docu. 251: 7.
     ** AC 9094: 4.

     "There was an influx like a most gentle and almost imperceptible stream, the current of which does not appear, but still leads and draws. This, which flowed in from the Lord, led in this manner all the series of my thoughts into the consequent things, and altogether gently [yet] powerfully, so that I could not wander into other thoughts, which also I was allowed to attempt, but in vain."*
     * AC 6574.

This inspiration extended even into the single words Swedenborg used.*
     * SD 2270.
     Thus, for instance, with the Arcana itself, Swedenborg had the letter of the Word open before him. He had studied and been instructed in its correspondences for years. Then, as he was preparing actually to write the Arcana, the Lord, by directing influx, chose what was to be written down. Swedenborg did not choose, the Lord did. Thus Swedenborg states: "When I think about what I am about to write, and while I am writing, I enjoy a complete inspiration; for otherwise it would be my own; but now I know for certain that what I write is God's living truth."
     He experienced an internal dictation that was absolute; and as he testifies, he was only an instrument. What is marvelous is how the Lord prepared Swedenborg so that he could be a perfect instrument. Beautifully and interiorly, he was the scribe of the Lord his maker. "For He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him."*
     * John 3: 34.
     Before us stand the Writings in their beauty, in their Divinity. The final Word is the Lord's, even as is the Old Testament and the New Testament. We rejoice because the "Spirit of truth" has come, to lead us into "all truth." In this revelation, what is finite is removed; the Divine Lord Himself stands fully revealed. He is revealed as the Lord of love, the Divine Comforter who would lead each human being to a home in heaven. In His final Word, the Spirit saith "Come." And man's answer may be: "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."*
     * Revelation 22: 17, 20.
EVANGELIZATION 1973

EVANGELIZATION 1973

By evangelization are meant all things in the Word which treat of the Lord, and all things in worship which represent Him. For evangelization is annunciation about the Lord, His coming, and the things that are from Him which belong to salvation and eternal life. And as all things of the Word in its inmost treat solely of the Lord, and all things of worship represent Him, therefore the whole Word is the evangel, in like manner all worship according to the Word. (AC 9925: 2)

AFFIRMATION 1973

AFFIRMATION Rev. ROBERT S. JUNGE 1973

     Affirmation is the first of regeneration.* Yet the men of our age tend to reject all authority except what they happen to believe from self-intelligence. They look at the differences between the tribal customs of far-off nations and the customs of our own land. As they see the differences in what each man regards as right and wrong, they conclude that there is no common standard. When every man does that which is right in his own eyes, how can we claim that there is a universal Divine law ruling over all? They point out eagerly that every law changes with the times and the circumstances.
     * See AC 3923: 2.
     Even the basic authority of the Ten Commandments is questioned. How can we say, it is asked, that this ancient tribal code applies to our age? Over and over again it is claimed that truth and law are relative to the circumstances. It is often vehemently denied that there is any such thing as Divine truth. Perhaps a century ago, the fundamentalists held that the Word was literally true, and their position went unchallenged, for no one had a firm counter claim. But today the Word has slipped from its acknowledged position of authority. Even in many churches, it is treated more as illustrative background material than as the Word of God.
     In contrast the Writings restore a universal affirmative, simple and strong. "That the Word is the Word, that the Lord is the Lord, that Providence is in the most singular things. . . . When one is in this principle, although he is but obscurely aware of its existence, innumerable affirmatives are insinuated by the Lord."*
     * SD 4533. Cf. AC 3923. N 27
     Truth makes law and order. To be without it is to live in a storm of atheistic chaos, with no God in our ship to calm the wind and the waves. Man's life without truth is ruled by the shifting waves of fortune and passion. To such a man there is no chart or compass to lead beyond the surging doubts to his eternal home. But the spiritual power of the
     Word only appears to be sleeping. It has been revealed again. If man will, it can be awakened, and can say with Divine authority, "Peace,
     Be still."

     This spiritual power dwells within such general teachings as "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord"; or such phrases as, "I and My Father are one," "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." When we see the one eternal God within the Word, then we can see how truth is eternal and applies to all ages; also, how truth is universal and applies in all circumstances. The more deeply we look to the Word, the more its true character will be awakened in us, the more it will become the real master of the whole ship of doctrinal teaching that patterns our thought.

     But the Word is not holy merely because in its general sense and meaning it contains infinite truth. Just as there is life in every cell of the body, so the internal sense gives life to every word. This new life, now unfolded in the Writings, can calm the storm in man's rational mind if that mind is ruled by the universal affirmative, and not swamped with negative ratiocinations. To illustrate the importance of this affirmative, and at the same time the scope of the internal sense, let us direct our attention to just one word, often repeated in the Scripture, the word, "Amen."
     It comes from the Hebrew word, Amuna, which means "faith" and "truth." It comes from the root meaning to be sure, certain, to give support, to make stable. In ancient times when a clear teaching was unfolded the people would reply, "Amen." The Lord's Prayer ends with the word "Amen." The Word itself ends: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." Many times in the New Testament the Lord said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you"; in the original, "Amen, Amen, I say unto you"-"This is the truth, this is the truth I speak unto you."

     The Word made flesh sought to be acknowledged. When we affirm His teaching we set out on the real path of life, for affirmation and acknowledgment are the first of regeneration, the first abode of that good which flows in from the Lord.*
     * See AC 3923, 3913-3915.
     But too often we associate what is firm and stable with carefully reasoned plans and calculated goals. Yet conscious reasonings are too strident and too unsteady for the stable and firm affection we call affirmation. Affirmation is not something consciously worked out in man's thought, not even a carefully thought out understanding of the Lord. It is like a soft breath of life which man feels as his own, deep and Unchanging within himself. Its character is shown by the soft broad vowels and sustained breathing in the original word, Amuna.*
     * See AE 348.
     This living affection which can bring peace and stillness to man's mind comes from the Lord alone. This origin is clearly shown in the book of Revelation:     "These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God."*

But few in our day can really affirm with all their hearts that every least detail in the Word is true. Therefore few find that the roots of their lives are firm, stable and certain. They have nothing to guide them when they halt between two opinions. They look only to the side of their own goals and self-intelligence. When we affirm truth and acknowledge that it is from the Lord we are, in effect, expressing our desire to obey. If something is genuinely true, we should be willing to follow wherever it leads.
     * Revelation 3: 14.
     Now, intellectual sophisticates may cast doubt upon those in such simple faith, particularly concerning the authority of the Word. To these the Writings simply answer: "Many who have been accounted wise in the world are [blinded to such a degree that they have] no common sense, that is, they cannot apprehend what is good and true." How often do we think of common sense as the ability to apprehend what is good and true? The same passage continues:

     "The more anyone who is in the negative excels in talent and knowledge, the more insane he is beyond others; for the more anyone in the affirmative excels in talent and knowledge the wiser he is. To cultivate the rational by means of scientifics is by no means denied to anyone, but it is forbidden to harden oneself against the truths of faith which are the truths of the Word."*
     * AC 2588: 9.

Those who reason concerning the truth from what is non-affirmative destroy all things of faith.*
     * See AC 3923.
     Yet the Writings also point out that those who are in the affirmative of truth and also of good, and go no further, are like the tribe of Dan which had to migrate to the north, and are not in the Lord's kingdom.* The Writings clearly inveigh against blind faith.
     * Ibid.

     "No article of faith, not even the most hidden, is comprehended by man without some rational idea, and also a natural one." [To seek a blind affirmation, then], "is hurtful, for thereby anyone's freedom of thinking may be taken away, and the conscience bound even to the most heretical tenets."*
     * AC 3394, 3310.

     But just as the Lord healed the blind, so it is searching the Word which prevents blind affirmation.

     "Faith is strengthened by means of scientifics; and therefore no one is forbidden to search the Scriptures from the affection of knowing whether the doctrinal things of the church within which he was born are true; for in no other way can he be enlightened. . . .

Yet very few at this day proceed in this way; for most persons who read the Word do not read it from the affection of truth but from the affection of confirming therefrom the doctrinal things of the church within which they were born, no matter what these may be."*
     * AC 6047:3.

     Real spiritual inquiry is not based upon doctrinal positions or interpretations, but rather leads to the Word and an affirmative affection for it. Of course, New Church men, too, can search the Writings merely to prove their own traditional view. Yet too often precious ideals are destroyed by a spurious intellectualism which strives to straighten out the church.
     To destroy in anyone the affirmative toward religious teaching is spiritual theft, and feeds upon spiritual selfishness and intellectual conceit. For example, the spirit who undermined two married partners' idea of the eternal in their marriage is called in the Writings a "worthless fellow."* In our own society the beauty and joy of the love of offspring is too often marred by the negatives of the world. Negative questions reach from the adult sphere to younger and younger ages, until they are often foremost in the minds of even little children. The same is true on all planes, from the love of country, the civil plane, even to doubts concerning the Divine Humanity of the Lord, the spiritual plane. Yet for all ages the Writings make clear that objections are not to be urged against the knowledges of faith.** By the force of a single objection, all confirming truths can be rendered of no effect.*** But not so with those who believe in simplicity, for example, that the Lord alone is life, that the Lord rules the universe, and that their proprium is nothing but evil.**** Yet the denial of the evil of man's proprium is one of the most common among the false assumptions of modern man.
     * CL 216.
     ** See SD 3602.
     *** See SD 3614.
     **** See SD 3549.
     There is so much sneering at and mocking of ideals today. Inquiry has become an end instead of a means. Acknowledgment of the Lord, the Word, Providence is academically unacceptable in most institutions of higher learning. Belief in spiritual values is called nonsensical. Most of the intellectual theories of today are founded upon the shifting sands of negativism rather than the rock of truth. All too easily that negative sphere permeates our affections, thoughts and practices, even to the kind of questions we ask, and the kind of questions our young people ask.
     So the Writings put into proper perspective the human concern lest the young be led mistakenly into false traditional beliefs. We read:

     "True affirmatives may be confirmed even by many fallacies, but this is of little account for they are easily dispelled. Hence it is that various forms of worship are of scarcely any importance provided there be charity in all.

The affirmatives of childhood are either confirmed by one thing after another even to adult age, and the persons are regenerated, or they decrease [in strength of assurance], and become by slow degrees doubting affirmatives, and finally negatives."*
     * SD 4536

     A vision of true education-the affirmatives of childhood confirmed by one thing after another even to adult age and regeneration! Yet how easily in our times the most basic affirmatives decrease in strength of assurance and become by slow degrees doubting affirmatives and finally negatives.
     We cannot allow the storms and winds of merely human reasonings to blow us from the course. The first means of regeneration is the

"affirmative of internal truth, that it is so. . . . [Internal] good cannot inflow into what is negative, nor even into what is full of doubt, until this becomes affirmative. But it manifests itself by affection, that is, by man's being affected with truth, or beginning to be delighted with it; first in knowing it, and then in acting according to it."*
     * AC 3913

     Yet the force of that affection of truth is often cast into doubt by a negative sphere which would strive to make spiritual things appear too hard for us to understand. To this the Writings reply:

     "Let anyone who is of such a nature put himself to the test as to whether he desires to know how good adjoins itself to the affection of truth, and how the affections of truth apply themselves to good, and whether knowing this is irksome to him or not; and he will say that such things are of no benefit to him, and that he apprehends nothing about them. But if such things are told him as relate to business in the world, even though they are of the most abstruse character, or if he be told the nature of another man's affections and how he may thereby join the man to himself by adapting himself both mentally and orally, this he not only apprehends but also has a perception of the interior things connected with the matter. In like manner he who studies from affection to investigate the abstruse things of the sciences loves to look, and does look, into things still more intricate. But when spiritual good and truth are in question, he feels the subject irksome and turns his back on it. These things have been said in order that the quality of the existing man of the church may be known."*
     * AC 4096: 2, 3.

     We do not, then, turn our backs upon reason, but we will not allow it to become the master of our ship of doctrine or to swamp it with boisterous intellectualism. Affirmatively we must come to recognize that the Lord alone can calm the storm and bring the ship to the other side.

We will admit to nothing which challenges the universal affirmative: "The Word is the Word; the Lord is the Lord; Providence is in the most singular things."
APPLICATIONS FOR ADMISSION TO THE ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH 1973

APPLICATIONS FOR ADMISSION TO THE ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH 1973

     COLLEGE

All Students:
     Requests for application forms for admission to The Academy College for the 1973-1974 school year should be made before January 15, 1973. Letters should be addressed to Dean E. Bruce Glenn, The Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania 19009, and should include the student's full name and address, the name and address of the school he or she is now attending, and whether the student will be a day or dormitory student. Please see the Academy catalog for information about dormitory requirements.
     Completed application forms and accompanying material must be received by Dean Glenn's office by March 15, 1973.

     BOYS' SCHOOL AND GIRLS' SCHOOL

New Students:
     Requests for application forms for admission to the Academy Secondary Schools should be made for new students before January 15, 1973. Letters should be addressed to Miss Sally Smith, Principal of the Girls' School, or The Reverend Dandridge Pendleton, Principal of the Boys' School, at The Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania 19009. Letters should include the student's name, parents' address, the class the student will be entering, the name and address of the school he or she is now attending, and whether the student will be day or dormitory. Please see the Academy catalog for dormitory requirements.
     Completed application forms and accompanying material must be received by The Academy by March 15, 1973.

Old Students:
     Parents of students attending the Girls' School or Boys' School during the 1972-1973 school year should apply for their children's re-admission for the 1973-1974 school year before March 15, 1973. Letters should be addressed to the Principal of the school the student is now attending.

HYPOCRISY 1973

HYPOCRISY Rev. LORENTZ R. SONESON 1973

     Concerning the well-known parable of the man without a wedding garment we read in the Writings:

     "A 'wedding garment' signifies the intelligence of the spiritual man, which is from the knowledges of truth and good; but 'he that had not on a wedding garment' signifies a hypocrite, who by a moral life counterfeits the spiritual life when yet he is merely natural; to 'bind him hand and foot' signifies the deprivation of the knowledges from the Word, by which he has put on the likeness of a spiritual man; to be 'cast out into outer darkness' signifies among those who are in falsities from evil (for 'outer darkness' signifies falsities from evil)."*
     * AE 195: 11.

     All men would universally acclaim this teaching. No one admires a hypocrite. He is viewed with disdain. Any punishment he receives in this world or the next cannot be severe enough. The deceiver merits no mercy. The pretender who exudes piety and virtue but inwardly hates and profanes should be punished without end. It is difficult to muster pity or forgiveness for one who intentionally speaks and acts in one way but thinks and feels in another.
     The teachings of the New Church make it abundantly clear what the fate of a hypocrite is in the next world. For example:

     "In heaven no one can conceal his interiors by his expression, or feign, or really deceive and mislead by craft or hypocrisy. There are hypocrites who are experts in disguising their interiors and fashioning their exteriors into the form of that good in which those are who belong to a society, and who thus make themselves into a society; but they cannot stay there long, for they begin to suffer inward pain and torture, to grow livid in the face, and to become as it were lifeless. These changes arise from the contrariety of the life that flows in and affects them. Therefore they quickly cast themselves down into hell where their like are, and no longer want to ascend. These are such as are meant by the man found among the invited guests at the feast not clothed with a wedding garment, who was cast out into outer darkness."*
     * HH 48.

     "Hypocrites are such as talk well and also do well, but have regard to themselves in everything. They talk as angels do about the Lord, heaven, love and heavenly life, and also act rightly, so that they may appear to be what they profess to be.

But their thinking is different. They believe nothing, and they wish good to none but themselves. Their doing good is for the sake of self, or if for the sake of others it is only for the appearance, and thus still for the sake of self."*
     * HH 68.

     Such deceivers, we know, are exposed in the world of spirits. The interior thoughts and affections of every man eventually show themselves in his externals as he passes through progressive states after death.

     "The faces of hypocrites are changed more slowly than those of others, because by practice they had formed a habit of so managing their interiors as to imitate good affections; consequently for a long time they appear not unbeautiful. But as that which they had assumed is gradually put off, and the interiors of the mind are brought into accord with the form of their affections, they become after a while more misshapen than others."*
     * HH 458.

     "Deceit is called 'hypocrisy' when there is piety in the mouth, and impiety in the heart; or when there is charity in the mouth, but hatred in the heart; or when there is innocence in the face and gesture, but cruelty in the soul and breast; consequently when they deceive by a show of innocence, charity and piety. Such are 'serpents' and 'vipers' in the internal sense, because . . . when such are looked at by the angels in the light of heaven they appear like serpents and like vipers, who hide evils under truths; that is, who deceitfully bend truths to the doing of evils; for such hide poison as it were under the teeth, and thus kill. . . . Those who have been interiorly infected with spiritual deceit, that is, with hypocrisy, are they who are meant by those who speak against the Holy Spirit, for whom there is no forgiveness, as in Matthew: 'I say unto you, All sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy of the spirit shall not be forgiven unto men. Nay, if anyone shall say a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age, nor in that which is to come. Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit had. O offspring of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak what is good?' (12: 31-34)."*
     * AC 9013:4, 6.

     From these teachings and from experience we know that hypocrisy is to be shunned as filthy, hellish and unforgivable. The practice of deception leads eventually to self-deception; a point when the man no longer believes himself to be a hypocrite. Such a man can no longer see his own evils and begin to shun them. Such a man isolates himself from the help of God. He is doomed to hell.
     With a natural aversion to this abominable trait, how could any man wilfully acquire it? Certainly in our personal self-examination we see no evidence of it in ourselves-or do we? We would like to think that our actions and words are in keeping with both the laws of the Decalogue and the accepted rules of charity to others. We smile and speak politely, affirmatively and constructively.

We appear to help others sincerely, justly and faithfully. We heed the law of the land and the moral standards of the community. But what of our thoughts and deep-seated intentions? If we find in them evidence of the love of self, does that make us hypocrites?
     The Writings tell us that our native will is perverted, capable of receiving only influx from hell. If this is true, and our actions do not reveal it, then are all men hypocrites? But certainly the Lord does not ask us to avoid hypocrisy by speaking out every vile thought that enters our heads. It does not seem logical that deceit is shunned by ultimating every lustful desire that enters the will. If the heart of the unregenerate man is infilled by the hells, what chaos would exist if everyone did what he felt like doing-except practice hypocrisy!

     There is a statement in Divine Providence: "Many are not aware that they are in evils, inasmuch as they do not do them outwardly because they fear the civil laws and the loss of reputation, and thus from custom and habit fall into the way of shunning evils as detrimental to their honor and profit."* Here is a tangible point where we can begin. "Many," it is said, shun evils "out of habit or custom," but for selfish reasons. This does not appear as hypocrisy, at least, intentional hypocrisy. Avoiding evil acts because they might be injurious to honor and profit is quite a common practice among those in faith separate from charity. If they believe that the Lord has saved them from hell, because they have accepted Him as their personal Savior, there is no intended hypocrisy in their honesty. They merely practice it as a good policy.
     * DP 117.
     However, such a man, though not a hypocrite, is still confirming his delight for hell. When evils are not avoided from a religious principle as sins against God, the lusts of evil still remain like impure waters confined and stagnant. One has only to examine his thoughts and intentions to see that the lusts remain untouched.*
     * Ibid.
     There are those, too, who deny any belief in an afterlife. They hold no power from on high, no Divine Providence, and no judgment in a life to come. Such natural moralists place their faith in civil and moral life with its prudence alone. They may admit to weaknesses and shortcomings of a sort, but none would include deceit or hypocrisy. They would probably be the first to stone the hypocrite in their community.
     Who, then, are the hypocrites? What man would purposely choose the life of deceit? Does the label fit those who inwardly know they are sinners, but resist practising their lustful desires? Hardly.

For is not this the life of repentance and reformation. If self-examination confirms the existence of an evil, and if by Divine command such a man resists such an evil in his externals, he is co-operating with the Lord. It is in such a manner that evils are removed both in the externals and in the internals of man. "It is a law of the Divine Providence that evils should be put away by man; for unless they are put away the Lord cannot be conjoined with man, and cannot from Himself lead man into heaven.*
     * DP 102.
     What, then, is the subtle difference between the two men: one, who wills evil but shuns it in his externals as a sin against God; and the other, who wills evil but practices charity for other reasons? Are not both hypocrites by definition? How can one be following the path to heaven, and the other be condemned to a contemptible hell? The answer is crucial, for who among us cannot feel personal concern?
     In the first example, the man who is resisting evils in his externals as sins against God; he is shunning evils not only in his actions but also in his thoughts and intentions. The Writings say that every man has "an external and an internal of thought."* In other words, conscious thought with man is his external, just as much as the deeds which appear before others. The conscientious man who admits to and begins to resist his evil thoughts is no hypocrite. Furthermore, there is no conflict between his desires of thought and deed.
     * Ibid.
     We are told:

     "Every man has an external and an internal of thought. The same is here meant by the external and internal of thought as by the external and internal man, and by this nothing else is meant than the external and internal of the will and understanding; for the will and understanding are what constitute man, and as these two manifest themselves in the thoughts, the terms external and internal of thought are used. Since, then, it is the spirit of man and not his body that wills and understands and therefore thinks, it follows that this external and internal are the external and internal of man's spirit. The action of the body, whether in words or in deeds, is only an effect from the internal and external of man's spirit, since the body is mere obedience."*
     * DP 103.

     To state it another way: the body cannot think for itself; it does exactly what the mind tells it to do. Whatever the external thought wants, the body does. There can be no hypocrisy between thought and act. Furthermore, there can be no conflict between man's external thought and will, and between his internal thought and will, for, we are told, "the external of man's thought is in itself of the same character as its internal."* If a good man shuns an evil in his external will and understanding, the body will obey automatically.

At the same time, the Lord can remove the evil desire from his hidden internal man.
     * DP 102
     The true hypocrite, on the other hand, sensates an evil desire in his external man but does not shun it in his mind. He entertains the thought from hell, taking delight in it. In order to fulfill his delight, however, he heeds to ultimate it. Because of its infernal origin, the desire is either from the love of the world or the love of dominion. Since the evil man must somehow gain dominion or acquire the possessions of others, without the loss of reputation or gain, this requires cunning. The external of thought tells the body to act and speak in a certain way-appearing kind or humble. But the body does exactly what the mind of the external man dictates.
     The neighbor is deceived by the hypocrite because his actions imply one thing, but the hidden intent seeks another. The practiced hypocrite may be so skilled that he may enjoy the admiration of others all his earthly life. He begins to think of himself as a good man, deserving of heaven. That is why it is so difficult for such a man in the world of spirits. Others can see him for what he is, but without undergoing severe vastations he cannot see the truth about himself.

     So, in the parable, the King invites all men to the wedding feast, that is, to heaven. If man has desired to remove evil thoughts from his external man while on earth, the Lord can wed his desire with a new understanding. This united will in a new understanding is what is called a "wedding garment." If one appears to himself to be an angel because of a life of charitable acts, yet lacks this united will and understanding, he appears before the Lord and others without a wedding garment. Such a one must be exposed to himself, and then he casts himself into hell-the "outer darkness" where there is "weeping and gnashing of teeth."
     If we wish to heed the warning of this parable, we have the time while our earthly life ticks on. Our actions may not even change. The battle takes place inside, in the external of the thought and will. We need only recognize the true nature of our intent, then beseech the Lord to remove these evils from us. At the same time, we exert effort by shunning the evil desires because they are sins against God. We are not only avoiding the contemptible role of the hypocrite but are obeying the law of the Divine Providence which says: "Man should as if from himself put away evils as sins in the external man; and the Lord is able in this way, and in no other to put away evils in the internal man, and simultaneously in the external."*
     * DP 100.

SECOND CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY 1973

SECOND CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY VIVIAN RIEPERT 1973

     OCTOBER 7-8, 1972

     The Second Canadian National Assembly, coming a year and five months after the first, was again held in Caryndale due to the Toronto Society being in the midst of adding an addition to its church building. The Assembly was a very full two-day program providing a wealth of doctrinal studies, worship, some business, a generous supply of social opportunities, and much commuting between Toronto and Kitchener in chilly, windy, showery weather. One of the most delightful aspects of the weekend was having so many ministers taking part: the Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton, presiding; the Rev. Messrs. Louis B. King, Harold C. Cranch, Frank S. Rose, Christopher R. J. Smith and Ragnar Boyesen. Assembly arrangements were under the capable direction of Mr. Denis Kuhl whose many subcommittees operated so efficiently as to be almost unnoticed. Assembly guests, as at most General Church gatherings, lent an international air to the event. Signing the roll were one from Dawson Creek, 2 from Colchester, 3 from Glenview, 14 from Bryn Athyn, 10 Ontario isolated, 73 from Olivet Church and 83 from Carmel Church for a total of 186.

     First Session Bishop Pendleton opened the first session Saturday morning with a short service of worship, the readings being from Conjugial Love. The Rev. Harold Cranch then addressed the Assembly in preparation for a decision regarding the membership of women in the incorporated body. His paper was a beautiful, doctrinal presentation of many aspects of the essential masculine and feminine, their combined and separate uses. Interesting quotations were used from a 1922 paper by Bishop Alfred Acton. Mr. Cranch's conclusion was that the uses of the corporate body-including church development, education, Assemblies, better communications, as well as fiscal and legal matters-are of such a nature that they should be open to all members of the Church. After considerable discussion a resolution was passed almost unanimously permitting women to become members of the Corporation.
     An attractive buffet luncheon prepared by a committee of Carmel Church women was served at one o'clock in the assembly room, where all the meetings and meals were held, necessitating much rearranging of furniture.

Floral arrangements in fall colors as well as yellow and bronze potted mums and ferns decorated the room beautifully.

     Business Session The Business Session, open to everyone, convened at 3 p.m., Bishop Pendleton presiding. The Eastern Canada Executive Committee was dissolved and its uses taken over by the Corporation. The Rev. Harold Cranch reported on the work of the Corporation since the last Assembly noting that incorporation had actually taken place December 15, 1971. A list of church members in Canada had been compiled and a list of isolated members and friends had been published, also a report had been published. Apart from regular activities, a special visit to the isolated members in Manitoba and Saskatchewan had been made.
     The Rev. Christopher Smith brought greetings to the Assembly from western Canada and suggested a future Assembly be held in Dawson Creek.
     He then reported briefly on his work in the west.
     The incumbent board of directors (see NEW CHURCH LIFE, August 1971) was nominated and elected to another term of office. The members will decide by lot who among them will hold one, two and three-year terms. At the board meeting the same officers were re-elected.
     A motion was passed to have the directors set up a committee to look into secondary education in Canada.

     Second Session After a delicious Oktoberfest dinner of rolled, dressed spareribs, the second session opened at 8 p.m. to hear the episcopal address by Bishop Pendleton on "The Lord as the Word." This paper was a rational presentation of how the Lord's Divine Human is made visible to the sight of man's understanding. In direct and simple language the
     Bishop elevated our thought to see the Lord as He is revealed in the spiritual sense of the Word-as the truth of doctrine and the good of use-and to love the Lord by loving what is of use.
     Following the session the guests adjourned to two of the newest homes in Caryndale at the lower end of Evenstone Avenue, those of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Wiebe and Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Schnarr, for social relaxation.

     Services Sunday morning saw a departure from customary District Assembly procedure. The regular quarterly administration of the Holy Supper was held at Carmel Church with Bishop Pendleton as celebrant and the Rev. Frank Rose and the Rev. Christopher Smith as assistants. At Olivet Church, also at 11 a.m., the Toronto Society held its Family Thanksgiving service with the Rev. Louis King presenting the children's talk and the sermon.

This gave some of the guests the opportunity to 6 visit Olivet Church and take part in the Canadian Thanksgiving festivities.

     Third Session The third session opened at 4 o'clock Sunday afternoon to hear the Rev. Louis King give a penetrating presentation of the Doctrine of Influx. After he had covered many aspects of this vast subject, the floor was opened for discussion and a stimulating question and answer period followed.

     Banquet Preceding the banquet two homes held open house at 7 o'clock in a gusty rain storm, this time the top two on Evenstone Avenue belonging to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Knechtel and Mr. and Mrs. Mel Riepert.
     The very delightful banquet got under way at 8 p.m. and a relaxed and happy sphere accompanied the whole evening. The Rev. Frank Rose as toastmaster opened the program with "0 Canada" followed by the toast to the Church. Mr. Owen Pryke of Colchester told us briefly of his visits to New Church centers on several continents and proposed a toast to church friends around the world. The toastmaster then opened the floor to impromptu toasts. The spirit caught on quickly with no less than eight being proposed, taxing our repertoire of appropriate songs.

     Three musical interludes interspersing the remainder of the program were provided by Miss Eleanor Hotson on the clarinet accompanied by Miss Elizabeth Rose on the piano; Mrs. Jorgen Hansen on the violin accompanied by her mother, Mrs. Nathaniel Stroh, on the piano; and a trio of Eleanor Hotson, clarinet, Leon Stroh, flute, and Greg Stroh, cello.
     The Rev. Ragnar Boyesen addressed the banquet on "Common Bonds in the International General Church". He spoke of five external bonds uniting the church-episcopal visits, NEW CHURCH LIFE, Assemblies, New Church education and, fifthly, church development and church extension-expanding the fifth point to an inspiring challenge for the church in Canada.
     The Rev. Christopher Smith presented a slide show proving to us that Dawson Creek is not off the map, but a delightful place to live and work. We then met many of his parishioners in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Montana and Alberta with glimpses of scenery en route.
     After closing remarks by Bishop Pendleton, the program ended with the singing of the 8th Psalm and the Benediction.

     Attendance Figures

     First Session: address, the Rev. Harold Cranch          120
          Luncheon                                   106

     Business Session                                   90
          Dinner                                   115
     Second Session: address, Bishop Pendleton               141
     Third Session: address, the Rev. Louis King          169
          Banquet                                   162
     Registration                                   186

     VIVIAN RIEPERT
IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1973

IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1973

     According to the NEW AGE, the Australian New Church College Committee proposes the establishment of a New Church College dedicated to the educational needs of the Australian Church. "This College," it is said, "will be helping those undertaking religious education: Ministers, Missionaries, Sunday School teachers." No matter what our daily work is outside the Church, it is added, "there are training programmes, continuing education, night schools, correspondence courses, etc., available. . . Should not the Church also move with the times and provide these services too? Australians should not have to go overseas for these." This seems to be a praiseworthy endeavor. It would be of interest to have before us the doctrinal basis for the Committee's ideas about grades in the priesthood; and to what extent if any, the particular needs of the Church in Australia, with its widely scattered societies, may have influenced the thinking about these grades.
     The NEW-CHURCH HERALD contains a short but useful article, "Work and Use," by the Rev. Leslie Chambers. The ideas presented will not be new to readers of the Writings, but at a time when the phrase, the work ethic, looms large in our vocabulary they may usefully be reconsidered. Is there intrinsic value in work apart from use?
     The question of representation at the annual meetings of the General Convention was raised in the last session in the context of giving a greater proportion of the votes to lay members. The Committee for Reorganization is responsible for a recent article in the NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER which outlines several possible approaches and discusses the implications of each, looking at significant advantages and possible disadvantages. Realizing that there may be problems which have not been recognized, or other solutions, the Committee solicits response.

"WITH A PERFECT HEART" 1973

"WITH A PERFECT HEART" Editor 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.
Published Monthly By

THE GENERAL CHURCH OP THE NEW JERUSALEM
BRYN ATHYN, PA.
Editor               Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager          Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications, should be sent to the Business Manager. Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.

     TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$5.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 50 cents
     "I will walk within my house with a perfect heart," says the Psalmist. The Hebrew word translated "perfect" means, whole, entire, integrated. When used in the Word it signifies Divine truth in effect-a life lived entirely in accord with the Divine precepts. To walk within one's house with a perfect heart is, then, to have the will and understanding so united that one is in good as to life, in truth as to doctrine, and in use.
     What is described by these words is the character of the man whose life is fully integrated; the man who, by singleness and sincerity, self- discipline in total submission to the spiritual truth of the Word, has been led to a state in which everything extraneous has fallen away, and his whole life-his varied affections, interests, thoughts and activities- has been united and organized by one love, one faith, one use. He is the man of undivided mind who is whole and entire.
     As a prayer directed to the Lord what words could more fittingly express the desire of the human heart at the beginning of a new year? What more could the man of the church wish and pray for than that he may "walk within my house with a perfect heart"? All our unhappiness, frustration and impotence come from the absence of integration in our lives. The unregenerate mind is a battleground of as many beliefs, purposes and affections as crowd it; for falsities and evils, lacking a common center, do not cohere together. It is the spiritual affection of use, in which love and wisdom unite, that integrates, unifies and organizes man's life, so that he is a whole man.

     THE FAITH OF THE GENERAL CHURCH

     It has been asked whether we may properly speak of the faith of the General Church. Some have been reluctant to do so, feeling that the idea of faith should not be coupled with that of an organization. They would prefer to say "conviction" rather than "faith." But is not that a distinction without a difference? The fact is that the term, faith, as used in the Writings, has at least two meanings. Faith is truth, but it is also the understanding of truth and even the formula in which the church expresses its belief in the truth. Truth is Divine and infinite; the understanding of truth, while we hope it is from the Lord, is human and finite. Thus the term expresses both what is Divine and what is human.
     Under the first of these definitions that only can be called the faith of the New Church which is said in the Writings to be of that faith, for example, the essentials of the church. Under the second, it would seem that there is room for variety of expression, statements not regarded as binding. Beliefs are held in the General Church which are not shared by other bodies of the New Church, and they have beliefs which are not acceptable to us. Possibly we are all agreed on the first and third essentials of the New Church-the acknowledgment of the Lord and the life of charity-but on the second essential, the acknowledgment of the Word, our belief that the Word includes the Writings is distinctive to us. Here there seems to be a place for statements that are of a distinguishing but not a binding nature.

     We object, and, we believe, rightly so, to statements which do not agree with out understanding of the Writings being issued as "the faith of the New Church"; and we would not want to put forth as that faith what we believe to be the teaching of the Writings but what we know others do not see in them. In either instance, the implication is that he who does not accept is not of the New Church, and the statement becomes binding because it is exclusive.
     Spiritually, faith is an internal affection which consists in a man's willing from the heart to know what is true and good, not for the sake of doctrine, but for the sake of life. It is the acknowledgment of the things that belong to faith, and can therefore be predicated only of the regenerate. In that sense no man may claim that he has the faith of the New Church, and no other may say that he has not. But may we not, while agreeing on certain things stated in the Writings as the "faith of the New Church," express as the faith of a body of the church what it hopes and believes is from the Lord but would not make binding on the conscience of anyone? Others may differ, but we incline to think so.

     THE INTERMEDIATE YEARS

     Emanuel Swedenborg was commissioned by the Lord in the year 1745. But he has testified that from 1710 to 1744 he was prepared by the Lord to teach spiritual things naturally and rationally, both by being introduced into the natural sciences and by the love of investigating and teaching natural truths and afterwards spiritual truths rationally. But he did not rush into print the moment he was called. Work on the Arcana Coelestia did not begin until 1747, and the opening of his mind to consciousness in the spiritual world had begun in 1743 with the "preternatural sleep" he had experienced when beginning the Animal Kingdom. So the period from 1743 to 1747 may be regarded as the intermediate years in Swedenborg's life; a period intermediate between his preparation and his service as the servant of the Lord.
     The intermediate years are significant of the mode of Swedenborg's preparation. Although the Heavenly Doctrine was given by the Lord through him, he had to work as if of himself in setting forth the internal sense of the Word, and in the period we are considering he did further serious preparatory work and was gaining experience in the spiritual world which was also a necessary basis for his use. In fact, it might be said that in these intermediate years the two parts of Swedenborg's life met; that in them he began to apply his preparatory studies to the Word, the exposition of which was to be his task for the rest of his earthly life.

     This may be seen from the work which he then undertook: the writing of the Index Biblicus, the Philosopher's Notebook, the Hieroglyphic Key, a paper on Correspondences and Representations, the Story of Creation, and the Word Explained. In these we see his as-of-self attempts at exposition of the Word; a careful study of the concepts involved in certain terms as defined by the great philosophers; the first endeavor to build a system out of his study of words as symbols for immaterial ideas, and the first thought that this might be applied to the elucidation of scripture texts and an attempt to find spiritual equivalents of natural words, to search for words and expressions used as allegories and types; and finally a realization that the Word had to be opened and that he was to be the instrument for doing this.
     Here we may see Swedenborg being introduced to correspondences, which had to be revealed to him, and were revealed, but through his own efforts to learn them. This was the work of the intermediate years-the Lord revealing to Swedenborg what only He could disclose, but through the only way it could be learned, his as-of-self efforts.

GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM COUNCIL LTD 1973

GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM COUNCIL LTD ROY H. GRIFFITH 1973

     Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:

     In the interests of historical accuracy I would like to correct errors in the report of the first meeting of members of the "Council" which appeared in the October issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE, page 469, paragraph 3.
     There are no "trustees," a trust deed being quite unsuitable for the multifarious business the Council is authorized to do. For "Trustees" read "Directors." The name of the Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen, should be added to the list of Directors and the name Mary Burniston should be substituted for Mr. J. Burniston. Mr. A. D. Atherton only was appointed Auditor so the name T. Hugill should be deleted.
     I would like to take this opportunity of correcting a widespread misunderstanding that we have incorporated the General Church in Great Britain. We have not! In Britain we have made a clear distinction between the Church as an ecclesiastical organization which is the sphere of the priesthood, and the Council which has been incorporated to manage the financial and business affairs in a wide sense, and which lay members ought to do.
     ROY H. GRIFFITH
          Director and Secretary
     Capel St. Mary
     Ipswich
     England

     [EDITORIAL NOTE: Mr. Griffith is to be thanked for setting the record straight. Lest a similar misunderstanding should exist in this country it should be noted that exactly the same distinction is observed between the General Church unincorporated, the ecclesiastical body which is the sphere of the priesthood, and the Corporation of the General Church, which is charged with the administration of the civil affairs of the General Church unincorporated.]
VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

Visitors to Bryn Athyn on any occasion who need assistance in finding accommodation please communicate with the Guest Committee, c/o Mrs. Leo Synnestvedt, 611 Waverly Lane, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009. Phone: (215.) WIlson 7-3725.

Church News 1973

Church News Various 1973

     GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS

     "The ordination service on November 5th was a memorable occasion for the 550 people who attended the ceremony. With a moving and simple affirmation of faith, the laying on of hands and the exchange of the blue velvet stole for one of scarlet, the Rev. Louis B. King was ordained into the third degree. Bishop Willard Pendleton officiated at this most impressive rite, and the Rev. Alfred Acton was on the chancel." (Quoted from Park News of November 17, 1972.)

      Preceding the ordination the Bishop spoke to the children on its meaning and history. Following the service champagne was served and toasts were offered and drunk to the Church and to our new Bishop, to whom presents were given-some pieces of luggage. A photographer-reporter from a local newspaper took a number of pictures and wrote a full-page article, both of which deserve a place in our archives. The entire King family, 13 all told, was present, as well as friends and relations from far and near.
     This letter from the pastor a few days later expresses another side of the story so well that it, too, must be quoted.
     "Whom shall we thank? And for which job? The young people washing windows and setting up tables and chairs? The choir and soloists for seemingly endless rehearsals, and then a thrilling performance? The ladies who cooked meals and weeded gardens and arranged flowers, and organized a nursery during the adult worship service? The men who landscaped the grounds and provided banks of flowers inside and outside the church? The many unseen hands that did extra jobs here and there to provide refreshments and presents and expressions of friendship?
     "Merely let it be said that the ordination weekend was a happy inspiring experience for all, for all participated and gave of themselves to others for the sake of our Church. We all know how much we need each other. Thank you for your efforts this past weekend. We know how much we can appreciate and enjoy each other.
     "Louis and Freya"

     And finally our last quote, from Park News of December 1, 1972:
     "On Friday night, November 17, 1972, the Immanuel Church Society, in a special meeting, confirmed the Rev. Alfred Acton as pastor of the Immanuel Church. A rousing voice vote gave him promise of unanimous support when he takes office on September 1, 1973. Following the meeting a delightful reception for Mr. and Mrs. Acton was held by the Society. . . . So did the Immanuel Church experience yet another peaceful, happy change in pastors, under the wise leader ship of Bishop Willard Pendleton."
     We feel assured that the next ten years will be blessed and interesting as has been the last decade under our Bishop King.
     MARY S. NICHOLSON

     THE CHURCH AT LARGE

     General Conference. The NEW CHURCH HAROLD reports that Mr. Gordon Sutton has agreed to become Secretary of Conference as of January 1, 1973. Mr. Sutton has nominated, and the Conference Council has readily agreed to appoint, Mr. M. D. Haseler as his assistant.

The Committee on the Constitution had recommended that the secretariat consist of three members, and the Council will now take up the task of finding a suitable candidate as the third member.
The same journal reports that the Rev. Robert A. Gill was inducted into the pastorate of the Kearsley Society last November.

Australia. The NEW AGE reports that last August the Rev. Richard H. Teed marked sixty years of service in the New Church ministry by conducting a service in Brisbane. The Rev. and Mrs. B. S. Willmott have returned to Sydney, via the United States, from a visit to England.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1973

GENERAL ASSEMBLY WILLARD D. PENDLETON 1973

     Announcements
     The Twenty-sixth General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, from Tuesday, June 12, to Friday, June 15, 1973.
      The program and other information will he given in later issues of NEW CHURCH LIFE.
     WILLARD D. PENDLETON
          Bishop
ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS 1973

ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS NORBERT H. ROGERS 1973

     General Church of the New Jerusalem
     The Annual Meetings of the Council     of the Clergy and of the Board of Directors of the General Church have been     scheduled to take place in the week of March 4-10, 1973, at Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania.
     NORBERT H. ROGERS
          Secretary
FAITH OF THE NEW CHURCH 1973

FAITH OF THE NEW CHURCH 1973

     The faith of the New Heaven and the New Church in its general form is this: The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came into the world that He might subdue the hells and glorify His Human; without this no man could have been saved; and those are saved who believe on Him.
     The particulars of faith on man's part are:
     1) God is one, in whom is the Divine Trinity, and He is the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ.
     2) A saving faith is to believe on Him.
     3) Evils should not be done, because they are of the devil and from the devil.
     4) Goods should be done because they are of God and from God.
     5) These should be done by man as if by himself; but it should be believed that they are done by the Lord in man and through man. (TCR 2, 3)

ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH THE WORD 1973

ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH THE WORD Rev. DANIEL W. HEINRICHS 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. XCIII     FEBRUARY, 1973     No. 2
     "As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. . . . It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, are spirit and are life." (John 6: 47, 58, 63)

     Our text is a clear and powerful statement of a vital truth, namely, that man has eternal life through the Word. Yet when these words were uttered in the presence of many of the Lord's disciples they were offended and murmured among themselves, saying: "This is a hard saying, who can hear it?"* And it is recorded that from that day many of His disciples turned back and walked with Him no more.
     * John 6: 60.
     It is clear from the Gospel accounts of the Lord's life that many people were attracted to Him. In the course of His ministry He performed many remarkable miracles: restoring sight to the blind, healing the diseased and crippled, feeding multitudes of people with a few small provisions, controlling the elements, and even restoring the dead to life. Because of His miracles and His powers of healing His fame spread throughout the land and great multitudes gathered around Him. Some came to be healed of their diseases. Some came to witness His miraculous power over the forces of nature. Some were merely curious, and others came to see if He was indeed the promised Messiah for whom they had been so long waiting.
     Thus it was that among those who considered themselves the Lord's disciples there were many who were attracted to Him personally and for purely natural reasons.

They were impressed by His miracles and His peculiar powers. They were impressed by the authority and clarity of His teaching and saw in Him a great prophet and a powerful leader. But when He claimed to be the Son of God, and that His words were the source of eternal life, they were offended and turned back from following Him.
     When they had departed the Lord turned to the twelve and asked: "Will ye also go away?"* and Peter replied: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God."**
     * John 6: 67.
     ** John 6: 68, 69.
     By giving utterances to the teaching contained in our text, the Lord separated the spurious disciples from the true disciples and at the same time established the basis upon which the Christian Church was to be founded-the acknowledgment that He was the Son of the living God and that the Word which He gave was the source of eternal life.

     But in spite of this clear teaching few Christians at the present day believe that the Word is the source of eternal life. Many Christians believe that the basis for salvation and eternal life is the acknowledgment that Christ died for their sins. Many others believe that eternal life is obtained by the scrupulous observance of certain religious sacraments, rites and customs. Many others hold that the basis of salvation lies in living according to the Christian ethic as exhibited in the accepted mores of society-these are the proponents of the Social Gospel. Yet the Lord declared: "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life."*
     * John 6: 63.
     Just as this was a hard saying for many to whom it was addressed, so in the time of the Second Advent many have had great difficulty in acknowledging the Writings as the living truth of God.* Many have been impressed with their enlightened teachings. Many have been impressed by their soundness and logic. Many have been impressed with Swedenborg's vision and genius, but few have accepted them unequivocally as the living truth of God and the source of eternal life.
     * Docu. 251: 7.
     From the beginning of the New Church there have always been those who count themselves as disciples of the Lord in His second advent who yet balk at acknowledging His new revelation as the Word and the source of eternal life; and this despite the fact that they claim to be the second advent of the Lord and the living truth of God. They are impressed with the doctrines but are unwilling to ascribe Divinity to them.

     However, in the General Church it is commonly acknowledged that the Writings are the Word-a Divine revelation from the Lord Himself. But the question arises: Are we aware of what this acknowledgment implies? It would appear that not all in the church are, for if they were, they would read them regularly, and regularly avail themselves of the opportunities provided to receive instruction from them, for they are spirit and they are life!
     It may be that because the Word appears in the form of books we tend to under-rate its power. Outwardly the books containing the Word appear like other books-they are composed of paper, print and binding.
     The words they use are not at all unusual and many of the ideas expressed are already known to us. In some respects they are more difficult to read than other books because their style is different.

      In the case of the Old Testament, judging purely from the external appearance, we might readily form the conclusion that it is merely a religious history of the Jewish race. The New Testament may appear to us to be a record of the Lord's life and teaching. Judging from external appearance we might conclude that the Writings are works dealing with abstract theology. We may regard them as useful because they tell us something about God, and supply answers to many of the questions that plague mankind. If this is the way they strike us then we might ask ourselves: How can it be said of them that they are spirit and they are life? that they are the living bread which came down from heaven of which it is said: "If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever"? Perhaps these are hard sayings even to us.
     We are told that man has life by means of the Word because it is so written that it contains the Divine life in every sentence, in some places in every word, and even in the very letters. Two things proceed from the Lord who is life itself-Divine love and Divine wisdom-and the Word in its essence is both of these.* And because love and wisdom are spiritual life the Word is living from within.**
     * SS 3.
     ** TCR 618.
     The Word is not just a written book containing stories and knowledges concerning God. The Divine love and Divine wisdom which are its soul and life proceed from the Lord through the three heavens. And in each heaven they took form as the Word-the Word accommodated to the affection and understanding of the angels, and from the heavens they descended to earth in a written ultimate form with which we are all familiar. Therefore through the Word the three heavens are conjoined with each other, and the man of the church in the world with the angels of heaven.

For the Word is the same in each of the heavens differing only in outward form according to the degree of heaven in which it is.*
     * AE 1074:2.
     We are told that the written Word as it exists in the world is in its fullness, holiness and power because the two prior degrees which are called celestial and spiritual exist simultaneously in the natural sense called the letter. How they exist simultaneously is explained thus: "In heaven and in the world there is successive order and there is simultaneous order. In successive order one thing succeeds and follows another from the highest down to the lowest; but in simultaneous order one thing stands next to another from inmosts to outmosts. Successive order is like a column arranged in steps from the summit to the base; while simultaneous order is like a work coherent with the circumference from the center . . . to the outmost surface . . . [thus] the highest things of successive order become the inmost things of simultaneous order; and the lowest things of successive order become the outmost things of simultaneous order; comparatively as a column arranged in steps when it subsides becomes a body coherent in a plane. Thus is the simultaneous formed from the successive, and this in each and all things both of the natural world and of the spiritual world; for there is everywhere a first, a middle, and a last, and the first tends and passes through the middle to its last."*
     * TCR 214.

     We may illustrate this teaching very simply by taking something with which many are familiar. If we cut through a tree and examine a cross section of it, it will be observed that in the center with certain kinds of trees there is a core usually consisting of fine closely grained wood. Surrounding this there is a coarser more loosely grained wood. And at the circumference is the bark. Suppose we take the trunk of the tree and divide it into three sections. The bottom we leave as it is. From the middle section we remove the bark; and from the top section we remove the bark and the pulp leaving the core. Thus we have a column of wood arranged in steps, each section differing from the other in size and quality. The top is fine and closely grained. The middle is coarser and more loosely grained, and the bottom is coarser still and rough. Yet the middle section contains the substance of the higher as its core or center and the bottom section contains the highest as its center, the second section as its middle or intermediate and itself as the outmost or containent.
     This is how the Word is formed. "The celestial, the spiritual and the natural go forth from the Lord in successive order; and in the outmost they exist in simultaneous order; and thus the celestial and spiritual senses of the Word exist simultaneously in its natural sense."*

     * Ibid.
     When we view the tree from without we do not see its inner nature and perfection. All we are aware of is its rough appearance in the external. So it is with the Word. In its external form it is quite ordinary-books, paper, print, common words, stories, moral teachings and abstract doctrine. But within, it is spiritual and celestial truth. And inmostly, like the sap that permeates the tree, is the Divine love and Divine wisdom of the Lord which gives it life.
     We are told, therefore, that when a man reads the Word holily, or receives instruction from it for the sake of life, communication is effected between himself and heaven, and through heaven with the Lord.     Thus life, eternal life, is communicated to him and is received by him. "The life, which by means of the Word flows in from the Lord, is the light of truth in the understanding, and the love of good in the will; this love and that light constitute . . . the life of heaven which life with man is called eternal life."*
     * Verbo 2; TCR 618.

     The further teaching is given that in man by creation there are three degrees of life, a celestial, a spiritual, and a natural corresponding to these degrees of truth in the Word and to the heavens. As long as he lives in the natural world his consciousness remains in the natural degree.
     Nevertheless the spiritual degree is opened and infilled with the spiritual truths of the Word when he reads it for the sake of being enlightened and instructed by the Lord from a love of truth, and his celestial degree is opened and infilled with the goods of love when he lives according to the truths which he sees in the Word. "So when the natural passes away by death, the spiritual and celestial remain, and from these the ideas of his thought then come."* "In this way man has life by means of the Word"** and is nourished with the food with which the angels are nourished and in which there is life.***
     * TCR 239.
     ** SS 3.
     *** AE 1074: 2.
     From these teachings we can see clearly what the Lord meant when He said: "As the living Father sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven . . . he that eateth of this bread shall live forever. . . . It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life."
     Since the Word is such in its essence, let us respond to the Lord's invitation: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto Me; hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David."* Amen.
     * Isaiah 55: 1-3.

     LESSONS:     John 6: 1-14, 26, 27. John 6: 47-69. Apocalypse Revealed 200.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 450, 490, 452.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 37, 106.
IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1973

IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1973

The January issue of NEW CHURCH EDUCATION contains the first part of an article, "Swedenborg's Travels," by Lennart Alfelt, Curator of Swedenborgiana for the Academy. In the course of his long life Swedenborg made twelve foreign journeys, and they occupied nearly twenty-two and a half years. Thus more than one-third of his adult years were spent in travel and residence outside his native land. We can see his love of travel as a basis for the love that took him freely to all parts of the spiritual world and caused him to journey to the heavens of the ancient churches and to those of other earths in the universe. We can see also how his experience in observing and describing what he saw abroad served him in good stead when it became his function to observe and describe the phenomena of the spiritual world, and how his interest in finding out all he could about the places he visited was of similar service. And we can see how valuable was experience in meeting and talking with all kinds of men to one who was to talk with angels, devils, and spirits both good and bad, from all races and nations and from every age. This article will therefore be of outstanding interest. A set of four maps of Swedenborg's journeys has been made by Mrs. Henry Hallowell, and is available on request to NEW CHURCH EDUCATION, price, $.50. These maps, which have been done with great care, should help to give a concrete idea of the life and times of Swedenborg.

GOD 1973

GOD Rev. WILLARD D. PENDLETON 1973

     (The first of three doctrinal lectures.)

     It is the teaching of the Writings that there is an influx into the souls of men of the truth that there is a God and that He is one.* The Writings do not mean by this that the idea of God is innate. What they mean is that when the idea of God is presented to the mind we are disposed to believe it. But the question arises, why, then, are there so many atheists? The answer is that the idea of God does not compel faith. If it did, man would not be in freedom. Nevertheless, there is in every man a disposition to believe. This is evident in the child who receives the idea of God with delight. To the child the idea of God is both reassuring and logical. Not only does it give him a sense of security that he would not otherwise possess, but it also answers his question concerning the origin of things. It is, then, to the implicit faith of the child that the Writings refer when they say that the child is wiser than the learned of the day.
     * TCR 8.
     Yet once the child begins to reflect upon natural causes, the basis of doubt is laid in his mind. With some it is only a passing thought; with others, particularly with the precocious adolescent, it raises questions concerning the reality of that which is not demonstrable to the five senses. The doubt may be mild or severe, it may pass quickly or remain. But whatever form it takes, it marks the beginning of man's recession from the innocent faith of childhood, and is evidence of his increasing desire to be led by his own intelligence.
     Like the men of the church of Adam, who at first had complete confidence in revealed truth, it does not occur to the little child that the Word is subject to question. But the time comes when the child, even as the church of Adam, is prompted by the desire to investigate the truths of faith by means of sensuous things. This desire is represented in Scripture by the serpent who induced the woman to partake of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which stood in the midst of the garden. Hence the serpent is said to signify man's natural inclination "to inquire into matters pertaining to faith . . . to see whether they are really so."* Concerning this, the Writings say:
     * AC 192.

     "In ancient times those were called serpents who had more confidence in sensuous 6 things than in revealed ones. But it is still worse at the present day, for now there are persons who not only disbelieve everything they cannot see and feel, but who also confirm themselves in such incredulity by knowledges unknown to the ancients, and thus occasion in themselves a far greater degree of blindness."*
     * AC 192.

     If this was true of Swedenborg's time, what can be said of our age? To say the least, it is a skeptical age; that is, one in which the spirit of skepticism prevails in regard to all matters of faith. What we are experiencing is the inevitable result of the awakening doubts which Swedenborg perceived in his own age. Doubt concerning the integrity of the Scriptures has led many to reject them, and doubt concerning the existence of God has broken forth into such popular slogans as the recent pronouncement that "God is dead." It is to be noted, however, that this statement means different things to different people. To some it means that although there may be a God, we can form no meaningful idea of Him and therefore it is useless to refer to Him. To others it means that the God of Scripture, that is, the idea of God as Divine Man, is no longer a valid assumption in that the anthropomorphic idea of God has been intellectually discredited. But whatever it means, it is a direct denial of the teaching of all Divine revelation, for it is the primary teaching of the Word that there is a God and that He is Divine Man. This is the teaching of the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Writings; and while it may seem that in many respects these three revelations are contradictory, in this, that is, in the teaching that God is Divine Man, it may readily be seen that they are consistent.
     What we have here, therefore, are three progressive concepts of a God who is a Divine Man. Each is essential to the other. That this is so may be seen from the fact that without the Writings the prior revelations cannot be understood, and without the Old Testament the subsequent revelations could not have been given. The same applies to the New Testament, which being intermediate, is essential to the understanding of both that which preceded and that which followed.
     We begin, however, with the Old Testament concept of God. The reason for this is that it is basic. Like a foundation upon which a house is erected, it supports all that is superimposed upon it. We are speaking here, therefore, of the first or primitive concept of God, which is that of a Divine Man in human figure. In this connection we would note that the idea of figure is fundamental, it is that upon which the thought of the mind must rest; for figures are spatial forms which are presented to the mind as objects, and as the world of the child is a world of objects he cannot think of God in any other way.

So the child thinks of God in terms of that which he knows; that is, of a person who like other persons possesses a head, hands, eyes, feet, etc. Thus the Old Testament abounds in references to the eyes of the Lord, the hand of God, the arm of the Lord, and the finger of God. This wealth of anatomical correspondences which is found in the Old Testament is basic to the primitive concept of God. Upon these correspondential concepts of the Lord as a Divine Man the faith of the child depends.
     This is true, however, not only of children, but also of adults, and for that matter, of the angels of heaven; for they, too, see the Lord as a Divine Man in the human figure, sometimes in the spiritual sun and sometimes outside of it. Hence the notable statement in the Divine Love and Wisdom, where it says that God

"being Man ... has a body, and everything pertaining to it, that is, a face, breast, abdomen, loins and feet; for without these He would not be Man. And having these, He also has eyes, ears, nose, mouth and tongue; also the parts within man, as the heart and lungs . . . all of which, taken together, make man to be man."*
     * DLW 18.

     The difference, however, is that whereas the child thinks of these things naturally, the adult has the ability to think of them spiritually; that is, in terms of that to which they correspond. For by the eyes of the Lord is signified the Divine understanding, and by the feet of the Lord is signified the Word in its literal sense; by His heart, the Divine love, and by His lungs, the Divine wisdom. In other words, in thinking of God, the adult, even as the child, is dependent upon the imagery of nature; for as the Writings state, the thought of the mind must be determined to some object of thought;* but while he is dependent upon it he is not bound by it, for man can, if he will, think spiritually concerning these things.
     * AC 8705.
     But although the child's concept of God is bound up in the idea of a Divine Man in a human figure, he also thinks of God as a person. By person we have reference to qualities and characteristics which through experience we have come to identify with man; for example, love, wisdom, understanding, sympathy, affection, the ability to communicate, and many other attributes. While the child does not reflect upon these things, he is aware that these differences distinguish man from the beasts. It is only natural, therefore, that when the idea of God is presented to the mind of the child, he should think of Him as a Man. Under what other form could the idea of a merciful and wise God be expressed?

It is important to note, however, that since God cannot be known in the way that visible objects are known, that is, by way of direct experience, the idea that the child forms of His person is derived from those who represent and impersonate Him. Thus the child's first idea of God is that of a heavenly Father who, like his earthly father, loves and provides for him. This is the primal concept of God which is so beautifully expressed in the Lord's Prayer: "Our Father, who are in the heavens." In this statement the basic truth of all faith is expressed.
     This idea of a heavenly Father who is the Creator and Provider of all things is firmly established in the mind of the child when he is first instructed in the Word. This instruction, which begins with the stories of Genesis, opens the way to the further concepts found in the Old Testament, of the Lord as Lawgiver, Priest and King. But it is to be noted that each of these concepts is a representative concept, in that in each instance the idea of God that is formed in the mind of the child is represented through the person of one who stood in God's place. Such was the case with Moses, Aaron, Samuel, David and Solomon, and all the other prophets, priests and kings.

     But immediately the question arises, what of evil priests and kings? Could they also represent the Lord? The Writings state that they could-not from their persons, but from the office or function which as persons they performed. Thus the Writings distinguish between that which comes through a means and that which comes from a means.* That which comes from the person could not represent the Lord, as is obvious in the case of evil priests and kings; but that which comes through the person from the office or function which he performs can, and does represent that which is from the Lord with man.
     * AC 4065.
     But representative worship, while it is sufficient to the spiritual needs of childhood, cannot be sustained. As the mind of the child-even as the Israelitish nation-becomes increasingly absorbed in the delight and realities of this world, the idea of a God who cannot be seen by him becomes increasingly remote. This spiritual recession is represented in Scripture by the gradual disintegration of Israel as a nation and the rejection of the prophets who were the last of the representatives to stand in God's place. What is needed, therefore, is a new concept of God which is not dependent upon representation through others. That is why the Lord Himself came into the world.
      There is a difference between our knowledge of one who is known to us through the representation of others, and one who is known to us as a person.

While it is true that our knowledge of the Lord as a person is dependent upon the testimony of the four Gospels, we have reason to believe that their record is true. Although modern biblical scholars question the historical accuracy of much that is found in the Gospels, and suggest that what we accept as gospel may have been later innovations derived from the kerygma of the early Christian Church, our faith is not disturbed. The reason for this is that our faith in the integrity of the authorized text is supported by the spiritual sense. Were the Gospels not what they are, they would not contain a spiritual sense, and there     fore would not be the Word. But that they are the Word may be seen from the fact that they do contain a spiritual sense, and it is this sense which testifies to the Divinity and the holiness of the Gospels. As the Lord said to the Jews: "When the Comforter is come . . . even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me."*
     * John 15: 26.

      It is, then, through the New Testament that we come to know the Lord as a person. Whereas in the Old Testament God, as a person, seems remote, in the New Testament He seems to be intimately present. Whereas in the Old Testament God's concern seems to have been for Israel as a nation, in the New Testament He becomes a personal God who is deeply concerned for the individual. As He said to the Jews; "What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it . . . I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance."* It is in this that Christianity differs from Judaism; for whereas to the Jew the ideal of all human attainment was moral perfection, to the Christian it is found in man's capacity to forgive those who have sinned against him, and the commitment of one's life to the service of others. Thus when a certain young man inquired of the Lord concerning eternal life, the Lord answered him, saying, "Keep the commandments." But the young man answered Him, "All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?" The Lord said unto him, "Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor . . . and come and follow Me."**
     * Luke 15: 4, 7.
     ** Matthew 19: 17, 20, 21.

     What is involved is a new concept of good, and therefore a new concept of God. To the little child, good is a matter of obedience to parents and teachers; that is, a willing subjection to those who stand in God's place. He cannot understand it in any other way. But as the child approaches adolescence a new idea of God, or of good, must begin to take form in the understanding.

As the adolescent is not yet capable of elevating his mind above the idea of person, his thought must be directed to the idea of the Lord as a person. This is the function of the New Testament. What is more, this is a true idea of God, for God is a person. Yet like the child's first idea of God, the idea of God as a person cannot be sustained unless the individual can be led to perceive that the person is the manifestation of a deeper reality which in essence is good and truth.
     It is, however, by means of the New Testament that the mind is led to this perception. Without the New Testament the truths of the Writings could not have been revealed. Think, for the moment, of what is involved in the New Testament. It is the story of the Lord's life in the world. Here He is revealed as a Divine Man in His own Divine person. What is evident, above all else, is the Lord's love for man. To know Him as a person is to perceive His love; that is, to perceive something of the quality of the Man. Is not this true in all human relationships? To know anyone, that is, to know him as a person, we must have some perception of the quality of the loves which constitute his life. Hence we speak of a good person, or of a gentle person, or of a forceful person, or of an evil person. In each instance the reference is to the quality of the love which is characteristic of the person. What, then, shall we say of Him who came into the world as Man? If we can credit the record of the New Testament we must admit that God was with Him, and this in a way that is not possible with other men. Even Pilate, who was called upon to be His judge, testified, saying, "I find no fault in this Man."*
     * Luke 23: 4.
     It is here, however, that the mind falls into confusion, for the question is, who was this Man? Some say that He was man even as we are men, howbeit, the best of men. Others say that He was a second person in a trinity of Divine persons, and certainly this is the appearance of Scripture. Time and again the Lord spoke of the Father as if of another; the same being true of the Holy Spirit. While in rebuttal we may quote the Lord's statement, "I and My Father are one,"* the answer that is given is that He intended to imply that He and the Father are one even as two or three persons who agree may be said to be one. But reason insists that God, even as the man whom He created in His own image, is one; neither can He be divided into three persons. Yet although the child assents to this, he does not yet understand it, and unless he can be led to understand it he will gradually drift into skepticism, and like so many at this day, give way to denial.
     * John 10: 30.

     What the child in time must come to understand is that there is a truth in the appearance. Were this not so the appearance would not exist in the Divine text, for there is no appearance in all the Word which does not serve as the means whereby the mind may attain to an interior perception of truth. The truth is that in all unity there is a trinity, and apart from its trinity the unity of a thing cannot be seen. The trinity in God, however, is not a trinity of persons, but a trinity of person; that is, a trinity of soul, body and mind, without which He would not be Man, and therefore, a person. But the doctrine of the trinity not only applies to God and to man, it also applies to the Word, which consists of three Testaments, each of which is essential to the understanding of the others. It also applies to all living forms, and for that matter, to all created things; for in all created things there is an end, a cause and an effect, each being a requisite of existence.
     To understand the person of God, therefore, man must look beyond His person to that which the Writings describe as His essence. By this the Writings mean what God essentially is. If man is to have a rational idea of God, and consequently a rational idea of good, he must think of God from His essence. Hence the teaching of the Writings that we are not to think of God from His person, and from this of His essence; but that we are to think of God from His essence, and from this of His person.* This will be the subject of our next lecture, where we will treat of the Lord as the Word.
     * AR 611.
ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH 1973

ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH 1973

Staff Changes
     Miss Margaret Wilde, Professor of Latin and History, will retire in June from the Academy Faculty, of which she has been a member since 1948.
     Mrs. R. Scott Cooper (Gail Reuter) has accepted appointment to teach Latin in the Girls School, with one course in the Boys School.
     Miss Mary Beth Cronlund will be returning to the Girls School Faculty to teach French 1 and devote a large part of her time to counseling.
     Mr. Bradley G. Smith will relinquish his responsibilities as Social Director and become responsible for directing Special Education in the Boys School.

GORAND MAN 1973

GORAND MAN Rev. VICTOR J. GLADISH 1973

     The Gorand Man, that is, the Greatest Man of heaven and earth, is a term found only in the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem.* It appears that the Apostle Paul may have had some concept of what is involved in this doctrine from his words in the first Epistle to the Corinthians.**
     * AC 3741, 4524; TCR 119.
     ** 12: 20, 21, 26, 10: 17.
     A summary idea of the teaching concerning the Gorand Man is as follows: The heavens are organized into societies, and these into groups, each of which performs a use to which corresponds the function performed by some member, organ or membrane of the human body. Every part of the body, even every cell, has its heavenly counterpart in the field of use. Thus, as to their uses, the heavens are organized in the form of a man-this is the Gorand Man, or Greatest Man. Note that the heavens from this earth constitute a Gorand Man, but the universal Gorand Man is made up from all the heavens from all the inhabited earths. In fact, we are told, " . . . the heaven of the Lord is immeasurable, so immeasurable as to exceed all belief; the inhabitants of this earth being very few in comparison, and almost as a pool compared to the ocean."*
     * AC 3631.
     It is from the Lord's Divine Human that heaven as a whole and in part resembles man, or relates to a man.* For the Divine of the Lord makes heaven, the angels constituting it, and heaven consists of innumerable societies, where each society is a heaven in a smaller form, and each angel in the least form. Therefore heaven must be in the human form.** The essence of the human form is united love and wisdom, because love in itself and wisdom in itself, or wisdom going forth from love, is the essence of the Lord God.
     * HH 78.
     ** HH 59-77.
     Bear in mind that the Lord is the Only Man, and it is as men receive Him that they are men, and that one is more a man than another; for the heavenly that makes man is love to the Lord and the neighbor.* Angels are in the Lord, and the Lord in them, according to His words in the Gospel of John; "Abide in Me, and I in you." "If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love."**
     * AC 1414.
     ** 15: 4, 10.

     Three general views of this Aggregate Man, or Greatest Man, may be drawn from the Writings: 1) heaven as a Gorand Man, with the world of spirits as the alimentary system and hell as the wastes excreted from the body; 2) heaven as a Gorand Man, and hell as a great monster; 3) heaven, hell and the world of spirits as one man; heaven being the man, the world of spirits being the alimentary system, as to the purification and elevation effected by the Lord in that world, and the hells those things which are in the body but not of the body, such wastes as are separated from the life-giving fluids of the body. The hells serve the uses of the Gorand Man by this very separation.
     It should be borne in mind that the Lord is in heaven and the church as the soul is in the body, ruling, intimately connected by correspondence but discretely distinguished. Heaven and the church are the mind and body of the Gorand Man, the Lord is the Soul and Life. Angels and spirits and the spiritual minds of men on earth are the mind of the Gorand Man, and the lower mind and body of men on earth constitute the body and senses of that Man.*
     * LJ 9.

     Before going on to particulars of the subject, note this definition directly from the New Word; "The heavenly kingdom is the resemblance of one man because all the things therein correspond to the Only Lord, that is, to His Divine Human. . . . From correspondence with Him, and from being an image and likeness of Him, heaven is called the Gorand Man."* And it is added in the succeeding chapter that, "the correspondence [of the Gorand Man] is that of the Lord's Divine with the celestial and spiritual things therein; and of the celestial and spiritual things therein with the natural things in the world; and chiefly with those in man."**
     * AC 3741.
     ** AC 3883.
     For the sake of the revelation it was permitted Swedenborg to experience the sensation of the influx of heaven into his lungs, gently leading his respiration from within; and then the influx into his heart, which then beat more softly than he had ever experienced before.* In the same section we are told that there are two kingdoms in the Gorand Man, the celestial and the spiritual. They who are in the celestial kingdom belong to the province of the heart, and those of the spiritual kingdom belong to the province of the lungs. Those of the province of the heart have been in love to the Lord, and thence in all wisdom, while those of the province of the lungs have been in charity to the neighbor. These latter make the delight of their life to consist in the fact that they can do good to others without recompense; to be allowed to benefit others is sufficient recompense.

These two kingdoms permeate heaven, as the heart and lungs rule throughout the body.** As there are the kingdom of the heart and the kingdom of the lungs in the body of man, so there are the kingdom of the will and the kingdom of the understanding in his mind, the will corresponding to the heart and the understanding to the lungs. The action and reaction of the heart and lungs in the body corresponds to the influx of the good of love into the truth of faith, and the influx of the truths of faith into the good of love in the mind of man.
     * AC 3884.
     ** AC 3887.
     We are told that all in a given society of heaven are in concordant respiration. A consequence of this is told in the following paragraph of the Arcana Coelestia:

     "Because the well-disposed, on their entrance into the other life, are first remitted into the life which they had in the world, thus also into the loves and pleasures of that life, therefore they cannot as yet, before they are prepared, be in fellowship with angels, even as to respiration. For this reason, when they are being prepared, they are first inaugurated into angelic life by concordant respirations; and then they come at the same time into interior preceptions and into heavenly freedom."*
     * 3494a.

     After the correspondence of the heart and lungs, that of the brain, the cerebrum and cerebellum and the nerve fibers connected with them, is set forth. It is called to attention that there are wonderful circumvolutions and foldings in the human brain, within which are situated cortical substances, or gray cells. From these run out nerve fibers, white in color. These fibers proceed throughout the body, and there perform functions in accordance with the orders and determinations of the brain.

     "All these things," we are told, "are in exact accordance with the heavenly form; for such a form is impressed by the Lord on the heavens, and thence on the things that exist in man, and especially on his cerebrum and cerebellum.
     "The heavenly form is amazing, and quite surpasses all human intelligence; for it is far above the ideas of the forms that a man can possibly conceive of from worldly things, even with the aid of analysis. All the heavenly societies are arranged in order in accordance with this form, and wonderful to say, there is a gyration according to these forms, of which angels and spirits are not sensible. This is like the daily movement of the earth around its axis, and its annual movement round the sun, which its inhabitants do not perceive."*
     * AC 4040-4041.

     Much is told about the correspondence of the brain and many parts to spiritual qualities, but time and space rule out a detailed description here. Of major importance, however, is an observation in regard to time and space, made in reference to the exterior and interior forms of the brain and their correspondence.

It is written:

     "When forms are mentioned, they carry with them the idea of space and time; and yet in the interiors, where heaven is, nothing is perceived by spaces and times, because these belong to nature, but by states and their variations and changes. But as the variations and changes cannot, as before said, be conceived by man without the aid of such things as are of form, and without such things as are of space and time, when yet these do not exist in the heavens, it may be seen how incomprehensible these things are, and also how unutterable."*
     * AC 4043.

     It is told in a following passage that the man who knows not what the spiritual is may suppose that such correspondences as have been set forth are impossible, saying to himself, "How can the spiritual act on the material?" Then these words follow: "But if he will reflect upon the things taking place in himself every moment, he may be able to gain some idea of these matters; namely, how the will can act on the muscles of the body, and effect real actions; also how thought can act upon the organs of speech. . . "*
     * 4044
      We will now pass to succeeding correspondences between the body of man and the Gorand Man of heaven, but let it be prefaced by a sentence from a chapter on the general subject of correspondences: "But man is man from being able to think and will as a man, and thus to receive what is Divine, that is, what is of the Lord; and in the other life also his quality as a man is determined by what he has received from the Lord and made his own in the life of the body."*
     * AC 4219.
     After the correspondence of the heart and lungs and of the brain have been dealt with, the next phase is the correspondence of the senses in general. But here, as is usual, a beginning is made by tracing all back to the Lord. And here is found a teaching familiar to most New Church men; that is, "The things which come forth in the world and its nature are causes and effects from [the spiritual world] as beginnings; for universal nature is a theater representative of the Lord's kingdom."* is Among the striking things held up to view in this introduction to the five senses is the following,
     * AC 4318.
     "That the life which is from the Lord alone appears with every one as if it were in himself, is from the Lord's love or mercy toward the universal human race, in that He wills to appropriate to each one what is His, [the Lord's] own, and to give to everyone eternal happiness. . . Although these things appear paradoxical and incredible to man, they are nevertheless not to be denied, because experience inself dictates them. If all things were denied the causes of which are not known, in numerable things that come forth in nature would be denied, the causes of which are know scarcely to a ten-thousandth part . . ."*
     * AC 4320-21.

     But as to the correspondence of the external sensories, that is the sensory of sight, or the eye, the sensory of hearing, or the ear, the sensories of smell, taste and touch. First let us see a summary of the correspondence of the senses themselves rather than the organs. Speaking generally, the sense of sight corresponds to the affection of understanding and being wise; hearing to the affection of learning, and also to obedience; the sense of smell to the affection of perceiving; taste to the affection of knowing; and touch to the affection of good.* It may seem strange that the sense of touch is said to correspond to the affection of good; the relationship is expressed differently in various other passages of the Writings. It is frequently called to attention that all the senses are a species of touch, even though it is a touch of invisible objects on an organ not wholly visible. Often the doctrine speaks of touch as representative of communication, transfer and also reception. In the series of sections on the Gorand Man in the Arcana Coelestia there is not one on the skin as the organ of touch, as we shall see in a moment.
     * AC 4404.
     After the section on the correspondence of the Gorand Man with the Senses in General, of which we have given some flavor, there are two on the Eye and Light; then one on Odor and the Nostrils; one on Hearing and the Ears; one on Taste and the Tongue, and in the same section the correspondence of the Face; then one on the Hands, Arms, Feet and Loins, with a succeeding section which is a continuation concerning the Loins and the Members of Generation. These last two are the nearest to a treatment of the skin as an organ of touch. It should be remembered that the skin has other uses besides that of touch; also that there are skins or membranes within the body which do not possess touch cells. Moreover, the next to last section in this series is on the correspondence of the Skin, Hair and Bones, but it is treating these as the parts of the body with the least life. Following the section on the Loins and the Members of Generation, there are two on the Interior Viscera of the body, in which the interior organs and parts not dealt with in sections on the heart and lungs, brains, and organs of generation are discussed, with some reference to the brains, heart and lungs, because of their intimate connection with the whole body. Then follows the section on the Skin, Hair and Bones, already referred to. Finally a section on the correspondence of Diseases with the Spiritual World; not on correspondence with the Gorand Man of heaven, but with those who are in the hells.

This completes the series, as such, but there follow sections at the end of the successive Chapters on the internal sense of Genesis and Exodus that describe the consociation of men with spirits and angels; then on Influx and the intercourse between the Soul and the Body; and then on the Inhabitants of Other Earths, all of which cast light on the subject of the Gorand Man.

(To be continued.)
TEN BLESSINGS 1973

TEN BLESSINGS Rev. ALFRED ACTON 1973

     The Lord came on earth to save mankind-to show Himself to men so that they could learn of life eternal and the way to happiness. As a result it is not surprising to find that the first public instruction which the Lord gave, the Ten Blessings, told men in summary form how salvation could be attained.
     The Lord has always spoken to man from generals to particulars; that is, He first gives a summary of what is to follow, and then continues with particulars which fill in the outline with more and more detail. God, as it were, gives us a brief glimpse of His whole Human form, and then makes that form more and more visible by adding specifics.
     The first instruction given in the Old Testament is a summary of all that will follow. It is a treatment of creation, of the making of a spirit, which takes place in seven general stages. Also the Sermon on the Mount in the New Testament begins with a summary-a detailed outline of man's regeneration, a survey of salvation.
      Of course, the two summaries emphasize different aspects of our sight of the Lord. For by means of the interior truths of the New Testament men were enabled while still on earth to view the interiors of the seventh day of creation. They could enter into celestial loves here on earth as they never could when the Lord was only representatively with them. In the New Testament salvation is declared, not just creation. Yet the two summaries have marked similarities since they both present the Lord's Divine wisdom-both are pictures of the same Divine man, both proceed from the mouth of the Lord.
     Instruction from the mouth of the Lord is Divine wisdom. For the mouth when it refers to the Lord is said to signify the Word which is Divine wisdom in ultimates.*
     * Cf. A.R. 453.

     Divine wisdom, or the Word, has two specific purposes. The first and most important is to show God to man. The second is to show man the means whereby he can approach God. This second use of wisdom-the outline of the path of life-is disclosed to man when he looks to the Word from a sincere effort to learn what is good and how to attain it. Man must have the desire to see God in the form of His wisdom prior to God being able to reveal Himself to man by means of His Word, or, to put it another way, man must have a love for truth and must seek to acquire truth for himself, prior to any step onto the path of life.
     So it is that the Lord as He began His public instruction, first representatively prepared men to receive it. We read: "And seeing the multitudes He went up into a mountain: and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him; and He opened His mouth, and taught them. . ."*
     * Matthew 5: 1, 2.
     A "mountain" signifies love, and when the Lord is upon that mountain, it signifies love to the Lord. The "disciples" spiritually are all the truths of the Word. So the Lord being seen on the mountain and the disciples ascending to Him for instruction signifies how man if he wants to learn of the path to peace, must first acquire two necessary requisites for that instruction. He must have within him the truths of the Word-the disciples-and he must see the Lord on His mountain of spiritual love, that is, he must at least temporarily come into an initial state of love to the Lord.
     When this first state of love which leads to instruction, that is, when man ascends the mountain to hear the Lord speak, or rather when man seeks to order the truths collected from the Word into a living body of truth, when this state comes in a man's life is hard to say. For it differs with each individual. Suffice it to note that it commences with disillusionment. Man must at some time feel the frustration of his own puny efforts at happiness. He must come to see that he needs spiritual help if he is ever to find satisfaction with life. Only then can he learn of the Lord. For only then will he have made an ascent into the Lord's presence, from love, which will lead him on to all truth.
     But, before man comes to such disillusionment, much has been done by the Lord in secret readying him for his call to salvation-for spiritual birth and the entrance into new life. For this spiritual quickening is an adult state. Not until we are rational beings can we be expected to learn for ourselves from the Word. So, not until then can we receive God's public instruction. But during childhood, in preparation for our adult rebirth, the Lord has led us in private to states which we will be able to draw upon later.

What the New Word calls "remains" have been implanted within us awaiting the time when they shall be called upon to form our new spirit. Remains are states of good affections which have been planted in our internal memory by means of external states of pleasure which give an ultimate base on which they may rest. Such remains begin to form within us from our first sensations of life as our own. We know the celestial angels are with an infant, and when he takes in milk, which corresponds to celestial affection, that ultimate action implants in the infant the affection of the celestial angels with him. A similar implantation of affection follows all the acts of our infancy and childhood.
     The quality of the remains varies with the quality of the angels with us. For example, in childhood spiritual angels are with us, and our remains are of a spiritual quality.

     Eventually with responsible or adult life we choose for ourselves the spiritual spheres which shall surround us, and actively partake in the states of affection which such spheres bring. In so doing, because we tend towards the natural, we deprive the celestial and spiritual affections within us of a chance for expression in life. We give them no active role in our mind-no living acts of good on which to rest. Yet these very remains will become the new man. When disillusionment comes they will be quickened to new life as we from love once again give them ultimates upon which they can rest. Their poverty which was imposed by our natural lusts will pass, and they will inherit the kingdom of our mind.
     They will become the center of our new will. So the Lord began His summary of salvation, the Blessings, with a blessing on the poor in spirit, the remains of good and truth within us, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." To recognize our spiritual poverty is the first of repentance which is the first stage of salvation.
     Having recognized that the Lord in secret has prepared us for new life, we must then learn what that new life is. No longer is the first state of love which led us to truth, and so let us see what the Lord had done for us, enough. We must take the second step in repentance. We must sorrow over the poverty which exists in our heart. We must mourn and seek comfort. We must want the inversion of state which repentance brings. For this very desire exposes the perverseness of our present state. We must spiritually mourn, trusting in the Lord's words: "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." Repentance, sincerely undertaken, will lead to spiritual comfort which, of course, is found in the genuine truth of the Word.
     Yet spiritual mourning is only the second step in repentance.

A third follows: namely, the recognition of our own spiritual unworthiness. We must become meek. We must recognize that as of ourselves we are spiritually nothing, and at the same time acknowledge our lack of genuine truth despite the knowledges we may have from the Word. In other words we must realize that unless we see the Lord in His Word our life is not yet of spiritual quality. Meekness involves both humility and wretchedness, both awareness of our spiritual need and our spiritual lowliness. So the third blessing: "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." The earth signifies the church. To inherit it is to come into the church-that is, the life of religion-which will lead to the life of heaven.
     This third blessing of the Lord marks the completion of the first state of salvation, the state of repentance. At this point we have accomplished the self-examination necessary to acknowledge our spiritual poverty, we have sorrowed over this acknowledgement, and we have sought Divine aid by becoming meek. All three of these steps are introspective. They involve self-examination.

     The next general state of salvation is reformation. This state is not introspective. It is one which actively seeks the Lord. Yet reformation grows out of repentance. Once spiritual need is defined by repentance the spiritual cure can be sought in reformation. Like repentance, reformation is also summarized in three steps, the fourth, fifth, and sixth Blessings.
     We begin our active spiritual cure by hungering and thirsting after those things we have acknowledged we need, that is after righteousness, or spiritual riches, and we are assured that we shall be filled, if we are but sincere in our endeavors. Reformation begins with particulars. We cannot vaguely acknowledge a general need and expect to be filled. We must see particular goals. We must have special objects of our hunger and thirst if we are to find righteousness, and if we are to be filled. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled."
     But reformation does begin with seeking righteousness, which is charity to the neighbor. We must seek such charity before we can expect to come into the greater love-love to the Lord. For man first sees God in the good he sees in his neighbor. He first loves God when he realizes that the good the neighbor does is God.
     Hunger and thirst are the means to righteousness, because hunger is a quest for food and thirst is a quest for drink, both of which taken together spiritually are the desire to do good and the desire to know truth, since spiritual food is acts of good, and spiritual drink is truth.

     The second step in reformation is also an activity on the part of man. We must become merciful. By this is meant that man must do the good which he has acquired by his hunger and thirst, and that he must do this from a merciful motive-that is, from the acknowledgement that only the Lord can do good, and that man as His instrument is nothing. To obtain mercy is to receive from the Lord the good of life. So the Lord's blessing: "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy."
     There is a third and final step in reformation: the step described by the words: "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." To be pure in heart is to be enlightened, that is, to see the Lord in the spiritual light of His Word-a sight which comes from actively doing what is good, or, to put it in other words, from actively shunning evils as sins against the Lord, that is, from making the heart pure.
      We have now traced three steps of repentance and three steps in reformation. Repentance in general involved recognition of spiritual need, while reformation involved activity on the part of man in approaching the Lord.

     A final state remains: the state of regeneration. This state is the seventh state, the sabbath which was a day of rest or peace. So the seventh beatitude reads: "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." Man, as we have seen, actively seeks God by reformation, but he only finds God by regeneration, which is the Lord's work in infilling us with His life and love. Regeneration is not without its means of accomplishment. For the Lord never operates apart from means. The means which the Lord uses to implant new loves-that is the means of true salvation wherein we can in fact become children of God, recipients of His Divine love, are temptations, or the challenge of spiritual loves from doubt as to our ever attaining them. So the peacemaker is a warrior, a victor in the combat of spiritual temptation. At this point we might think the summary of salvation is complete. What more can man be than a child of God? What is there beyond regeneration?
     Actually there is nothing beyond this step, but the step itself needs description. Two blessings remain as a description of the kinds of temptation which will lead us into the two kingdoms of heaven, the spiritual and the celestial. In other words, there remains a description of spiritual and celestial temptations. The first of these, or spiritual temptation, is described with the words: "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for their's is the kingdom of heaven."
     Two things already mentioned are combined in this blessing.

Righteousness was the goal of our first efforts at reformation, the thing for which we hungered and thirsted, and the kingdom of heaven was the reward of our first state of repentance, those who were poor in spirit. The Lord's spiritual kingdom involves love to the neighbor, or righteousness, which springs from the affections of our remains when they are ordered by the persecution of spiritual temptation.
The celestial kingdom involves love to the Lord which is attained by the purification of spiritual truth drawn by man from the Word. Both these things were mentioned at the very outset of the survey-the disciples came up onto the mountain to hear the Lord. Now in the last blessing the means whereby they come into the fullness of life are described. "Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake." The "ye" in this blessing is the disciples, the spiritual truths of the Word, which resist celestial temptation because they undergo it for Christ's sake-that is, for love to the Lord.
So with this last blessing we see how our first states of love to the Lord by means of celestial temptations are raised to the active center of our life. Here is where the Lord's summary of salvation ends. For herein man finds his greatest spiritual happiness. Let us note well this path to life, and let us pray that the Lord in His mercy will guide us along it. For as we follow this path we indeed find cause for great joy. As the Lord has said: "Rejoice and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."
ACTUAL REPENTANCE 1973

ACTUAL REPENTANCE 1973

Actual repentance consists in self-examination, in the knowledge and acknowledgment of sins, in self-condemnation on account of them, in confessing them before the Lord, in imploring help and power to resist them, in desisting from them, and so leading a new life; and all this as of yourselves. Practise this once or twice a year, when you approach the Holy Communion; and afterwards, when the sins of which you confessed yourselves guilty recur, say to yourselves: "We will not consent to them because they are sins against God." Who cannot perceive that he who does not search out his sins remains in them? For all evil is delightful from birth: it is delightful to take revenge, to commit fornication, to defraud, to blaspheme, especially to rule from self-love.
(Apocalypse Revealed 531: 5)

LIVING PRAYER 1973

LIVING PRAYER Rev. HAROLD C. CRANCH 1973

     Although it is most common, prayer is one of the least understood of all spiritual acts and forces. Prayer is the ultimate expression of worship. It is practiced daily. We pray in times of trouble. We pray for ourselves and for others; yet few know what prayer is, or what is effected by prayers, or even how we should pray.
     The common idea is that prayer is asking God to answer special desires. The prayer is thought to be the words or ideas used at the time, and God is thought to grant our special plea in a miraculous way, turning aside the laws of nature if necessary. Thus many think that the Lord gives health, prosperity and all manner of special benefits to those who ask Him in full faith that these things will be done as they request them. If an answer is not received, this is attributed to lack of faith in the petitioner.
     These ideas are formed from a few passages, and are not the result of studying the teachings of the Word as a whole. Therefore the views which they embody are only half truths. We must look also to the modifying teachings of the Word to see the truth itself.
     There are two general meanings of the word "pray." The first agrees with the common idea; it is a conscious turning to the Lord for help and guidance. The second form of prayer is more interior; it is obedience to the Lord's teachings. So the Scriptures teach: "Men ought always to pray, and not to faint."* This means that we must continually try to do our duty, seeking the Lord's help, and not despair because of difficulties. Prayer, then, is not merely asking the Lord's help. It is also striving to obey. In this the Lord can give His help. This is further illustrated by the Lord's teaching: "When ye stand praying forgive, if ye have ought against any; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses."** Praying for forgiveness is the conscious and external prayer; practising forgiveness to others is the living prayer. The Lord can forgive us our trespasses against Him when we practise forgiveness to others.
     * Luke 18: 1.
     ** Mark 11: 25.

     The Lord also taught men that they need not pray for natural things-food, health and shelter-for He knows that we have need of these things before we ask Him. He teaches: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His justice; and all these things shall be added unto you."* By obedience to His laws, the prayer for needful things is made and answered. Our prayer should be especially for spiritual things, for an understanding of His truth and for guidance in living it.
     * Matthew 6: 33.
     So true prayer is twofold, internal and external. The quality of our prayers is shown in the life we lead. This is taught by the words: "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."* To abide in the Lord is to abide by His teachings. In that way His words abide in us. This makes the faith which assures us that our prayers will be answered.
     * John 15: 7.
     If the teachings of the Lord abide in us, the things that we may ask in prayer are immediately limited. His command is not to ask for the things of this world because the Lord who is love itself is aware of our needs. He gives us worldly gifts in so far as they are good for us. But we are to pray for spiritual help and guidance that we may properly use the things of this world to help others and to improve our own spiritual state. We are to ask that the Lord's will may be done in everything of our lives; and we acknowledge that His will is to serve our eternal welfare, even though the means may seem hard to us. To pray thus is to pray, believing in the Lord and in His mercy. Such a prayer is answered. In that state of complete trust in the Lord we can see that all that befalls us is part of the Lord's providing for our needs. There is no selfishness in such a petition. All things are then tempered with the earnest wish that the Lord's will may be done. In it we acknowledge that our understanding of what is good for us, or for those for whom we pray, is finite and limited and that the Lord's care and love will provide that our real needs will be answered.

     We can easily see that prayers for our own advantage, to the harm of others, could not be answered by a God of love. So also a plea that the Lord break Divine and natural order for our special benefit could not be answered by a God of wisdom, who ordained these laws to preserve His creation and to manifest His love. To seek such a thing is to believe imperfectly, for it is contrary to the direct command of the Lord.
     This is expressed in the Psalms thus: "I cried unto the Lord with my mouth. . . If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me."* Where there is no iniquity, no selfishness in a prayer, the Lord does hear, and He answers.

But the answer may not literally grant the petition. Although man prays for what he thinks is good, he must also acknowledge that his imperfect understanding may not know what is truly good. Therefore he prays that the Lord's will may be done, and he is given an understanding which permits him to see somewhat the good that is done in answer to his needs. The intention of his prayer is answered, and he can see that it is, because of the enlightened understanding given him by the Lord.
     * Psalm 66: 17, 18.
     But if God, as a God of love, continually provides all things necessary for our natural and eternal welfare, why are we to pray to Him? It cannot affect His will to do good, nor can it give us something we want at the expense of another. Why, then, are we to pray?
      To see the answer to this question is to see the operation of the Lord's love in His eternal care for men. Swedenborg wrote in Divine Love and Wisdom:

     "Because the Lord is to be adored, worshiped and glorified, He is supposed to love adoration, worship and glory for His own sake; but He loves these for man's sake, because by means of them man comes into a state in which the Divine can flow in and be perceived because, by these means, man puts away that which is his own, which hinders influx and reception; for what is man's own, which is self-love, hardens the heart and shuts it up. This is removed by man's acknowledging that from himself comes nothing but evil, but from the Lord nothing but good; from this acknowledgment there is a softening of the heart and humiliation, out of which flow forth adoration and worship."*
     * DLW 335.

     This is the key which unlocks the answer to why we are to pray. It is for its effect upon us that by means of the acknowledgment of God that rules in prayer, and by means of seeking His help and guidance, we will be able to understand His Providence. It is so that man may co-operate with the Lord, and thus receive the Lord's leading as the Divine blessing it is. If we trusted in our own prudence only, then every unfortunate event would but harden us and alienate us completely from the Lord. In times of prosperity and health we would take credit to ourselves; in times of distress we would blame others. We would rail against Providence.
     But by means of prayer we can be helped by the Lord. The first of prayer is to acknowledge that there is a God of love and wisdom whose Providence governs all things. We learn that He is continually working for man's eternal welfare, and that He is the source of all good.
     In this acknowledgment there is also humility. Seeing the Lord's presence in the law and order of nature, in all the happenings of our lives, and as the source of all light and truth in our minds, we humble     ourselves to His Divine guidance.

This humility is the means by which the Lord can lead us. Thus prayer is a conscious turning to the Lord with acknowledgment of His Divine power. It is a humbling of self to Him, that He may help and guide us in all the affairs of life. It is not difficult, then, to see why we are to pray. It is because of the nature of the Lord's love. The Lord does not force men to accept Him. Reciprocal love cannot exist under compulsion. Therefore, although the Lord continually works for man's welfare, He does this silently, without man's knowledge, leading him unconsciously to the best that man will permit. He holds him from evils and turns his thoughts to good as far as the man has knowledges that can be so directed. But without the acknowledgment of the Lord, without the prayer for Divine help, man has little that can be turned to good. Although the Lord can use an evil man to perform uses for mankind, He cannot help him to regenerate unless that man will seek His help. This is the law of Divine love-that man be not compelled to seek Him, but if he will come to Him, help is always given. Man's prayer is answered, not by a new outpouring of good from the Lord, but because the prayer itself turns man to receive that good which is continually offered. So the Lord teaches: "Seek, and ye shall find."*
     * Matthew 7: 7.

      This explains further the teaching of the Writings that the Lord does not wish prayer for Himself, but for the sake of man. He will not force men to worship Him, but if man will, then through that worship He can give him the blessings of Divine guidance to a happy and useful life both now and evermore.
      Through prayer during times of doubt, trouble and despair, man's tormented natural mind undergoes a change. By confessing our troubles to the Lord, seeking His aid, our natural worries are stilled, and a deep and abiding trust in the Lord takes their place. We then need not fear, for we are given an understanding that the Lord will use these troubles to bring us nearer to our life's goal. In that knowledge we can rest content. This is the use of prayer. It is speech with God. By confessing our troubled hearts to Him, we receive help and comfort. We are given the ability to bear our burdens, because we can see that through doing so we are drawing closer to the Lord.
     But mere external prayers are not enough. Our prayers are answered first in the gift of understanding. Only when we apply that to our lives, only when we live the truths we know to the best of our ability, do these prayers become real.

Only in such a life are the prayers of our hearts answered. The Lord then operates through our own efforts, and in the activities of our lives, to grant us peace and contentment with our lot.
If we live in obedience to the Lord's leading, we will see His guiding hand within all that occurs. We can see that He draws use and benefit for each one even from seeming misfortunes and outward evils. In the gift of such an understanding the Lord turns our mourning into joy, our weeping into thanksgiving. In such a life the Lord's blessings pour forth as heat and light: warming man, blessing him with understanding, love and co-operative use. To that man, heaven is present on earth, even though his limited understanding and natural evils must still be removed.
Because he is sure of the Lord's protection and leading he has happiness upon earth, even through the strife of temptation; and after death he will abide in the Lord, to know everlasting happiness and peace.
WORSHIP FROM THE LOVE OF USE 1973

WORSHIP FROM THE LOVE OF USE Rev. DANDRIDGE PENDLETON 1973

The chief representative of Divine worship with the ancients was the altar. Whether it stood simply as a memorial, or was used for animal sacrifice, the altar of worship served to remind its beholders of the Divine Being who was their Creator, and whom they were to obey. If we keep in mind that the externals of worship possessed functional power at the time of the Israelitish Church by virtue of their spiritual representation, we can understand why they were given to that church under the absolute terms that they were. And we will be able better to perceive the connection between an apparently dead form of ancient ritual and the living forces of spiritual influx which that ritual represented. In the Mosaic Word the Israelites were given a prohibitive command of the first order. The approach to their altar of worship was not to be by steps, or stairs, but by a continuous and unbroken ascent following the natural contour of the ground upon which the altar was built. This apparently insignificant point of a bygone religious age contains a law of vital concern to our lives. "Thou shalt not go up by steps unto Mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon." Our approach to the Lord, day by day, year by year, how is it to be made in safety, without uncovering our spiritual "nakedness"-that is, without exposing our spiritual life, with its celestial remains of innocence, to the searing fire of evil lusts beyond our knowledge and control?

     The answer lies in the protection that is rendered by use in man's response to the Lord. For in the perception and activity of use from truth-and in this alone-is his spiritual vulnerability clothed against desecration.
     To perceive use is to perceive good as the proper end and objective toward which we should strive. Whereas to go apart from this perception is to venture into the domain of forces which defy our experience and strip us of adequate means of protection. To seek the achievement of ends or ambitions without any genuine thought of the interior good to be served thereby is to put ourselves unwittingly at the mercy of mental and spiritual demands too great to be sustained by our rational mind. When this becomes the case, we either enter outright upon disorderly procedures, or we make ourselves subservient to the disorders of others, whether men or spirits. The only protection that a man can have against this consequence is the determination toward a use that looks to spiritual ends. These ends alone are permanent and truly satisfying. Material things-the possession of wealth or power-upon which men set much value fade swiftly into boredom unless they are continually extended. Men strive mightily to attain these objects of their natural desire only to find, to their bitter disappointment, that happiness is not to be found in self-gratification.
     Without a concept of use for its own sake, we become self-absorbed. And self-absorption carries eternal discontent in its train. The life that looks to self is not life but an illusion of life; it is a mirrored image, seemingly full-bodied in its reflection, but in reality cold and hard and utterly immobile. There is no warmth in it, no soul or spirit. It is a lie-a monstrous self-deception. To rise up in matters of intellectual comprehension apart from any desire and intention that the uses of interior life shall thereby be served, inevitably promotes aspirations of self and dominion that may well overpower our innocence. For in so doing we enter into a framework of thought that is directed to the vindication of self rather than the forwarding of spiritual values. It is this-the elevation of the mind by truth, or understanding, apart from good, or the love of use-that is represented in mounting up by steps unto the altar.
     Yet are we not told that a division of thought and affection is necessary to reformation? Are not the instinctive loves of our natural life evil in the extreme? Must we not, then, be led by the thought of truth apart from the perverted delights of our first-born will?

This is true indeed. And without this provision, whereby man is enabled to think contrary to his illegitimate delights, he could not possibly be saved. It is not this, then, to which the Word points in warning. We must rise from our natural darkness initially by means of thought, or understanding, that is for a time empty of the proper affection of use. Yet must our purpose be that proper affection shall be given, in the Lord's own time. The intellect must look to its true companion, the heart. The understanding must ever stand in the hope that a new will shall be created-a new love born from within its sanctuary. In this lies the hope and the safety of our approach to the altar of life. Our ascent in this case will be gradual, each state merging subtly into the next, so much so that we will scarcely recognize the momentous changes that are being wrought by the Lord within the innermost chambers of our spirit.

Yet this upward turning of the spirit-this progression along an even and imperceptibly rising contour of inner enlightenment and perception-is not to the liking of our natural instinct. We are impatient creatures, expecting much for little, anxious for obvious and tangible evidence of our achievements. We are not content with the Lord's assurance. We wish to see, to understand, to comprehend, before our state is prepared to acknowledge and affirm. Thus saith the Lord: "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Let each day's realization suffice. Let us not stretch our established strength of spirit beyond its limits, seeking to have what we cannot yet hold. To attempt an entrance upon states of life that are above and beyond our perception and affirmation of use is to test the strength of adverse forces stronger than we. In so doing, we leave the protective sphere of our present illustration, when yet there is not the new sphere of use within which that protection may continue. This is to go up "by steps unto the altar"-to ascend from a lower plane of perception and response into a higher state of life, without sufficient affection to sustain the temptations or the needs which attend it. The Writings describe the effect of such efforts on the part of men in the other world who expressed the desire to rise into a heavenly sphere higher than their own interior state of life. They were permitted the fulfillment of this desire; but upon so doing they suffered the most intense agony of mind and body; their breathing became labored, to the point of strangulation, and they hurriedly cast themselves down into their own proper state; whereupon strength of body and enlightenment of mind returned to them. In this way each man finds his own level of life eventually. There he remains, not by virtue of any outside force or pressure, but by the dictates of his own will's love. If he thinks that he would like to enter upon rewards that are above the quality of his love he is not prevented from endeavoring to do so.

Yet he soon discovers that he cannot find any joy or delight in a sphere of life that is beyond his own. Not only does he find no enjoyment there, but at the same time he loses the delight and illustration of his former love. He becomes a man without a home, a wanderer. Nor can he feel the comforts of familiarity again until he returns of his own volition into the state of life and perception that is proper to himself.

This doctrine has universal application. For a great portion of our unhappiness and frustration arises out of our disgruntled desire to be other than we are. We would that our situation of life were different, our opportunities greater, our abilities along other lines. Yet what we seek, in our disgruntlement, are not the responsibilities of use, but its rewards. We would reap where we have not sown. We would gather in the harvest without entering upon the toil that must produce it. Such a man is always searching, yet he does not find; for he blinds himself to the blessings that lie open before him. In seeking to secure the delights of others, he never discovers his own. To walk through life with an envious eye is to deprive ourselves of all satisfaction. For envy brings only bitterness-bitterness that causes the spirit to sour and shrivel until its potential becomes warped beyond repair. True, there will be difficulties, states of undelight even to despair. Yet these are not the times to wish that our lot might be different, nor to lay blame elsewhere, nor yet to impinge our irritated proprium upon others. These are the times to do battle with the weapons that lie close at hand and which we know how to wield effectively, to gird up our loins and sally forth in order to protect and further the uses that, in Providence, have been committed to our care. The outcome of this is one of sure promise from the Lord God Himself, from Him whose Word is not broken, nor His hand unequal to the task. He will give enlightenment and a new love of spiritual proportions, unknown in our former state. The mark of the regenerating man is that he believes that this will be so, though at the time the appearance is otherwise; and that, in the face of all doubt, still he has hope.

The ritualistic altar has disappeared from the face of the earth as an effective means of conjoining God and man. The power of external representatives is no longer the primary way of spiritual sustenance with the race. For the interiors of truth, of worship, and of the church have been renewed. The lamp of spiritual acknowledgment has been rekindled. For those who are led to know of this spiritual renewal, and thereby to acknowledge the Lord in His second advent, judgment must rest upon their love of spiritual things-spiritual ends and purposes.

The altar of worship has ceased in its function as a representative medium of worship. But its essence remains, for in its place, for the New Church, stands the Lord Himself in His glorified Divine Human. The Israelites fixed their eyes upon a form built out of stone or wood, and worshipped they knew not what. We can turn our gaze upon the Divinely Human body of our Lord and Savior, and can worship Him as the one and only God of heaven and earth. The Israelites were not to approach that which represented the Lord with them by an ascent of steps, or stairs. For this was the way in which a spiritual truth was represented, and preserved, in their natural. We, in our approach to the Lord, are to take caution against allowing our intellectual comprehension of doctrine to exceed our desire that use shall be perceived, loved, and served thereby. For truth apart from good, or the perception of use, is a form without essence. It can produce nothing, sustain nothing, achieve nothing. It uncovers our spiritual "nakedness," exposing our God-given remains of innocence to destruction. For if the love of good is not present within the form of truth, then the love of evil will be. Nature is said to abhor a vacuum. This holds true on the spiritual plane. If the love of use departs, or is absent, the love of self rushes in and fills every available space to overflowing. There is no such thing as a spiritual vacuum or spiritually neutral ground. The mind of man is either in good, or in evil. To turn to the good and protect against the evil, he is given the power of choice wherewith to enter upon the perception and love of use. For the sphere of use is such that the hells cannot abide its presence thy fear it, and flee from before it in disarray. They cannot even approach the mind of him who is under its protection. Here lies the power of use-a power sufficient to ward off the combined forces of all evil suggestion. Upon this ground the man of the church may find spiritual protection, even as the altar of ancient times and the ground immediately adjacent to it were considered a physical sanctuary. Here we may find peace from our restless yearnings, and the delight that is our heaven upon earth.
VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

FORMATION OF WOMAN 1973

FORMATION OF WOMAN Rev. ROBERT H. P. COLE 1973

It is plain that the book of Genesis does not give an account of the physical creation of woman. By a rib, which is a bone of the chest, is meant man's proprium or what is proper to him by nature and his possession. In this there is very little life. But the proprium is dear to man, and by the deep sleep which God caused man to have, is meant the state into which man was let so that he might seem to himself to have what is his proprium. The reason this state into which man was let resembles sleep is that while in it he knows not but that he lives, thinks, speaks and acts from himself. The proprium of man, when viewed from heaven, appears like something that is wholly inanimate, or lifeless. Consequently it appears as being in itself dead, but when vivified by the Lord, it looks like flesh or something living and human.
      In the world of spirits, evil spirits love nothing but their proprium, and obstinately insist that they live from themselves. The man who supposes that he lives from himself is in what is false, and by believing that he lives from himself he tends to appropriate or add to himself everything evil. Let us remember the Lord's admonishment to the young man who trusted in riches: He said: "Go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow Me."*
     * Mark 10: 21. See AC 150.
      The people who lived at the end of the Most Ancient Church did not wish like their parents to be celestial men, but to be under their own self-guidance; and, thus they inclined to their proprium. This was granted to them, but it was a proprium vivified or made alive by the Lord, and therefore called a woman, and afterwards a wife. The "woman" spoken of in Genesis, then, is the man's living proprium. And it was this proprium which was deceived by the serpent. Nothing ever deceives man spiritually but his proprium, which at the present day consists of tendencies to the love of self and the love of the world for the sake of self.
      Nothing evil and false is ever possible which is not from our proprium, for the proprium of man is evil itself; and for this reason man, in the last analysis, is nothing but tendencies to evil and falsity without the Lord to guide his life.

And when the things of a man's proprium are made visible in the other world, the man who witnesses the exhibition of his own proprium is struck with horror, and desires to flee from himself as from a devil. But the things of man's proprium that have been vivified by the Lord appear beautiful and lovely, with variety according to the life to which the celestial or highest love of the Lord can be applied.

     The series in Genesis (which has to do with regeneration) regards the heavenly marriage. The heavenly marriage is the union in man of the good of love and the truth of faith. This marriage exists in the proprium that has been vivified or made alive by the Lord. Indeed, the heavenly proprium is called the bride and wife of the Lord. Such a proprium has a perception of all the good of love and the truth of faith, and for this reason such a proprium possesses all intelligence and wisdom. And these spiritual qualities are presented by the Lord to the man who has allowed the Lord to save him, conjoined with inexpressible happiness. Moreover, the happiness and peace of heaven reaches its highest degree when the angels perceive that they live from the Lord.*
     * AC 155.
     So that a heavenly proprium might be striven for, God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. By the man's deep sleep and by his falling asleep is signified his entire ignorance that the wife is formed and as it were created for him. The Writings tell us that wives have an innate or inborn resourcefulness and ability to attend to many circumstances, lest they divulge anything whatever about their love or about their taking on of the affections of the man's life, and so of the carrying over of his wisdom into themselves. This is effected by the wife in secret ways, the husband being unaware and as it were asleep. The prudence or sagacity to accomplish this is inherent in women from creation, and thence from birth. Therefore, in order that this shall be rightly done, it is said of the man that he shall leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife.*
     * CL 194.
     By father and mother whom the man is to leave are meant in the spiritual sense his proprium of the will, and of the understanding. It is the proprium of man's will to love himself, and the proprium of his understanding is to love his own wisdom. By "cleave" is meant to devote himself to the love of his wife. Both parts of man's proprium are deadly to him if they remain with him, but the love of the proprium is changed into conjugial love, which love flows in from the union of the Divine and the Human in the Lord. This influx takes place in so far as the man cleaves to his wife, that is, receives her love.

     All of us while we yet live on earth should know that we live from the Lord, even though it is proper to our own freedom that it appears that we live from ourselves. And in marriage, it should be seen that the husband and wife do not live from each other and for the one or the other alone, but they do live from the Lord and should strive together to live for the Lord. There should be no senior partner in marriage. And only if the Lord is the real leader, can the marriage be blessed with conjugial love.
     The woman was created out of the man by the carrying over of his own wisdom, that is, wisdom from natural truth. And the man's own love of his wisdom was transferred to the woman so that it might become conjugial love. The reason why the Lord did this was so that the man might not love himself, but love his wife instead. The wife then converts the man's love of himself into his love for her. This is effected by the love itself of the wife, and this is done in ways that neither the man nor the wife is conscious of. Within the operation of this love, is the Lord, who infuses into the woman inclinations or leanings toward conjugial love.

     No man can ever love his married partner with love truly conjugial who from love of himself is in the pride of his own intelligence. In marriage, the wife receives into herself the image of the man, by appropriating or taking to herself his affections, and by conjoining the internal will of the man with her own internal will. This is how the woman is formed into a wife. By such things as she takes out of her husband, even out of his bosom and inscribes upon herself, the woman is made by the Lord and brought unto the man.
     Man means the church in general and in particular. The church in particular is the man of the church, or the man in whom the church is. The wife is said to be bone of man's bones, and flesh of his flesh. By this is meant that good or love, which is the wife, is formed from truth or wisdom, which is the man. Bone means truth before it is vivified or conjoined to good. An example of this is the truth of memory with men that lies there inactive and not contributing to a use as yet. Moreover, because all good is formed from truths, it is said, "because she was taken out of man." But man is to leave father and mother and cleave to his wife. Truth must be of good or belong to it absolutely, and thus both must become one good for love of use. (In our marriage ceremony, the bride and groom usually walk up together without father or mother, for this reason.) "They shall be one flesh." That is, they shall be good. In the spiritual sense man and wife mean the conjunction of truth and good, which is called the heavenly marriage.

Man comes into this marriage when he is regenerated and becomes a church in the smallest form, and he becomes a church when he is in goods and truths.*
     * AE 555: 14.
     By creation there was given to man and woman an inclination and also the faculty of conjunction as into one, and yet they are both man and woman still, and remain that way in the other world as well forever. This conjunction is effected successively from the first days of marriage, and with those who are in love truly conjugial, it is effected more and more inwardly to eternity. The wife is conjoined to the husband by the appropriation of the powers of his manhood; but this takes place according to their mutual spiritual love, which has as its center loving others more than self.
     By obeying the Lord's commandments and shunning their evils as sins against God the husband and wife are reformed together. If they come to love to follow the Lord mutually in their marriage, then the Lord will regenerate them together and give to each partner an ever deeper affection for the teachings of His Word and for their application to daily life. And if the man and his wife will each strive together with the Lord at the center and head of the marriage, then the Lord will give them a heavenly proprium.
     When a man leaves father and mother, he recedes or comes down and withdraws from the internal man in an orderly way, for it is the internal which conceives and brings forth the external. And when he cleaves to his wife, he goes from the internal to the external man. Moreover, when the internal and the external man are together in the external, they are said to be one flesh. Both from being different degrees of the spirit have become one flesh. In this way celestial and spiritual life is adjoined to the proprium of man.

     As every law of truth and right descends from celestial beginnings, or from the order of life of the celestial man, so in a special manner does the law of marriages. It is the celestial or heavenly marriage from and according to which all marriages on earth must be derived; and this marriage is such that there is one Lord and one heaven or one church whose head is the Lord. The law of marriages which is derived from these truths is that there shall be one husband and one wife, and when this is the case, they represent the celestial marriage, and are an example of the celestial man.
     We are taught in the Writings, that if we would start on the path to full regeneration or becoming a celestial man, we should look for one evil in ourselves and shun it as a sin against God.

As of himself man is nothing but tendencies to evil, and it is only the Lord's love from the Lord and in the man that elevates him out of hell. This love is mercy. The Lord elevates those who cleave unto Jehovah. That is, He elevates those who keep His commandments from spiritual love or the love of the truth of the commandments. For no one keeps the commandments of God from the heart, except the man who is at least in the good of charity toward the neighbor. The man who is in the good of charity toward the neighbor is in genuine Christian charity. And the husband and wife who are in this spiritual love have what would be in the other life a heavenly proprium and have good and truth conjoined in them. Indeed those also who are not married in this life and who prepare themselves for the heavenly marriage will, if desired, find their conjugial partner in the other life.*
     * CL 54.
     Good and truth in an angel or a man are not two but one, since good is then good of truth or the uses of life performed according to order, and truth is truth of good or more and more developed laws of order seen from uses themselves. In two married partners, when the thought and will make one, there is then one mind. The thought forms, that is, presents in form, that which the will wills, and the will gives delight to it, and this is why a married pair in heaven are not called two but one angel.
     Marriage on earth is to continue until the end of life and, it is hoped, with the same partner after death. Separations and divorces are not according to the belief of the New Church religion. Nevertheless, they are recognized where adultery exists and for certain other reasons given in the Writings.* Yet a husband and wife are to strive to live together in happiness, praying to the Lord for help to sustain them in life and to eternity. Then, in both worlds, the wife becomes more and more a wife and the husband more and more a husband with those who are in love truly conjugial. The fruits of marriage are children in this life and love and wisdom in the next. Such are the blessings of marriage that await the man of the church in this and in the other life. For in heaven itself all are married.**
     * CL 251-5.
     ** CL 115, 127, 200.
MINISTERIAL CHANGES 1973

MINISTERIAL CHANGES 1973

The Rev. David R. Simons has accepted an invitation to become Principal of the Midwest Academy and Assistant Pastor of the Immanuel Church, Glenview, Illinois, effective September 1, 1973.

REVIEW 1973

REVIEW W. CAIRNS HENDERSON 1973

ESSAYS ON THE LORD'S PRAYER. By Hugo Lj. Odhner. General Church Publication Committee, Bryn Athyn, Pa., 1972. Mimeographed, Paper. Pp. 84. Price 75 cents.

     According to the Preface, this little volume is prepared for private reading or for use in public worship. For the sake of completeness, the two versions in which the Lord's Prayer has come down to us through Matthew and Luke are appended; and to facilitate the use of these scriptures in worship, a selection of lessons from the threefold Word is also inserted.
     The Lord's Prayer is an epitome of the entire Word, containing within it all the truths of heaven and the church. It is used throughout life, and may be entered into more and more deeply as the mind develops. Within it is the threefold internal sense. In the celestial sense it is a summary of the doctrine of the Lord; in the spiritual sense, of the doctrine of regeneration; and in the proximate internal sense it sets forth the morality and doctrine that will characterize the New Church when it comes into its full state, in which the Lord's Prayer will be fulfilled. These essays are well designed to aid the reader to enter progressively into the arcana of the Prayer, which, as noted in the Preface, are said to contain more than the universal heaven is capable of understanding.
     If men were sufficiently spiritual, no other prayer would be necessary. It is all inclusive, and comprehends all that men need say to God and all that they may rightly ask of Him. However, the state in which it would be all sufficient is almost impossible of attainment; and it is probably enough that man should enter more and more into the Lord's Prayer. That this little book may help him to do, both understandingly and affectionally.
     An introductory essay, The Meaning of Prayer," is in the spirit of the words, "Lord, teach us to pray!" Acceptable prayer comes only from the humble and instructed mind which has been enlightened by the Lord through conscious and voluntary approach to Him alone. Such prayer can be achieved only through avoidance of certain conditions and states and the observance of certain laws, which only the Lord can disclose and reveal and impart the power to avoid and observe; and it must be molded by the Lord both in its objects and in its ultimate forms, as it must be inspired by Him. It is to these things that this essay speaks.

     For purposes of analysis the Lord's Prayer may be seen as falling into three divisions-invocation, petition and ascription. It opens with an invocation of the Lord as being in His Divine Human the Father, Son and Holy Spirit-"Our Father." The petitions which follow form two interrelated series. The first deals with the Lord and His kingdom and the establishment of it in the acceptance of His will on earth. In this series man looks, as it were, above himself to the Lord and heaven and prays for the entire angelic heaven and the universal human race. The second series focuses on our own spiritual needs, which must be satisfied if the first series is to be granted. Here we look to ourselves, and below ourselves to the world and to hell; and in three petitions which embrace our every spiritual need-present, past and future-humbly ask for the things which belong to our peace. Then, the petitions concluded, the Prayer closes with an ascription to the Lord of all good, truth and blessing. After the introductory essay the book takes up these two series of petitions and the ascription in a group of nine essays which are brief yet comprehensive.
     Everything for which we ask in the Lord's Prayer comes by action on the part of the Lord and reaction on our part. Implicit in each petition in the Prayer is an obligation to make its fulfillment possible by reacting properly and a willingness to accept that obligation. As we can react only by understanding what is expected of us, it is surely necessary that we understand the Prayer, and these essays may help us toward that understanding.

     As the Preface notes, the Lord's Prayer is not treated of consecutively in any one place in the Writings. But it is often referred to; and beneath these essays, as Dr. Odhner's readers have come to expect over the years, there is a solid substratum of doctrine and a wealth of expository detail. There is also understanding of and a compassion for human states; and if there is no hesitation in showing human folly and frailty for what they are, there is no lack of sympathy for those who are in them. Weakness is not to be condoned, but those beset by it are not to be condemned. In these doctrinal but warm and affectional pages the reader may find inspiration to what is better.
     W. CAIRNS HENDERSON

LORD'S BRETHREN 1973

LORD'S BRETHREN Editor 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.
Published Monthly By

THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
BRYN ATHYN, PA.
     Editor               Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
     Business Manager          Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
     All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications, should be sent to the Business Manager.
     Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.

     TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$5.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 50 cents.
     We read in the Gospels that those of the church who are in the good of charity the Lord calls His brethren. His reason for doing so has been misunderstood, however, and wrong understanding has led to wrong practice. The Lord does not call men brethren because He was a man like them-the view which was developed in the Christian Church. For this reason, the Writings say, it is not allowable for any man to call the Lord, brother; for He is God even as to the Human, and God is not a brother but a Father. He is indeed called brother in the churches, some of which have developed what might be called the cult of the Elder Brother, because their idea of His Human is the same as their idea of the human of any other man. Yet the Lord's Human is Divine, and He is not a man, but Man.
     When men think of the Lord as their brother they seek with Him the relation that is proper between brothers, consociation; rather than con- junction, which is the proper relationship of man with God. The Lord is the Father of all, but He calls angels and men brothers, not as to their proprium, but as to the essential good of charity in them; which is not theirs but His, and of which they are recipients. The Divine proceeding is, we are told, a Divine born of the Lord in heaven. It is the Lord in angels, we are told, and by virtue of it they are brethren to Him and to each other. It is the Lord who consociates them because it is the Divine proceeding, which is not of angel or man but of the Lord with them, that brings them together in brotherly love. Therefore, while the Lord calls men brother, they may not so call Him.

     ACCOMMODATION AND APPLICATION

     Much is said in the church about application of truth to life. Yet much of what is thought and spoken about is more properly accommodation. Strictly speaking, no one can apply the truth for or to the life of another man. Man applies himself to certain things; more interiorly, he applies them to himself. So only the man himself can apply the truth to his life, because it is only he who can apply himself to the truth. What priests can do is to accommodate the truth of the Word-to adapt it to states of life and the conditions of human existence.
     It is this accommodation or adaptation-this placing truth in contact with life and thus showing its connection with life's situations-that is usually what is meant by application. We might say, therefore, that priests in the discharge of their duties teach truth, and laymen in responding apply truth. But laymen apply truth in act; priests in accommodating truth may point out how it is to be applied and thus assist in the application of truth to act. And it is essential to the life of the church that both of these things be done.
      New Church men hold it as an axiom that all religion has relation to life. Unless every phase of life is regulated by the spiritual truths of the Writings, the men of the church will be guided by truths on a lower plane-moral, political or economic or by falsities. Unless it is done the New Church professional or businessman, for example, except for good intentions, will simply be following the same ethics, customs and practices as his colleagues and contemporaries, and will therefore be acting in the same fashion as they do,
      Without impinging upon or taking away the freedom of the layman, without making individual and detailed statements as to how the truth is to be applied, the priesthood can indicate in a general way how interior truths may be applied to act in professional, business and industrial life, as well as in the political sphere and in the church, in the community and the home. The principles which bear upon the state or situation can be presented, and the general way in which they may be applied to act may then be shown. How they are to be applied in act, with all the details that this involves, should then be left for the individual layman to work out in the enlightenment that belongs to his field of use.
     In this way priests and laymen can lead and be led by the truth of the Word to the good of life. Teaching is not enough. The truth must be accommodated by being related to life. Then it must be related in life to act by those who are taught. Thus do they assist one another.

     THE MYSTERY OF REGENERATION

     Although the Writings are a rational revelation and the New Church man is invited to enter intellectually into the arcana of faith there are mysteries. The sources of knowledge are experience, reason and perception, and there are things which transcend these and are therefore beyond human comprehension. Such things are, by definition, mysteries, and the greatest of them is the mystery of regeneration.
     Because regeneration continues during the whole of man's life its arcana are innumerable. Scarcely any of them come to his knowledge and perception. Man simply does not know the things that take place during his regeneration, and if he were to perceive even one out of ten thousand of them he would be amazed. There are, we are assured, thousands of arcana scarcely one of which is known to man, by which the Lord leads him out of the life of hell into the life of heaven.
     The purification of the internal man during regeneration is effected in heaven by the Lord, with the result that while man is in the world he perceives nothing of what is being accomplished in his internal man. During man's regeneration the Lord draws out, separates and disposes all things of the will and understanding so that they may be bent towards goods and truths and conjoined with them, and this never ceases because they can never be made perfect to eternity. Yet man is not aware of this, nor does he know it. He does not even know when scientifics become alive in his mind. How, then, can he know when and how regeneration is effected, or in what manner he is regenerated?
     Man cannot know in himself from sense or perception how good and truth flow in from the Lord, and how evil and falsity inflow from hell; nor can he see how Providence operates in favor of good against evil. If he did he could not act from freedom according to reason. It is sufficient for man to know and acknowledge these things from the Word and from doctrine; for he cannot know them from the experience of the senses, reason or perception.

      This is what the Lord meant when He said to Nicodemus: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth." Only the infinite God who gives life can know in what manner it is bestowed; only He who sees the end from the beginning and foresees the eternal consequences of every state in its changing relation to all other states can know what must be done and what is done. Man can only acknowledge that regeneration is a mystery of love and so preserve his freedom, and can love and worship the Lord from whom it is.

     CONJUNCTION THROUGH THE WRITINGS

     Whether conjunction with the Lord and consociation with heaven are effected by means of the Writings has long been debated among New Church men. The question is related to that of the status of the Writings themselves. On the basis of well-known teachings to the effect that the Word is written in correspondences in order that it might bring about conjunction, some have argued that this result can be achieved only by means of the letter of the Word, and that the Writings, as the internal sense of the Word, cannot be the means of effecting conjunction with the Lord and consociation with heaven.

     Obviously the entire matter cannot be discussed fully in a few lines, but we would at least ask whether this argument exhausts the teaching of the Writings on the subject and draw attention to a few statements that may lead in another direction. In Apocalypse Explained 951: 1 it is said that the third reason why the spiritual sense of the Word has now been disclosed is that "by means of the Divine truths of the Word that are in the spiritual sense the New Church may be conjoined with heaven. For the Word is conjunction; but conjunction is effected only when man perceives the Word in the same way that the angels perceive it." Another significant teaching is that of Heaven and Hell no. 310: "If man knew that there is an internal sense, and would think from some knowledge of it when he is reading the Word, he would come into interior wisdom and would be still more conjoined with heaven because he would thereby enter into ideas like the angelic ones."
     Perhaps the key teaching is that of Sacred Scripture no. 78 that "the Lord is present with man through the reading of the Word, but He is conjoined with him by means of and according to his understanding of truth from the Word." To this may be added the words of Arcana 9410: 4: "Those who are in the external sense of the Word separate from the internal sense have no conjunction with heaven, thus with the Lord."
     From these teachings it would appear that while it is the Word with both its internal and literal senses that is the medium of conjunction, two kinds of conjunction are possible. If man reads the letter of the Word in a holy manner, he is conjoined by correspondence with the angels, who are in the internal sense. But if he reads the revelation of the internal sense given in the Writings, thus entering into spiritual truths, he is still more conjoined with heaven, not by correspondence between the letter and the internal sense, but by correspondence of ideas-by entering into the field of angelic ideas. Therefore we would conclude that there is conjunction by means of the Writings.

Church News 1973

Church News Various 1973

     AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND

      The last visit of our pastor, the Rev. Douglas Taylor, was from September 19 to 26, 1972. He was met at the airport by Mrs. Marion Mills. Soon afterwards, as on previous occasions, a welcoming dinner was enjoyed at 34 Woodward Road, where church members and friends had awaited their coming.
     On the following morning Mr. Taylor flew to Christchurch in the South Island. There he visited Mr. Jim Brasell, who has been ill, and other New Church friends.
     A doctrinal class was held on Thursday, the subject being "The Obligations of Charity." The class was based on Doctrine of Charity nos. 187, 188 and True Christian Religion nos. 429-432.
     During Friday Mr. Taylor traveled to the city of Hamilton, some eighty miles distant to the south. His purpose was to visit Mr. Hobcroft who has been confined to the Home there for several years.
     The annual meeting was held at the home of our president, Mr. Malcolm Fleming, on Saturday. At the election of officers sympathetic consideration was given to the performance of multiple duties by our able treasurer, Mrs. Mills and it was agreed that Miss Ray Tuckey of Outreach. In being elected to this office Miss Tuckey relinquished the secretarial duties to Mr. Harry Beveridge of Whangerel. An announcement by Mr. Taylor that Bishop and Mrs. Pendleton would probably visit the members in Auckland and Penshurst, Australia, next year was received with rejoicing.
     On Sunday, September 24, the sermon by Mr. Taylor was on "Non Appropriation of Evil," and the Holy Supper was administered afterwards. Then on Sunday afternoon Mr. Taylor addressed a public meeting at the Helen Melville Hall, his subject: "Swedenborg, the Forgotten Philosopher" An audience of twenty-seven listened with keen attention as Mr. Taylor dealt with his subject. It was significant of the interest of those present that all seemed happy to linger to discuss various aspects of this most interesting address. A display of our literature in the room soon became the focal point and sales were to prove an all-time record.
     HARRY BEVERIDGE

     THE CHURCH AT LARGE

     General Convention. The NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER reports the death of Mrs. Carolyn Blackmer, wife of the Rev. Franklin Blackmer. Mrs. Blackmer was associated for nearly sixty years with Urbana College as a student and later as a faculty member, president's wife, administrator and member of the Board of Trustees. She was active in Convention and her interest in education extended to the Swedenborg School of Religion which she served as a member of the Board of Managers.
     The NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER also reports that a Church-College Relations should assume responsibility for the work     Committee has been set up at Urbana to work for closer relationships and improved communications among "the Swedenborgian Church, Urbana College and the Urbana area community." Dr. Dorothea Harvey is chairman of the committee, which plans a statement on the relation of the New Church to Urbana College; communication through the Messenger on matters of philosophy and curriculum development; and a statement on why the Church should send students to Urbana.

ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS 1973

     Announcements



     MARCH 5-10, 1973

Monday, March 5
     11:00     a.m.     Headmasters' Meeting
     2:30     p.m.     Worship
     3:00     p.m.     Opening Session, Council of the Clergy
     8:00     p.m.     Consistory

Tuesday, March 6
     8:30     a.m.     General Church Translation Committee
     10:30     a.m.     Second Session, Council of the Clergy
     12:45     p.m.     Small group luncheons
     3:30     p.m.     Third Session, Council of the Clergy
     8:30     p.m.     Informal Open House for ministers and wives

Wednesday, March 7
     8:30     a.m.     General Church Publication Committee
     10:30     a.m.     Fourth Session, Council of the Clergy
     12:45     p.m.     Small group luncheons
     3:30     p.m.     Fifth Session, Council of the Clergy
     6:30     p.m.     Social supper for ministers
     6:30     p.m.     Social supper for ministers' wives

Thursday, March 8
     9:00 a.m. New Program Committee Meeting
     10:30 am. Sixth Session, Council of the Clergy
     3:00 p.m. Extension Committee Meeting (if needed)

Friday, March 9
     8:30     a.m.     Executive Vice President meets with Heads of Schools
     10:30     a.m.     Seventh Session, Council of the Clergy
     3:00     p.m.     Board of Directors of the General Church
     5:00     p.m.     Annual Meeting of the General Church Corporation
     7:00     p.m.     Friday Supper
     7:45     p.m.     General Church Evening

Saturday, March 10
     10:00 a.m. Joint Council of the General Church
     3:00 p.m. Corporation of the Academy of the New Church

     TWENTY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

     BRYN ATHYN, PA., JUNE 12-15, 1973

Prior Events
     Monday, June 11
      2:00-5:00 p.m.     Registration of Guests
      8:30 p.m.     President's Reception
     Tuesday, June 12
     10:30 am.     Commencement Exercises
2:00-5:00 p.m. Registration of Guests

Assembly Events
     Tuesday, June 12
     8:00 p.m.     First Session of the Assembly
Wednesday, June 13
     10:00     am.     Second Session of the Assembly
     2:30     p.m.     Meeting of Theta Alpha
     2:30     p.m.     Meeting of the Sons of the Academy
     8:00     p.m.     Third Session of the Assembly
Thursday, June 14
     10:00     a.m.     Fourth Session of the Assembly
     2:30     p.m.     Fifth Session of the Assembly
     7:00     p.m.     Assembly Banquet
Friday, June 15
     9:30 a.m.     Divine Worship
     11:30 a.m.     Divine Worship
UNSCIENTIFIC NOTE 1973

UNSCIENTIFIC NOTE 1973

In a book entitled Life After Death a Swedish doctor claims that the human soul weighs 21 grams. Dr. Nils-Olof Jacobson placed the deathbeds of terminal patients on extremely sensitive scales and found that as they died the needle dropped 21 grams. What the author does not know is that the soul, although separated from the body, does not depart from it at the moment of death, but some time later. So there must be some other reason for the weight loss observed; especially since the soul, being a spiritual substance, has no weight.

MAN AND THE CHURCH 1973

MAN AND THE CHURCH Rev. ROY FRANSON 1973

     NEW CHURCH LIFE
     VOL. XCIII     MARCH 1973     No. 3
     "And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen just before Me in this generation." (Genesis 7: 1)

     The story of Noah and the ark is an allegorical description of the miraculous separation of the will and the understanding in the human mind, a separation that became necessary when the tendency toward self and the love of self had become a confirmed principle in the Most Ancient Church. When the love of self rules the love of God is dead, and when the love of God is dead in man he perishes and becomes a creature of hell. The multitude of evils that springs from the love of self is here pictured to us as a flood from which there is no escape except through the doctrine of truth revealed by the Lord, from which the remnant of the good in the fallen church may build for themselves a protective ark.
     There are many obvious reasons why the story of Noah and the ark is not a narrative of historical facts; but the chief reason why the flood of Noah does not describe a natural disaster is that there is no need for the Word to reveal historical facts. Such facts and natural events are recorded by men in the books of history. But in the Word spiritual states are recorded by God. The Word reveals human states in the church and in the individual; and inmostly it is a revelation of the successive states through which the Lord glorified His Human and made the Divine natural one with the Divine itself during His life on earth.
     The story of man's gradual fall into evil begins when the serpent successfully persuades him to eat of the forbidden fruit; that is, when man, persuaded by the fallacies of the senses, thinks it not to be improper to disobey certain commandments of God.

The story of the flood simply describes how this beginning of evil had reached its catastrophic culmination. It will tell us that the hereditary burden of evil had entirely submerged man's will, and thus also his understanding. For with the most ancient man these two faculties acted as one, and could not do otherwise. Differently from the race introduced by Noah, the most ardent man could not act otherwise than as he willed, nor could he think or say something contrary to his love; and when, in the days of Noah, his love was wholly evil, he became a "giant" of evil, destroying what was truly human in the race. "There were giants in the earth in those days. . . . Every imagination of the thoughts of [man's] heart was only evil continually."*
     * Genesis 6: 4, 5.
      But in the midst of continual evil and its consequent destruction there is in the Lord's mercy always a remnant of good-a remnant of individuals who in simplicity trust in the Lord, are averse to the inhuman trends of the day, and long for the Lord's coming to deliver and to restore to order. Noah and his family represent that remnant of good whom the Lord could save, and from whom a new dispensation or church on earth could commence.
      The establishment of a new dispensation on earth always involves the destruction of the old or existing church. This is why God said to Noah: "The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with      violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood. . . . With thee will I establish My covenant."*
     * Genesis 6: 13, 14, 18.

      The construction of the ark according to the detailed pattern dictated by the Lord to Noah reveals in the spiritual sense the radical change in the structure of the human mind which introduced the spiritual genius in the history of mankind. As Adam was the father of the celestial race or genius, so Noah was the father of the spiritual. The "rooms" which Noah was told to make in the ark refer to the two faculties, the will and the understanding; the "three stories" are the three degrees of the mind, called the natural, the spiritual and the celestial degrees. The fact that the rooms were to be "pitched with pitch within and without" informs us that the will and the understanding were completely separated, and they were separated by the plane of conscience. From within this plane was open to reception of the truth of heaven descending through the "window above"; and from without it received sense-impressions through the "door" which Noah was told to make in the side of the ark.

As the celestial church or man enjoyed a conjunction with the Lord by means of an internal perception of truth from good, so the spiritual church or man was capable of being conjoined with the Lord by means of conscience, which acts as an inner dictate of truth through which man may be gifted with a perception of good. The celestial man had no need for a written Word, for with him the eternal truth that all good comes from the Lord was perceived from within. To him the whole of creation revealed the infinite love of the Lord, and in beholding the objects of creation he perceived something of the infinite wisdom through which they were created. And when man acknowledges from the heart that all good and truth, all love and wisdom, come from the Lord and lives accordingly, as did the celestial race in its integrity, then the purpose of creation is fulfilled in man; for then the Lord's love is returned in the life of charity and use exercised by such a man.
     The departure from this internal perception and acknowledgment in life by the last posterity of the Most Ancient Church is described in the words: "the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." That is to say, they conjoined the doctrinal things of faith which were inscribed upon their hearts as a perception of truth-represented by the "sons of God"-to the cupidities of their will-represented by the "daughters of men" or they immersed the truth of heaven in the flood of merely bodily lusts and worldly delights streaming in through their senses. And as long as the will acted as one with the understanding, man could not but destroy himself and others. This was the reason for the merciful separation of the will and the understanding. For when this miracle had been performed by the Lord, man could receive the truth of heaven and the Lord apart from his corrupt will. The plane of conscience holds the truth above the evil will; and if man listens to the silent dictate of conscience, he permits the Lord to `build a new will within him-a will which he will feel to `be his own, and which will render his native perverted will inactive.

     We see, therefore, that the acknowledgment that all good and truth come from the Lord alone, and the consequent life from this acknowledgment as an active state, could no longer be achieved by an inner perception of truth from good, but only by the implantation of knowledges from without by means of which a conscience was formed, urging man and giving him the power to refrain from acting according to the dictates of his perverted will. The Word of God, written upon the hearts of most ancient men, became therefore a writing upon the pages of revelation as a Divine accommodation to the fallen state of man. It is revealed, therefore, that Noah "was of such a nature that he believed in simplicity what he had from the Most Ancient Church, which were matters of doctrine collected and reduced to some doctrinal form by those who were called Enoch."*
     * AC 736.

100

     By means of such doctrinals, rightly understood, the man of the spiritual church or genius is able to view himself in the light of heaven. For his understanding is open to heaven, although the hereditary will is closed against heaven. By heeding the "small voice" of conscience man can be saved from being inundated by the flood of evil into which his native will tends to drag him. It is this mental restructuring that is symbolically described in the story of Noah when we read of the window which admitted light into the ark from above, while the rest of the ark had a protecting covering of pitch.

     The hereditary burden of Noah, however, was no less than with those who perished in the flood. He was said to be an upright man, a man who walked with God, not because his will, differently from others, was not corrupt, but because he had a sincere desire and longing to be set free from the evil tendencies of the will. It was this desire or longing which made him capable of being saved. And why did Noah, differently from those who perished, have such a desire and longing? It was because he had not destroyed in himself the remains of good and truth which the Lord implants in every man. Generally speaking, remains are all those things by which the Lord is present with man, or all those things which are of the Lord in man. And there is a universal influx into the souls of men that there is a God and that He is one. There is therefore a universal response to the truth of the Lord and His heavens, especially in childhood; and whatever knowledge of these universal truths has been impressed upon the memory in childhood and retained with some affection, together with various states of innocence and charity which man may cherish and embrace in his life, constitute the remains through which the mercy of the Lord can operate for his eternal salvation.
     When therefore the Lord said unto Noah: "Come thou and all thy house into the ark," we are to understand that without remains no one can be saved. For `by a "house" whenever it is mentioned in the Word is meant the will of man, and in the case of Noah and his family it refers to those remains of good and truth which they in their simplicity and innocence had nourished from an affection of truth. Without those tender affections for truth, represented in particular by the wives of Noah and his sons, no man could have been saved in the days of Noah.
     But Noah was not only to bring his sons and their wives with him into the ark. He was also commanded to bring with him "of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort . . . male and female."*

101

Spiritually understood this means that the man capable of being saved in a fallen church is permitted to retain his every love and affection, including the lusts and affections of the merely natural man which in themselves are nothing but evil. It is for this reason that the ark was divided into three stories, representing the three degrees of the mind, each having its own distinct affections and desires.
     * Genesis 6: 19.
     This arrangement permitted Noah to look down upon his native perverted will with its bodily lusts and worldly loves in the light of heaven descending through the window above. He could recognize what was evil, and in the process of recognition conscience was formed. Or, we may say that in the merciful providence of the Lord the conscious life of the spiritual genius is regulated by the intellect, and that his native affections and loves, by means of the conscience, may be subordinated to and ruled by spiritual loves and affections derived from an intellectual acknowledgment of revealed truth. By means of a conscience formed from the truths of the Word, the man of the spiritual church may thus overcome his native desire to be ruled by the senses, and may suffer himself to be ruled by the merciful providence of the Lord.
     The formation of Noah, or of the spiritual man, was therefore not completed until after the flood. Noah must first suffer many temptations which are described by the ark being tossed upon the waters which the Lord caused to descend upon the earth. The rain causing this deluge is said to have lasted for forty days and forty nights, for the number "forty" means temptations and is therefore always found in Scripture whenever the subject is temptations.
     In general, therefore, the flood, Noah and the ark, picture to us, on the one hand, the terrible price which man must pay for confirmed evils of life and, on the other hand, the merciful and powerful operation of the Divine Providence, reaching out to save every state of good and truth that remains in a consummated church.

     And this lesson of Divine justice and mercy is eternally true. Every coming of the Lord involves a similar state, one in which mankind as a whole is immersed in the various forms of evil that spring from the loves of self and the world and the denial of God. But in the midst of such spiritual corruption there is a handful of men whom the Lord can miraculously save because from their remains they recognize Him in the next form in which He reveals Himself. The evils of the loves of self and the world in which the race had immersed itself in the days when the Lord walked on earth were of the same magnitude as in the days of Noah; and the same was true of the eighteenth-century state of the race.

102

Therefore the Lord, prophesying His second coming, said to the Jews: "As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be."*
     * Matthew 24: 37.
     It is for this reason that we speak of the revelation given for the New Church as a protective ark of doctrine which the Lord Himself has provided. In this spiritual ark there is again a window open to heaven which will enable the man in the New Church to discover and shun the evils of his proprium that he has in common with the rest of the race. It may be said, therefore, that the man who has discovered an evil in himself in the light of the Writings, and acknowledged it as such, has hearkened to the timeless command of the Lord: "Come thou and all thy house into the ark." Embarking upon the ark of the Heavenly Doctrine, he will indeed be tossed about upon the sea of human perversion: be will suffer hardships, trials and temptations; he will experience setbacks, anxiety and despair. Yet if he will but remain within the protective sphere of the Writings from an affection of the truth revealed therein, he will be carried safely by the Lord to His eternal kingdom of peace and rest. Miraculously he will be saved from the flood of merely human notions springing from the loves of self and the world in which a perverted race today has immersed itself. And when his combat is over, he will step out a new man in a new world, enjoying the rest and comfort inherent in the name, Noah. Amen.

     LESSONS: Genesis 7. Matthew 24: 29-51. Arcana Coelestia 310.
     MUSIC: Liturgy, pages 450, 422, 448.
     PRAYERS: Liturgy, nos. 77, 96.
VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

103

WORD 1973

WORD Rev. WILLARD D. PENDLETON 1973

     (The second of three doctrinal lectures.)

     The essence of God is love. Thus the man whom He created in His own image and likeness is a form of love; that is, a being who is capable of loving others outside of himself. Love, therefore, is not merely a mutual attraction between two persons, but the will to do good to him who is loved. It is in this that man's humanity consists. If, then, we are to think of God from His essence, that is, from what He essentially is, we are not to think of Him from His person, but from His essence, and from this of His person.*
     * AR 611.
     To understand what is meant by this, let us reflect for a moment upon the teaching of the Writings concerning the person. We refer you, therefore, to the notable passage in the work, the True Christian Religion, where it states that "to love the neighbor, viewed in itself, is not to love the person, but the good that is in the person."* This is a striking statement because it directs the thought from the person to the good that is in the person from the Lord. In other words, what we have here is a new concept of the neighbor who is to be loved. Whereas in the New Testament the thought of the mind is continually directed to the love of the person, in the Writings our thoughts are directed to the good or the use which the person performs. Thus the Writings provide a new basis of understanding of what is involved in human relationships. The emphasis of the Writings, therefore, is not upon man as a person, but upon man as a form of use. To think of man in this way is to think of him in terms of what he essentially is; in other words, it is to think of him from what, in essence, he is.
     * TCR 417.
     In regard to this teaching we do well to let the Writings speak for themselves. They state:

"That good is the neighbor [who is to be loved] is evident from all experience.
[For] who loves a person except from the quality of his will and understanding, that is, from what is good and just in him? For example, who loves a king, a prince, a general, a governor, a consul, any magistrate or judge, except for the judgment from which they act and speak? Who loves a primate, a minister of the church, or a canon, except for his learning, his integrity of life, and his zeal for the salvation of souls?

104

Who loves the general of an army or any officer under him, except for bravery combined with prudence? Who loves a merchant except for his honesty? Who loves a workman or a servant, except for his fidelity? Nay, who loves a tree except for its fruit, the soil except for its fertility, a precious stone except for its value? and so on. And what is remarkable, it is not only the upright man who loves what is good and just in another; the man who is not upright does so also, because with him he is in no fear of losing reputation, honor or wealth. But the love of good in one who is not upright is not love of the neighbor; for he loves another interiorly only so far as he is of service to him. But loving what is good in another from the good in oneself is genuine love to the neighbor. . . . [Therefore] the man who loves good because it is good, and truth because it is truth, loves the neighbor eminently, because he loves the Lord who is good . . . and truth itself."*
     * TCR 418, 419.

     I have said that in essence God is love. I have also defined love as the will to do good. Thus to love the Lord is not merely to love Him as a person, but to love the good that is from Him; indeed, we are told in the Writings that no one can love the Lord in any other way.* He who does not love what is good does not love the Lord, no matter how much he may profess a faith in Him. For the Lord is good, and He is truth, and it is as good and truth that His love is revealed to men.
     * Love XIII: 1.
     But good in itself is invisible. Unless it is presented to the sight of the understanding in the form of truth it cannot be seen. Take for example the Ten Commandments; these are truths, but they testify to what is good. Truth has no other function or purpose. It is, then, as truth that good is made known. That is why the Word has been given, for it is by means of the truths of the Word, and not apart from them, that God, or good, is revealed. Hence it is said in the Writings that "the Word is the medium of conjunction of the Lord with man."* The reason given for this is that the Word "is from the Lord and thus is the Lord."** Note this teaching well, for it is basic to our understanding of the Writings. In other words, it is the Lord Himself who is speaking to us in His Word; and as the Writings are the spiritual sense of the Word. It is in the Writings that His spirit or essence is revealed. Hence the notable statement in the True Christian Religion, where it is said: "The second coming of the Lord is not a coming in person, but in the Word, which is from Him, and is Himself."***
     * CL 128.
     ** Ibid.
     *** TCR 776.
     As I speak to you now I am speaking by means of words. There is no other way in which the thought of my mind can be conveyed to your minds. While it is true that general affections may be communicated by means of aspect or gestures, the communication of ideas is dependent upon words, or upon symbols which substitute for words.

105

In his ability to use words, man differs from the beast, and it is by means of words that man, as distinguished from the beast, puts on what is human. That which is human in man is his ability to do what is good; but before man can do good he must first know what good is. This, as already noted, is the function of truth. But truth comes to us in the form of knowledge, and the acquisition of knowledge is dependent upon words. So it is as the Word that the Lord is revealed to man. There is no other way in which we can come to know Him.
     The Word, therefore, is not what it appears to be; that is to say, it is not a book. A book is but a material form which contains the words that express what is in the mind of the author. What is significant is not the book, but the ideas that the words of the book convey. Thus when we read a book we enter into the mind of the author, and the mind is the man. Words, therefore, are human forms; that is, forms in which what is human is revealed. But note what the Writings have to say about this. They say:

     "Few understand how the Lord is the Word, for they think that the Lord may enlighten and teach men by means of the Word without His being on that account called the Word. Be it known, however, that every man is his own love, and consequently his own good and . . . truth. It is solely from this that man is a man. . . . All . . . good and truth [therefore] that proceeds from the Lord is in its form a man. And as the Lord is Divine good and Divine truth itself, He is the Man, from whom every man is . . . man."*
     * SS 100. See also TCR 263, 272.

     What, then, is the Word but the Lord appearing in human form; that is, in a form which is visible to the sight of man's understanding? To perceive the truth of this reflect for the moment upon the passage just quoted where it is said: "Every man is his own love, and consequently his own good and . . . truth. It is solely from this that . . . man is . . . man."* In other words, man is not man because he is endowed with a human figure, but because he possesses a mind which is a form of good and truth; that is, because man is a living form who is capable of perceiving what is good and true. In this, man differs from the beast which cannot form for itself any idea of good and truth, and therefore cannot form for itself any idea of God. But man, being what he is, that is, a being who can abstract rational ideas out of sense experience, can, if he will, perceive that there is a God who in essence is good. But as good, or God, cannot be presented to the sight of the understanding except as truth, it is as the truth of the Word that the Lord is revealed to man.
     * Ibid.

106

     To perceive the truth of the Word, therefore, is to perceive that in essence God is good and truth. Were this not so He would not be Divine Man. For as already noted, man is not man because he is endowed with a human figure, but because he possesses a mind which is a form of good and truth. Thus, even as we are not to think of God from His person and from this of His essence, neither are we to think of His essence from figure, for to do so is to form a spatial idea of Him. That is why the Writings carefully distinguish between figure and form. For by figure the Writings have reference to shape, that is, to the dimensional characteristics of a thing; but by form, the Writings have reference to the essential nature or quality of a thing. So we read:

     "The merely natural man thinks by means of ideas which he has acquired from objects of sight, in all of which there is figure. . . . It is otherwise with the spiritual man, especially with the angel of heaven, whose thought has nothing in common with figure and form derived from length, breadth and height, but is from the state of a thing"*; that is, from its essential form, or "the state of its life."**
     * DLW 71.
     ** Ibid.

     Thus the spiritual man thinks from correspondences; that is, from the correspondence that exists between natural and spiritual things.*
     * Ibid.
     To think of the Lord from figure is to think of Him as the little child does. The reason for this is that the child cannot think of Him in any
other way. Thus it may be said that the child thinks naturally concerning God. In this the adult differs from the child, for he can, if he will. think spiritually concerning Him, in that the adult has the ability to do what the child cannot do; that is, he can abstract his thought from the appearances of nature and perceive that in essence God is good and truth. Thus the Writings repeatedly appeal to the reader, urging him to elevate his thought above sensual appearances in order that he may think rationally concerning God. For to think rationally concerning God is to think of Him as Divine Man, who in essence is good and truth.
     The difference between the Writings and the Old and New Testament therefore, is that whereas in the Old and New Testament the truth is presented by means of sensual and natural appearances, in the Writings the truth is presented by means of rational appearances. Thus in the former revelations the truth is veiled, but in the Writings it is openly and directly revealed. By this we mean that the Writings are addressed to reason; that is, to the reason of him who wills to believe in God. Hence the assurance of the Writings that they "can . . . convince even the natural man, if he is willing to be convinced."*
     * SS 4.

107

     The Writings, therefore, are addressed to the man who wills to believe in God; that is, to the man who perceives that there must be a cause of creation and a meaning and purpose in human existence. They are not addressed to the man who cannot be convinced of the reality of anything which he cannot grasp or feel.* To the latter the Word of God has no meaning and is dismissed as a myth.
     * AC 2568.
     What such men fail to perceive, however, is that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God.* Man is not an animal, although there are many who believe that he is. He is a moral, a social, and a spiritual being whose existence is dependent upon moral, social and spiritual values. Yet from whence are these values to be derived? Some say, from experience. But while experience may confirm what is true, it does not determine it. Consider for the moment, the moral and social environment in which we live at this day. Surely it is not conducive to confidence in human experience. Indeed, it would seem that in his insistence upon self, that is, upon an uninhibited expression of whatever is pleasing to self, man has created for himself a permissive society in which there is little recognition of that which is of genuine value. In speaking of genuine values we have reference to the Word which is the source of all true values. Yet who at this day will subscribe to this? While many regard the Bible as a treasury of human wisdom, there are few who perceive wherein its Divinity and authority reside.
     * Deuteronomy 8: 3; Matthew 4: 4.
     What we are witnessing in society, therefore, are the results of a purely pragmatic attitude toward life; that is, an attitude which dismisses as irrelevant any authoritative standard of good and of truth. Like Pilate, the modern mind is not concerned with the Word's claim to authority, but dismisses it, saying, "What is truth?"* But as the Lord said to Pilate: "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world";** that is, in order that men might know the truth. Yet we can understand why men have rejected the testimony of Scripture concerning itself, for apart from the spiritual sense, the Word in its letter cannot be rationally understood. Thus it is that the Lord, as He promised has come again, not as Divine Man in person, but as the Spirit of truth.
     * John 18: 38
     ** John 18: 37.
     Let us make no mistake, therefore, as to what it is that the Writings claim to be. They are not, as is generally supposed, the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, but the Spirit of truth, which leadeth into all truth.*

108

In other words, the Writings are the Lord's Divine Human made visible to the sight of man's understanding; and it is by means of the Writings, and not apart from them, that man may be led to the perception and acknowledgment of a God who in essence is Divine Man. This is the all of truth.
     * John 16: 13.
     The primary doctrine of the Writings, therefore, is the doctrine of the Divine Human. Upon this fundamental doctrine all of the Writings rest. The teaching is that God is Divine Man. In this, as considered in our previous lecture, the Writings make one with the Old and New Testament. The difference, however, is that whereas in the Old Testament His Divine Humanity is representatively revealed through the persons of others, and whereas in the New Testament His Divine Humanity is revealed in His own Divine person, in the Writings that which is Divine and Human in the Lord is directly revealed to the sight of the understanding as good and as truth. That is why the second coming of the
     Lord is not in person, but in a form in which what is good and true may be rationally understood; that is, in the Word in its spiritual sense. For how, except by means of words which are Divinely ordered, that is, which are ordered in such a way that the Divine doctrine may be revealed, can good and truth be expressed?
     We return, then, to the function of words. Is it not by means of the words which men speak and write that we come to know what is in the mind of another? Without words men could not formulate any idea. It is by means of words that we come to see what is human in men. Indeed, words are the sign of man's humanity. The same is true of the Lord's Word, for the Word is a sign or a testification of the Lord's Divine Humanity. This because it testifies to the fact that the Lord is Divine Man. Were He not Divine Man there would be no Word; neither would there be any man. We are not men because we possess certain physical abilities which give us a biological advantage over the beasts; neither are we men because we can think and can reason, but because we can perceive what is true, and from truth, do what is good. Hence it is said in the Writings:

     "Man is not man from [the fact he can think] ... but from the fact that he can think what is true and will what is good, and . . . [therefore] view the Divine and receive it perceptibly. . . . [But it a man] thinks what is false, and wills what is evil . . . he destroys what is human in himself."*
     * AC 5302.

     Man is man, therefore, because he can see God; that is to say, because he can see what is good. But as good cannot be seen except as truth, it is as the truth of the Word that the Lord is revealed.

109

     To think of the Lord from essence, therefore, is to think of Him from what He essentially is; for even as the man whom He created in His own image and likeness is a form receptive of good and truth, so the Lord is good and truth itself. This is the fundamental verity of all Divine revelation, and unless we think of the Lord in this way we cannot form a true idea of Him. That is why the Word has been given. But as the Word in its letter is bound by sensual and natural appearances, we are dependent upon the spiritual sense of the Word for a rational understanding of the true nature of God. If at first this concept seems abstract it is because it has been abstracted out of the appearances in which the letter of the Word is written. But is not this true of any rational idea? To form a rational idea of anything we must come to see what is essential in it. In order to do this we must abstract our thought from the appearance and reflect upon the underlying reality which constitutes the essence or essential quality of the thing. Thus in reflecting upon the nature of God we must abstract our thought from the idea of God as a person, for although He is a person we cannot form a true idea of His person unless we perceive that in essence He is good and truth. To know the Lord, therefore, is not merely to know Him as a person, that is, as Divine Man who came into the world; it is to know Him as He is revealed in the spiritual sense of the Word; that is, as the truth of doctrine and the good of use.
     It is, then, as the Divine doctrine that the Lord is revealed at this day; and it is to the Divine doctrine that the Writings refer when they say: "The second coming of the Lord is not a coming in person, but in the Word, which is from Him and is Himself."* For what is doctrine but a rational formulation of truth? And as that which is rational is human, does it not follow that the Divine doctrine is the Divine Human of the Lord made visible to the sight of man's understanding? Yet men say, How do we know this is true? What evidence do we have that the Writings are what they claim to be? The answer is, the good to which they attest. The Writings are not true because they say they are true, but because they bear witness to good.
     * TCR 776.
     It is, then, as good that the Lord is revealed in the Writings. This good is the good of use. To love the Lord, therefore, is not to love Him on account of His person, but to love what is of use. To love the Lord in this way is to love the Lord truly; indeed, there is no other way in which man's love of the Lord can be expressed. Hence the notable teaching of the Writings:
      "To love the Lord means to do uses from Him and for His sake, for the reason that all . . . good uses . . . are from the Lord. . . . No one can love the Lord in any other way; for uses, which are goods, are from the Lord, and consequently are Divine; yea they are the Lord Himself with man."*

110

     * Love XIII: 1.

     Thus to love the Lord is to be of use, not on account of the benefits which accrue to self through the performance of use, but on account of the good that we may do to others. When we say, therefore, that the Lord is good, we are not speaking in abstractions that cannot be understood. We are speaking of the Lord's presence with man in all the uses of life; for the Lord's presence with man is in good, and what is good is of use. Hence the further teaching of the Writings that he who loves the Lord as a person, and at the same time does not love use, does not love the Lord.* The reason for this is obvious, in that he who does not love what is of use does not love good. To paraphrase a familiar prayer, therefore: "Let us give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good."
     * Ibid.
IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1973

IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1973

In the October-December number of the NEW-CHURCH MAGAZINE the Rev. Dennis Duckworth discusses the file of correspondence left by the Rev. J. G. Dufty in connection with the Documents Concerning Swedenborg. This article is of interest to us for it refers to the work of Alfred H. Stroh and the Right Rev. Alfred Acton as well as that of Mr. Dufty and many others.
The December issue of the NEW CHURCH COURIER, published by the General Church in Australia and New Zealand, contains a Christmas sermon by the Rev. Douglas Taylor and a Christmas Story, "Thinking About Correspondences." the eighth in a series by Norman Heldon. There is also news of the church in both countries which shows how much closer the church has brought them.

111

SCIENCE AND COGNITIONS 1973

SCIENCE AND COGNITIONS Rev. REGINALD W. BROWN 1973

     The purpose of this paper is to point out that there is a fundamental distinction involved in the Writings in the use of the Latin words scientiae and cognitiones. To preserve this distinction we translate these terms by their literal English equivalents-sciences and cognitions. The importance of preserving this rendering will appear in what follows.
     Our main interest, naturally, is to know what the Writings themselves give as the reason for calling one kind of knowledge "cognitions" in contradistinction to another kind called "sciences." The general distinction, as we shall see, is tantamount to that between what is essentially spiritual and what is essentially natural, cognitions being derived from revelation as the sciences are derived from experience.
     Granting that there is so great a distinction involved in the use of these two terms, the need of understanding it is urgent, on account of the bearing on the interpretation of basic educational principles, the point of which hinges upon what the Writings mean by cognitions and sciences, respectively.
     That some important distinction is intended is constantly forced upon the mind in following the Latin, where both terms so often occur, and where they are so frequently differentiated and contrasted. Unfortunately, this distinction is lost in the more generally read English translations of the Writings, where both terms alike are commonly rendered by the one word "knowledge" or "knowledges." The expression "world" would cover the distinctive concepts "spiritual world" and "natural world" about as well as the general term "knowledge" does "cognitions" and "sciences" in the specific sense in which they are contrasted in the Writings.
     It would be a mistake to say that the words "cognitions" and "sciences" have each of them but one fixed meaning in the Writings. That is no more true than in the case of many other words with a long and varied history. What we do find, however, in the case of such words in the Writings, is that certain specific and non-essential meanings are defined, and that these are implicitly carried over into the more exceptional meanings connoted by the same terms in other connections. Now and then it happens, it is true, that the exceptional connotation is so far removed from the proper or characteristic meaning defined that literal translations are quite misleading.

112

In the case of the terms under discussion, however, it would have been better had translators been more literal. Instead, not realizing that Swedenborg meant something distinctive by cognitions, this term has frequently been omitted altogether.
     As an instance of the proper general meaning of a term, and of its varied connotations, take the term memory. Memory according to Swedenborg's definitions denotes the permanent state of the mental organism resulting from its changes of form, called thoughts, and its internal changes of state, called affections. As these changes of form and changes of state of the mental organism are of different degrees and kinds, it is said that there are memories of different degrees and kinds. There is a memory of sensations, as of things heard and seen; there is a memory of things imagined; a memory of things analytically thought out and concluded; a memory of the more comprehensive changes of state of the mental organism involved in intelligent reasoning. There is also an internal memory of more internal changes of state of which man is unconscious as long as he remains in this world. When memory is referred to, it may connote any of these memories, or all together, but withal it denotes always a permanent change of state of varying degree, scope, or complexity resulting from corresponding mental activities. In many cases when it is said that truths are of the memory only, it is virtually meant that they are of the intellect rather than of the will and life. In such cases it is not meant that the truths are inscribed on the sensual memory merely. But the term memory is not even restricted to resultant intellectual states, not infrequently it is used in reference to a still more comprehensive resultant disposition of the mental organism. This appears especially in what it is said of the return of the interior degrees of the memory.

     The terms scientiae (sciences) and cognitiones (cognitions) occur thousands of times in the Latin of the Writings. Frequently they are used together in contrast, as where it is said that "man must be imbued with both sciences and cognitions that he may become truly rational." Frequently they are used in direct opposition, as where it is said that through the sciences man cannot be imbued with cognitions. The meanings intended are clearly different. The statements would be absurd were the meanings the same. Notwithstanding this there are probably few such loosely and meaninglessly translated words in the Writings.
     A study of the etymological history of the two terms discloses the fact that the distinctive meanings referred to appear more or less vaguely in various languages.

113

Even in English usage cognition, refers to a manner of knowing somewhat distinct in kind from the knowing involved in science in its restrictive sense. This is suggested in a quotation from J. F. Clarke cited in the Stanford Dictionary: "Christianity cognizes God as not only above nature and the soul, but also as in nature and the soul."*
* See under cognize.

The implication is that cognition of God and of spiritual things is of a different sort than the knowledge and science of natural things. The word cognition and other words like the Greek [Greek], and the old English ken, derived from the Sanskrit gna-to know, and its progenitor gna-to have strength or ability, involve a meaning more akin to that of perception. Spiritual things cannot come to man's knowledge in the same way as things sensed in nature, they must either be perceived as they were in the Most Ancient Church, or they must be cognized from revelation as is the case since the fall. In more common usage in English, cognition refers particularly to the "power and faculty of knowing, or to the exercise or activity of the intellect by which we come to know anything." Derivatively it is applied to the knowledge obtained by any act of cognition or perception. The idea of some sort of perception or perceptive faculty from within is implied in the more characteristic uses of the term. The metaphysical term gnosis derived from the Greek [Greek] and used in later Latin clearly suggests the fundamental meaning intended by Swedenborg in his use of the cognate term cognitions. As defined by Webster gnosis expresses "the deeper wisdom; knowledge of spiritual truth, or matters commonly conceived to pertain to faith alone, such as was claimed by the Gnostics." The Century Dictionary defines gnosis as "Science; knowledge; knowledges of the highest kind; specifically mystical knowledge." This approaches Swedenborg's definition of cognitions, which, he says, are scientific or doctrinal in character, but pertain to spiritual things, or to the mysteries of faith. The Gnostics claimed to possess mystic or esoteric knowledge of spiritual things. They held that this mystical knowledge rather than literal faith was the road to heaven. "They rejected the literal interpretation of the Scriptures, and attempted to combine their teachings with those of the Greek and Oriental philosophies and religions."* Notwithstanding its perversions certain underlying elements in Gnosticism, as for example, the attempt to unravel the hidden meaning of the Scriptures, suggest the essential implications of the word cognitions. I doubt not that, if we traced the usage of the word cognition in religious and metaphysical writing from the times of Philo Judaeus and Origen down to Swedenborg, we would find that it had accumulated a very decided association with the kind of knowledge that man has of the mysteries of faith, but which, as the Writings teach, can be truly acquired only from revelation.

114

So much for the essential characteristic of cognitions whereby they are distinguished from the sciences.
     * Century Dictionary, Gnostics.
     There is a second distinguished characteristic involved in Swedenborg's use of the term. This second characteristic is common to the sciences also, in their specific or proper sense. Cognitions and sciences are both knowledge in a broad sense. More than this, they are both organized or scientific knowledge. In this sense both are sciences. The difference being that one-cognitions-are the science of the knowledges or facts derived from revelation, whereas the other-the sciences-are peculiarly the sciences of the knowledges or facts derived from nature or experience.

     The universal characteristic or broad meaning of science as defined by Swedenborg, both in his philosophical works and in the Writings, the meaning implied and carried over in the varied uses of the same term, is that which was recognized in Swedenborg's day and is still recognized. Suspending for the moment any prejudice we may have of the abuse of science, this universal meaning is fairly represented in the first definition given in the Standard Dictionary, namely, that science is "Knowledge opened and verified by exact observation and correct thinking, especially so methodically formulated and arranged in a rational system." "Knowledges of a single fact, not known as relative to any other, or of many facts not known as having mutual relations, or as comprehended under any general law, does not react to the meaning of science. Science is knowledge reduced to law and introduced in System."
     Science is therefore not merely knowledge, but it is a definite kind of knowledge, and requires a distinctive term. Further than this, Swedenborg clearly distinguishes two kinds of sciences, that is, two kinds of organized or systematized knowledge which he calls sciences and cognitions, respectively.
     Science in this universal sense also includes the systematic formulation of doctrines derived from revelation. The term is used in this broad inclusive sense in the Writings. But the important thing to note is that the Writings, for the sake of greater clarity, also differentiate the sciences in this larger sense into two classes, the one being called sciences in a more special and proper sense, in the ordinary sense, in fact, and the other, cognitions-the sciences relating particularly to spiritual matters or matters of faith and derived from revelation.
     It is true that the word scientiae is not infrequently used in the Writings in the broad sense of knowledges. Now and then the word cognition is also used in a very broad sense, but rarely even in such cases does its meaning seem to be adequately interpreted as knowledge without some further qualification.

115

     What we need is some general basis for understanding the reason for Swedenborg's choice of these terms, and for appreciating any distinctive meanings that may have been intended. This general basis I think the
     Writings themselves supply.
The word "scientifics," meaning things pertaining to science, or things scientific, is used in the Writings to express the general category to which both sciences and cognitions belong.
     Cognition, according to the Writings, is the unique kind of systematic and therefore scientific knowledge that man has of spiritual things as opposed to the unique kind of systematic or scientific knowledge that he has of natural things. The difference is primarily as to the source of the knowledge and as to the attitude toward it; the source of cognitions of spiritual things being from revelation alone, whereas the sciences of natural things are based in a peculiar way upon nature and upon worldly observation and experience.

     Notwithstanding such a fundamental difference, there is a similarity between cognitions and sciences, as sciences in the broader sense, because they meet on the same plane-keeping in mind the ordinary idea of science and of scientific investigation, during the process of their development in man `s mind. The similarity is suggested in the meaning of the Latin verb cognosco, to investigate with the purpose of knowing. This word was used in Roman Law as meaning to investigate a case, or to investigate judicially. Says William Smith, in his Latin Lexicon, "Cognosco is a word for examination and investigation, for the purpose of knowing." Whereas "A gnosco is a word of recognition of knowledge
     declared upon sight or inspection" (see agnosco). The Most Ancients had a perception of spiritual truths; in other words these truths were revealed to them by perception; but afterward when perception was lost the truths revealed were scientifically collected together, and others were revealed in such a way that it was necessary for men to examine them and draw doctrine from them in a scientific manner, acknowledging such revelation as the only source of the cognition of knowledge of spiritual things. The cognitions of spiritual things, of the church, of charity and faith must be drawn and concluded from the Word, or from revelation, the only source of the mysteries of faith. In respect to their being drawn and concluded in a scientific manner by man, cognitions are similar to the sciences which are drawn and concluded from the world and ultimately from the observations of the senses, albeit in the light of revelation. The fundamental and characteristic distinction is one of sources.

116

It is this distinction that the use of the two terms in the Writings is manifestly intended to preserve. In fact this is precisely what the Writings themselves state.
     In New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine, 51, where Swedenborg summarizes the teachings of the Arcana Coelestia in regard to the nature and uses of the Sciences and Cognitions, he not only points out their common scientific character, but also specifically differentiates and defines their respective meanings as used in the Writings. He says:

     "There are scientifics [i.e., knowledges of a scientific nature] which concern natural things, those which are of the civil state and life, those which are of the moral state and life. But for the sake of distinction, those which are of [or concern] the spiritual state and life are called cognitions, which are especially doctrinal things. [Italics added.]

     In spite of this clear definition, expounded in many places in the Writings, and essential to the interpretation and understanding of fundamental doctrines whose meaning hangs upon it, in spite of all this we find no adequate distinction made in most of the English translations of the Writings. Some have rendered the two terms, even when written side by side in contrast, simply by the one word "knowledges" instead of sciences and cognitions." Others have said "sciences and knowledges"; "sciences and different kinds of knowledge"; "outward and inward knowledges"; "outside and spiritual knowledge." In the last two cases there is an attempt to express the distinctive meanings of the two terms. The Swedenborg Society edition of the New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine carries over the term cognitions and renders scientiae as "knowledges." Mr. Potts in his Concordance translates both tenses as "knowledges"-scientiae as "knowledges" spelled with a small k and cognitions as "Knowledges" spelled with a capital K. A debt of gratitude is due to Mr. Potts for at least indicating consistently where the two terms occur. But when we here read that "the knowledge of Knowledges is distinct from the knowledge of natural things," and other like combinations, we realize at once how meaningless they are. How much more suggestive the literal rendering "the science of cognitions is distinct from the science of natural things." Rendered thus we find that the statement suggests the definition of cognitions already quoted. How colorless again Swedenborg's definition of cognitions when translated, "For distinction `s sake those scientifics which appertain to the spiritual state and life, are called knowledges, and are chiefly doctrinals." This translation from Hindmarsh, and followed by other translations, does not even have the advantage of the capital K. It is evident that in using the word knowledges, which is so general and vague, the point of the definition is weakened if not lost.

117

The point is that they are a peculiar kind of knowledges or better, a peculiar kind of scientifics called for distinction's sake "cognitions."
     The obscurity which exists in regard to these terms is evidenced in the following note inserted in editions of Heaven and Hell published in New York and London since 1900. The note is appended to a summary of teachings from the Arcana respecting sciences and cognitions. It says: "In these extracts scientia, scientificum, and cognitio are alike rendered knowledges, because any distinction between them intended by the author is not sufficiently obvious to be uniformly indicated in English."* It will be seen from this that if our contention is correct, that there is a fundamental distinction intended by the Writings, it is lost to the English reader in such translations. I believe that this loss has been a serious one to the New Church and to the cause of New Church education. The loss has been twofold: it has not only obscured fundamental teachings in regard to the specific nature, use and sense of the cognitions of spiritual things; it has also obscured many teachings in regard to the nature, use and sense of the sciences of natural things and worldly affairs.
     * HH 356.

      (To be continued.)

      [EDITORIAL NOTE: The Rev. Reginald W. Brown was ordained into N the priesthood of the New Church in 1900 and into the second degree in 1919. After a pastorate in Pittsburgh he joined the Faculty of the Academy in 1905 and in 1909 was appointed Professor of Physical Science, teaching Chemistry, Geology and other subjects in that field. He was also Dean of the College 1914-1917, and Librarian 1919-1937. In addition he served the Academy and the General Church in other capacities up to the time of his death in 1937.
     This essay was discovered among Dr. Brown's papers by Professor Eldric S. Klein. It was read to the General Faculty of the Academy in the late 1920's or early 1930's and is published gladly as part of the contribution which Dr. Brown made to the thought of the church, and which is still timely now.]
MINISTERIAL CHANGES 1973

MINISTERIAL CHANGES 1973

The retirement of the Right Rev. Elmo C. Acton as Dean of the Bryn Athyn Church will become effective, September 1, 1973.

118

GORAND MAN 1973

GORAND MAN Rev. VICTOR J. GLADISH 1973

     (Continued from the February issue.)

     Before going on to significant points from the subjects and chapters which have been named, let us see a little more about the correspondence of the Senses in General. It is known to most people that the cerebrum controls the voluntary or purposed functions of the body, and the cerebellum the involuntary or automatic functions. In general it is angels and spirits of the celestial kingdom who flow into the cerebellum, and those of the spiritual kingdom who flow into the cerebrum. In the "Golden Age" when men did not wish to hide their thoughts and affections from others, there were many nerve fibers from the cerebellum to the face, and states of mind automatically showed themselves in the face. But in this day of the supereminence of the spiritual kingdom and church the face is chiefly controlled by fibers from the cerebrum, though affections often show themselves in the face automatically, when one is not on guard." The angels and spirits who correspond to the cerebellum know man's inmost thoughts and affections, but are not willing to express them, "like the cerebellum," it is said, "which perceives all that the cerebrum does, but does not publish it."* Those who correspond to the cerebrum are in the "general voluntary sense," and are most skillful in viewing man's general state and concluding concerning his interior thought and affections from that clear view. This office "falls to none but the wise."** In conclusion, note this statement: "The societies of spirits and angels to which the things of the external man correspond, are for the most part from this earth; but those to which the things of the internal man correspond are for the most part from elsewhere."
     * AC 4326.
     ** AC 4329.
     On the Eye and Light, we are told:

     "The reason why the sense of sight corresponds to the affection of understanding and being wise, is that the sight of the body corresponds precisely to its spirit, thus to the understanding. For there are two lights, one which is of the world from the sun, the other which is of heaven from the Lord. In the light of the world there no intelligence, but there is intelligence in the light of heaven. Hence in so far those things with man which are of the light of the world are illumined by those which are of the light of heaven, thus in so far as these two classes of things correspond to each other, so far the man understands and is wise."*
     * AC 4405.

119

     In ordinary discourse we say that things are "seen" when they are understood; and "light and enlightenment" are used to describe understanding, as well as "shade and darkness" to describe the lack of it. "It is on account of the correspondence," it is said, "that these and like things have come into common speech among men; for man's spirit is in the light of heaven, and . . . many things that are interior have fallen this way into words."* Among the significant things related on this subject is that the eye is the noblest organ of the face, and communicates more immediately with the understanding than do the other organs of sense. Another is told in the following quotation:
     * AC 4406.

     Man's "natural affections portray themselves representatively in the face, but his more interior affections, which pertain to the thought, appear in the eyes, from a certain flame of life and a consequent vibration of light, which flashes out in accordance with the affection in which is the thought; and this a man knows and observes, without being taught by any science, for the reason that his spirit is in society with spirits and angels in the other life, who know this from a plain and clear perception."*
     * AC 4407.

     Included in this treatment are many experiences in the spiritual world confirming the correspondence of light to truth and of the eye to understanding.
     The section on the correspondence of Odor and of the Nostrils is introduced by a demonstration that all sensations of angels and spirits are more exquisite than those of this earth, and that men might know that "all the power of sensation which appears in the body belongs properly to the spirit, and to the body merely by influx." Moreover that those who hesitate to ascribe such sensations to the other life might know that without sensation there is no life.* Those in the Gorand Man who correspond to the sense of smell and the nostrils are in general perception. Hence it is that in common speech "to smell, to scent, to be quick-scented" are spoken of those who make a close conjecture, and also of those who perceive. We say, "He will nose it out," meaning he will find out the truth. Those in the province of the nostrils are in general perception, but those in the province of the eye have a more particular and discriminating perception. We are told that each spirit has a spiritual sphere, which is perceived as he approaches, sometimes as an odor.** Also, this: "To adduce all my experiences in connection with the spheres of perceptions being turned into odors, would be to fill a volume."***
     * AC 4622.
     ** AC 4626.
     *** AC 4629.

120

     At the outset of the section on the Correspondence of the Hearing and of the Ears there is a striking statement: "The thought of a man who is speaking is nothing but the speech of his spirit, and the perception of the speech is nothing but the hearing of his spirit."* The appearance is otherwise, but this is the reality. Our text comments: "When man is speaking, his thought does not indeed appear to him as speech, because it conjoins itself with the speech of his body, and is in it; and when man hears, his perception appears merely like hearing in the ear." That one's perception of what is said is not merely the same as the words which the ear takes in, is evident from the fact that two people listening to the same speech can gain a very different idea (or perception) of what the person is saying, that is, what he means.
     * AC 4652.
     The spirits who constitute the province of the ear are those who are in simple obedience, not reasoning, but rather accepting on authority. It is from the correspondence involved that we say "give ear" to someone, or "hearken" when we mean obey. In the province of the ear there are those who correspond to each part-the membranes, hammer, anvil, stirrup, cochlea and more interior parts.* A spirit who belonged to the interior of the ear spoke wisely with Swedenborg, and it was given to him to believe that it was Aristotle.**
     * AC 4653.
     ** AC 4658.
     The section on Taste and the Tongue and also on the Face contains a number of remarkable things. At the outset we are told:

     "The tongue affords entrance to the lungs, and also to the stomach, thus it represents, as it were the court, to spiritual and celestial things-to spiritual because it ministers to the lungs and thence to the speech, to celestial because it ministers to the stomach, which supplies food to the blood and heart."*
     * AC 4791.

     On this account those in the Gorand Man who correspond to the tongue are such as are in the affection of truth and afterwards in the affection of good from truth. However, in the general province there are those who correspond to the tongue itself, and others who correspond to the larynx and trachea, some to the throat, some to the gums, some to the lips. Since nourishment corresponds to spiritual food or nourishment, therefore taste corresponds to the perception and affection of this food. Spiritual food is knowledge, intelligence and wisdom; for from these spirits and angels live and are nourished. We are told that those who die as children grow to maturity from this food; "for little children who die appear in the other life no otherwise than as little children, and also are such as to understanding; but as they increase in intelligence and wisdom, they appear not as little children but as advancing in age, and at last as adults."*
     * AC     4792.

121

     Since the taste corresponds to the perception and affection of knowing, understanding and growing wise, and as the life of man is in his affection, therefore no spirit or angel is permitted to flow into man's taste, for this would be to flow into the life which is proper to him. Thus we are told:

     "A spirit, or man after death has all the senses that he had while he lived in the world, that is, sight, hearing, smell and touch; but not taste, but instead of it something analogous which is adjoined to the sense of smell. The reason that he has not taste is that he may not he able to enter into the taste of man and thus possess his interiors; also that this sense may not `turn him away from the desire of knowing and being wise. . "*
     * AC 4794.

     In a section of the Arcana on spiritual spheres it is said:

     "I have spoken with spirits about the sense of taste, which they said they do not possess, but something from which they know what taste is, and which they likened to an odor. . . . It was brought to my recollection that taste and smell meet in a kind of third sense, as is evident also from animals, which examine their food by the smell. . "*
     * AC 1516.

     The fact is that there is another passage which says that "spirits and angels have something analogous to taste,"* and another that says they have the other senses, "but not taste."** On the other hand, there are several which state that after death men have every sense which they enjoyed in the world.*** Perhaps the key is to be found in #323 of the posthumous work on the Last Judgment where it is said that "when what is spiritual touches or tastes what is spiritual, it is altogether like when what is material touches or tastes what is material." The following from the Apocalypse Explained also points the way: "Spirits and angels the same as men have taste, but the taste of spirits and angels flows forth from a spiritual source, but that of men from a natural source. . ."****
     * AC 4622.
     ** AC     1880.
     *** HH 170, 461.
     **** 618.
      In the Spiritual Diary we are told: "As all things which appear in the spiritual world correspond to the affections and thence to the thoughts of the understanding . . . therefore food is given only according to correspondences."* This leads Dr. Hugo Odhner to the following conclusion in regard to the different statements concerning taste with spirits and angels: "The discriminatory judgment which is based on externals as such and which is characteristic of men who choose and 'cultivate' their tastes, is lacking to spirits since their food always corresponds exactly to their states."**
     * 6008e.
     ** Outline of "Human Organic" p. 16.

122

     As to what is said in this section on the correspondence of the Face, I will give only this sample: "The face corresponds to all the interiors in general, both to man's affections and to his thoughts, or to what is of his will and to what is of his understanding."*
     * AC 4796.

     The section on the correspondence with the Gorand Man of the Hands, Arms, Feet and Loins reviews first principles on the whole subject. That is, that all heaven carries back to the Lord in His Divine Human, because the "Lord is the all in all of heaven, insomuch that heaven is, in the proper sense, the Divine good and Divine truth which are from the Lord." It is added: "Unless there were such a correspondence of man with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord, man would not subsist even a single moment."* Reference is made to the kingdom of the heart in the body and the corresponding celestial kingdom of the mind, and to the kingdom of the lungs in the body with the corresponding spiritual kingdom of the mind. We are told that while man is an embryo "he is in the kingdom of the heart; but when he has come forth from the womb, he comes into the kingdom of the lungs; and if, through the truths of faith, he suffers himself to be brought into the good of love, he then returns from the kingdom of the lungs into the kingdom of the heart in the Gorand Man. . . ." This is his spiritual rebirth.
     * AC 4931.
     They in the Gorand Man who correspond to the hands and arms, and also to the shoulders, are those who have power by the truth of faith from good. They have this power from the Lord, and the more they attribute all power to Him, and none to themselves-not with the lips, but with the heart-the more they are in power.* The reason the hands, arms and shoulders have the correspondence of power is because the forces and powers of the whole body are exerted by them. Many passages from Scripture are cited to show that "arms" and "hands" signify power. A few of the more obvious are these: "Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver?"** "Cursed is he that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arms."*** "Be thou their arm every morning."****
     * AC 4932.
     ** Isaiah 30: 2.
     *** Jeremiah 17: 5.
     **** Isaiah 33: 2.
     "They in the Gorand Man who correspond to the feet, the soles of the feet, and the heels, are they who are natural; therefore by 'feet' in the Word are signified natural things . . . by 'soles of the feet' lower natural things, and by `heels' the lowest natural things."*

123

At one time Swedenborg was let down into "the lower earth," protected by an angelic column. The "lower earth is a place of vastation, surrounded by hells." It is said: "Here are most persons after death before they are taken up into heaven."** Those who remain there correspond to the feet and the soles of the feet. They are such as have been in natural, and not in spiritual delight.*** Many who have come from Christendom, and who have led a good moral life, but have had little concern for spiritual things, are kept in the "lower earth" until they can put off natural things, and become imbued with spiritual and heavenly things, and are then elevated into heavenly societies.**** Underneath the soles of the feet, in that region, are those who have been wholly given up to the loves of self and the world.*****
     * AC     4928.
     ** AC 4728.
     *** AC 4940.
     **** AC 4944.
     ***** AC 4949-52.
     Though the Loins were mentioned in the title of the section we have been viewing, they were not dealt with. But the section at the end of the next chapter of the Arcana takes up the correspondence with the Gorand Man of the Loins and the Members of Generation. The "loins and the members adhering to them correspond to genuine conjugial love, and consequently to societies in which are those who are in this love.
     They who are in these societies are more celestial than others, and more than others live in the delight of peace."* We are told: "The Lord insinuates conjugial love through the inmost heaven, the angels of which are in peace beyond all others." Also it is said that angels of the inmost heaven love infants much more than do their fathers and mothers, and that they are present with infants in the womb, and have charge over those who are with child. This rather surprising statement is made: "But what and of what quality those heavenly societies are which belong to the several organs of generation, it has not been given me to know; for they are too interior to be comprehended by anyone who is in a lower sphere."** The rest of the section deals chiefly with spirits who were opposed to genuine conjugial love.
     * AC 5050.
     ** AC 5055.

     (To be continued.)

124

SINCERITY 1973

SINCERITY Jr. Rev. DANIEL W. GOODENOUGH 1973

     Surely one of the most sought-after of moral virtues is sincerity. For many today it is far more desirable than such qualities as modesty, courtesy and industry. Greed, laziness, drunkenness, domineering, unchastity and many other faults will be overlooked in a man who is believed to be sincere. Whatever are an individual's qualities, if they be openly and honestly admitted, people will feel that they can be close to him personally and can entrust him with at least some uses and some of their affections. But let the shadow of insincerity fall upon his words or actions, and strict limits are placed not only upon his ambitions in the world but also upon his ability to enjoy real human relationships. Sincerity and the resulting human trust are so central to life that without them society cannot function even as to its externals, and worse, no genuine relationships can exist between human beings.
     The importance of sincerity is in a general way understood today. Who is not aware that man has two planes of thought, and that he manifests one of these in society, while for the most part he keeps the other to himself?* Most people know from common sense that they must at least appear to be sincere if life is to be tolerable. This is the reason that in spite of the neglect or rejection of other important moral virtues, everyone is taught from infancy to maintain a semblance of sincerity, and to conceal the selfish thoughts of his will.** As we read in Heaven and Hell: "Who does not wish to be called sincere . . . ? Nearly everyone exercises sincerity and justice in externals, so far as to seem to be both sincere and just at heart, or to seem to act from real sincerity and justice."*** Appearances of sincerity are too often deceitful and altogether insincere, but still most people do recognize the importance of the virtue of sincerity.
     * See AE 114: 4, 5.
     ** See HH 492.
     *** HH 530.
     Sincerity is listed in the Writings as a moral virtue,* and yet it must be clear that if sincerity is to be real, it must reach deeper than man's morals, or that plane of life he manifests before others. It must reach also his spiritual life, his inmost thoughts and feelings. To be sincere, it is not enough for us to be open and honest about those affections which are most obvious to us.

125

A man's surface feeling and reactions are usually not the real him, because his inner motives-the real him-lie deeper within. Thus a merely external sincerity is really insincerity, because it is true to the man's external affections and thoughts but not to his internal motivations. Merely external sincerity may permit society to function and even may allow superficial relationships of friendship and love, but unless sincerity reaches to the inner man-to the deepest affections and thoughts-then in the spiritual world everything is dissipated which had apparently been gained.
     * See CL 164
     In fact, no genuine moral virtue can be separated from its spiritual internal. Sincerity especially we cannot understand unless we look beyond its external and purely moral ingredients to the spiritual realities which are involved in it. These realities we find taught in the internal sense of the Lord's warning to Sardis, one of the seven churches of the Apocalypse, that it take heed and repent. "If therefore thou shalt not be wakeful, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know in what hour I will come upon thee."* This passage speaks of the time of man's death, which is foreseen from eternity by the Lord,** but is unknown to the man, and so it is unexpected and unlooked for.*** "Thou shalt not know in what hour I will come upon thee."
     * Revelation 3: 3
     ** cf. SD 5002.
     *** AR 164.

     But more than this is involved in the idea that the Lord will come as a thief. The literal sense implies He will take away something, like a thief, from the man who is not wakeful. In fact, knowledges from the Word are taken away from him who is not spiritually wakeful-in other words, from him who has not acquired something of spiritual life, knowledges from the Word are removed. To such a man it indeed appears that God is a thief, and therefore the sense of the letter so states it. And yet the theft from merely natural men of knowledges of the Word is not the Lord's doing, but the work of their own evils and falsities.*
     * See AC 4002, 9125e; AE 193.
     In explaining this doctrine the Writings show that man has two planes of thought, one interior that agrees with his life's love, and one exterior, which usually reaches no further than his external memory.* The exterior plane is usually active in man when he is in the company of other people, but he uses his interior plane of thought when he is "left to himself, as when he is at home," and is free to think from his will.**
     * See AE 114: 4, 5
     ** TCR 592.
     After death man retains only those things in the exterior plane of thought which agree with his deeper plane of thought; but the things of his exterior plane of thought which disagree with his life's love are dissipated.

126

Why? Because he does not really believe them. An evil man thus loses all the apparent goods and truths of his external, moral plane of life as if they were stolen by a thief. He may feel as if someone has stolen his very life, but in fact the robbery was perpetrated by his own ruling love. His goods and truths were there, in a shallow sort of way, on the surfaces of his consciousness, but he never cared for them from the depths of being. And so they are gone, stolen-stolen and cast out by his own inner self-seeking.

     After death, then, man is forced to be sincere, by the theft of those expressions of thought which are insincere because from his external plane of thought only. Although in the first state after death he may still act insincerely, or from his external mind alone, beginning with his second state only those things remain with him "that he has thought from himself, that is, the things that he has thought from his own love when he was alone, for his spirit then thinks from itself and not from the things in the memory of his body that do not make one with his love."* The loss of the capacity for insincerity is one of the principal uses served by man's sojourn in the world of spirits. In fact this is one of the most striking features of the memorabilia in the Writings: evil spirits are simply unable to hide their insane depravity. Once they are past their first state after death, they are unbelievably honest about themselves, at least as long as they remain in the light of the world of spirits. They cast themselves into hell because in the darkness there they can lie through their teeth.
     * AE 193.
     Even in this life insincerity has been possible only for people of spiritual genius. Wherever the will and understanding remain conjoined in man (as they were created to be), he is incapable of putting on a deceitful external front.* The evil posterities of the Most Ancient Church, in many ways worse than any other race that ever existed, were open and honest about their love of self because their understanding made one with their will. At the time of the Flood the understanding was separated from the destroyed will, so that a new will of conscience could be built by means of truths learned and obeyed. While this was necessary for the continued existence and salvation of the human race, the separated understanding carried with it the possibility of insincerity.
     * Cf. AC 8249f.
     Thus insincerity is man's abuse of the separation of his will and understanding. We must be capable of thinking and acting in opposition to our native will, or we could not be saved. Self-compulsion is to act differently from our hereditary evils, and this is not insincere.

127

Even simulations that we assume are sincere, if they are from a love of order and if we honestly hope that in time we may come really to feel what we simulate. Such simulations in marriage the Writings even call praise-
worthy.* Whenever man externally does good or shuns evil with even the barest of hopes that gradually he may come to feel as he is acting, there is sincerity in his actions. Insincerity results only when the motive for external order and charity is selfish. Sincerity hardly requires that man yield to every passing impulse and give expression to it. What it does require is that in his shunning of external evils and doing of external goods man truly-that is, sincerely-desire to become as he is acting. The end which man seeks determines the sincerity of his actions.
     * See CL 279, ff.

     Sincerity is more, then, than a matter of giving open vent to all our changing affections. Genuine sincerity is one of the more difficult virtues to cultivate because of the ease with which we have learned to simulate and hide our feelings. It is so convenient to put on good affections in externals that we are often tempted to simulate what is good, not for a good end, not with the hope that we may come to feel as we act, but simply because it avoids embarrassment or some other discomfort. There is a difference of day and night between those simulations which are sincere because they look to spiritual improvement, and those which look to our own reputation with others and so are essentially insincere, but unless we reflect upon our real purposes in life, we will forget this difference. Too-frequent self-examination is dangerous, but if our lives are to be sincere we must, from time to time, examine very closely some area in which we usually feel differently from the way we act. And we must ask ourselves if in our external actions we are really seeking spiritual improvement in ourselves, or if we are using our actions for self-advancement or some other selfish purpose. When the latter is true, sincerity can grow only if we turn away from thoughts for self and compel ourselves to pursue real spiritual improvement in our hearts.
     In practice this is difficult. When we do reflect upon the quality of our external actions, we find many gray, muddled areas in which we cannot be sure whether we are acting sincerely or insincerely. Is a given good work honestly motivated or not? We can never achieve certainty in self-examination; we can never see more than the strong likelihood of sincerity or insincerity, of good or evil motive. But let us persist through these difficulties, with the realization that to know ourselves, to shun our real evils, and to learn sincerity, we must go beyond the surface of our thoughts and feelings and penetrate to their depths.

128

Self-examination which reaches no further than the external, moral plane of living, and does not explore also the deep and internal affections and thoughts, cannot improve man's sincerity. We read in the True Christian Religion: "True repentance is examining, not only the actions of one's life, but also the intentions of one's will."* Only when man repents of intentions of self-seeking can his words and acts of good -begin to grow sincere.
     * 532.
     Sincerity, then, is really a matter of depth. A man may be perfectly honest in his external dealings and yet be insincere simply because his outward expressions of feelings are shallow. Hypocrisy involves conscious deceit, but a man may be insincere simply because he omits to reflect upon the depths of thought and feeling within himself. Such insincerity is less serious than conscious deceit and hypocrisy, and yet it is still insincerity-action from an external thought separated from a man's internal feelings. When a politician or other public figure is accused of insincerity he is not necessarily being accused of dishonesty, but of superficiality and shallowness, of speaking from the surface and appearance of things rather than probing the depths of his thought and feeling about a matter. Shallow, superficial judgments which do not take into account the particulars involved in a thing must be insincere, because they ignore both the deep, genuine issues at stake and the individual's own deep feelings about them. In an age of hurry in which we often prefer to make snap judgments instead of plumbing the depths of our minds to think a thing through, let us remember that a shallow statement or action cannot avoid being an insincere one.

     The only way to learn sincerity is to examine the particulars, the spiritual realities, of the subject at hand, and to be true to them. Thus the Lord's warning to the church Sardis, in commanding spiritual attention and repentance, lest at death all the goods and truths of the external man be stolen away, is also a command to learn sincerity; for death leaves man with all that he sincerely loves but removes everything insincere. It is significant that this command to be spiritually wakeful is addressed to the church Sardis, which represents those who live a good moral life but who care little about spiritual things.* Spiritual truths, such as are revealed in the Writings, are the only means by which man can avoid shallowness and the consequent insincerity. When man is indifferent to the truths about the human spirit and its deepest motivations, his life must be a superficial one and therefore less than sincere. Similarly, art that examines the surface of life lacks sincerity, and he comes genuine art only when it touches upon the depths of human thought and feeling.

129

A man may be insincere not because, like a hypocrite, he consciously pursues selfish ends, but because he does not know the reality within himself and does not care to; he wants to heed only his surface affections and thoughts. Spiritual truths alone can guide man to sincerity because they alone can lead him to probe the depths of his feelings.
     * See AE 182.
     External sincerity is learned readily from early childhood. True sincerity develops but slowly over a lifetime of self-examination, interest in understanding the spiritual realities of the mind, and repentance. When we accept the appearances of life at face value we confirm our shallowness and encourage the growth of a shell of easy, familiar, insincere reactions to life. If sincerity is to grow in us, our pursuit of the truth must be persistent on all planes of life, especially the spiritual plane. We must not fear to alter past judgments for the sake of a newer, deeper vision of reality. Nothing is easier, or more destructive to depth and sincerity, than to develop set habits or formulas of reaction, to avoid thinking anew about the realities of each situation that confronts us. To be sincere is to seek the truth always, whatever the appearance of things. The Lord alone can grant man sincerity, and only if man prays to Him from the heart: "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."*
     * Psalm 139: 23, 24.
ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH 1973

ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH 1973

     Staff Changes

     In order that he may concentrate on his teaching for the English Department, Mr. Donald C. Fitzpatrick, Jr., will resign as Assistant to the Executive Vice President at the end of the school year.
     Mrs. Nicholas Walker (Cynthia Hyatt) will teach one term of Current Events in the Girls School next year.
     Mrs. Peter (Marion Down) Gyllenhaal will replace Mrs. Geoffrey (Nancy Stroh) Dawson to offer the Teaching of Reading in the Education Department for one term.

130

MALE AND FEMALE CREATED HE THEM 1973

MALE AND FEMALE CREATED HE THEM Rev. ROBERT S. JUNGE 1973

     (Talk given at an Academy of the New Church College Chapel Service.)

     "Male and female created He them." In the beginning masculinity and femininity were created by the Lord. The union between man and woman is sealed by a uniquely human love which descends from the union of good and truth in the Lord. Therefore the preservation of masculinity and femininity is a sacred trust given to each sex.
     We read of the sexes: "nothing whatever is alike in them; and yet in every least thing there is what is conjunctive."* If there is to be an eternal union between married partners the differences which make that a real partnership must descend from their eternal souls. While each of us tries to cultivate the qualities proper to our sex, yet we recognize that the essential difference, the difference as to the predominant loves which provides for spiritual conjunction, comes from the Lord.
     * CL 33.
     It appears as if the mental differences between the sexes are put on by our own effort or by training. To those who hold this theory all mental characteristics are the product of instinct and environment. To them it     appears as if the male obviously puts on masculinity by being conditioned to exercise his physical and intellectual prowess. To such it is a strange teaching indeed which says that the love of wisdom that a man receives through creation and regeneration from the Lord makes him truly masculine. To them, women could also be so conditioned, and the Writings indicate that in the external this is apparently so.*
     * CL 175.
     So we have those who urge equal rights for women and who would incidentally deprive them of any unique endowment in the process. They bombard us with arguments that it is simply a matter of education and opportunity that women lack. Even those who regard the human being as only a more refined animal have no real explanation for the biological differences between the sexes, let alone an explanation of any difference as to form of mind. To them the idea that even the biological differences have their origin in the souls of each partner seems fantastic. That every least thing from soul and mind to body is created for conjunction or to complement each other is to them nonsensical. They simply can't separate the question from their partisan demands for equality, and from their own shallow view of what marriage can be.

131

     Yet we do violence to the Divinely endowed partnership of a man and his wife if we think of marriage as a union based only upon biological differences. Marriages founded only upon sex, or which strive to build compatibility through sex, do not recognize that all genuinely human loves come from God. We co-operate with our Maker, but He is the origin of all love, particularly of that love between the male and female which He created in His own image.

     Yet we who believe in the created difference between the sexes can also make a mistake if we try artificially to impose external forms of that difference upon the men and women of the church. For example a charm school approach to femininity, a superficial put-on used merely as a device, is in itself completely inadequate to the goal we wish to establish; while modesty and gentleness which come from love and a spiritual sensitivity are forms which can help bring those inner differences into sharper focus. But men who from an implied superiority focus only upon the external and domestic uses of women do not really see the feminine. The Writings speak of duties proper to women, but they also specifically speak against those women who are excessively devoted to domestic cares and neglect the better things such as pertain to faith.* Men who do not recognize these better things such as pertain to faith in their partners would be like wives who saw only handymen or sports heroes in their husbands. While men and women are different, both can reach to spiritual and celestial heights, and both must be appreciated in their own right on every plane of life.
     * SD 1574.
     To accommodate instruction to sexual differences seems to be a New Church pedagogical truism, a simple recognition of a basic individual difference. But if we highhandedly attack Women's Lib and then allow a self-conscious atmosphere of "masculine attitudes" and supposed intellectual achievements to look down upon supposed "feminine attitudes" of unthinking emotionalism, we undermine our basic purpose. When a man's wisdom soars high, his wife can perceive it and be conjoined in love to it. She is his partner in every degree of the mind. Anything but the highest respect and mutual consultation is a grave mistake in any aspect of the relationship.
     The temptations a woman faces from being predominantly love are different from those a man faces from being predominantly wisdom. The pride of self-intelligence rises in the masculine and haunts him in a way that no woman experiences.

132

Yet she does know how to temper her husband's conceits. Men know wandering lust in a way women except the most pervert do not. A husband can get so absorbed in natural pursuits that he fails to bring the doctrine of the church to the home through reading, regular daily worship, and discussing spiritual values with his partner. Spiritually he starves his marriage. On the other hand, the driving desires of the wife enable her to moderate her affections, alternately nagging and coaxing for dominion in the marriage, even though she sees the cold such dominion engenders. She can become absorbed in intellectual pursuits as an initiator rather than a partner and so kill her husband's initiative on any plane even to the ultimate of family support. She can become absorbed in her beauty, in social graces, and particularly the love of the world which feeds upon arranged friendships and intrigues. Each partner must examine himself, repent and shun evils as sins against God if his relationship is to grow. What a uniquely human challenge, and what satisfaction and peace the gift of conjugial love brings.
     The more nearly a New Church man is conjoined to the Lord, the more he brings wisdom to his marriage and the more masculine he becomes. And the more nearly a New Church woman is conjoined to the Lord the more she brings love to her marriage and the more feminine she becomes. As we read: "The more a man enters into conjugial love, the more human is he."* There is no question of superiority on either part.
     * CL 432.
     To a New Church man, then, there can be no higher goal in marriage than the words spoken to Swedenborg by a husband in heaven: "We are one. . . . Her life is in me and mine in her. We are two bodies but one soul. . . . She is my heart and I am her lungs . . . she is the love of my wisdom and I am the wisdom of her love."*
     * CL 75.
GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM COUNCIL LTD. 1973

GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM COUNCIL LTD. 1973

At a Meeting of the Board of Directors held on the 27th of January, 1973, Mrs. John Burniston was appointed Secretary to the Council in succession to Mr. Roy H. Griffith who retains a seat on the Board. The address of Mrs. Burniston is 109 Walton Road, Sidcup, Kent, England.

133

REVIEW 1973

REVIEW GEORGE DE CHARMS 1973

BOOK OF WORSHIP. Compiled by a Committee of the General Conference of the New Church, 20 Bloomsbury Way, London. The Campfield Press, 1972. Cloth, pp. 252.

     The General Conference is to be congratulated on this new Book of Worship. In both plan and workmanship it is a decided improvement over the former Liturgy which has been used by the Church for the past forty years. It gives evidence of devoted study on the part of the Committee in charge, whose first concern was to make it adaptable to the varying needs of all the societies and circles of the Church from the largest to the smallest.
     The general appearance of the book is very pleasing. The plain red binding with gold lettering is striking, yet dignified, and the somewhat unusual shape of the book makes it easy to handle. It is purposely designed to fit securely on the narrow ledges of the church pews.
     The typography is clear and very readable. The portions of the text which are to be read by the congregation are printed in bold-face type, while the general directions for the use of the book in the service are in italics. A striking characteristic is the elimination of the usual indentations in the left-hand margin to indicate paragraphs. In lieu of these there is simply provided a line of open space.
     A number of significant changes set this Liturgy apart from its predecessors. For instance, a quotation from the Sacred Scripture and one from the Writings, intended for use in private meditation before and after the service, are placed on the first page and the last page of the book. We are pleased to find that the Creed has been amplified to include an acknowledgment "that the Lord has made His Second Coming by revealing the internal sense of His Word and the Heavenly Doctrine contained therein; and that He is forming a New Church which is signified by the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven." We note also that every service begins with the opening of the Word by the minister. This is new, as also is the provision in every service of a place where a selection from the Writings may be read. A change which seems to be controversial is found in the wording of the Faith of the New Church as quoted from no. 3 of True Christian Religion. The statement that "evils are not to be done because they are of the devil and from the devil" is translated to read "evils are not to be done because they are of the hells and from the hells."

134

The meaning is, of course, the same, but there seems to be a desire to avoid an implication of a belief in a personal devil.
     In the earlier Liturgy there were five morning and five evening services, while in this new edition there are ten services with no distinction as to time. Also, there are five responsive services instead of the two in the former Liturgy. In each of these a place is provided for a reading from Divine revelation, which may be understood to include one from the Writings. The festival services are the same in number, but the service for Ascension Sunday found in the former Liturgy is omitted and a service for New Church Day is added.
     We regret that the formula used for baptism is "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" rather than "into the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Father, Son and Holy Spirit" as is the custom in the General Church. Also, in view of the teaching in no. 301 of the work, Conjugial Love, that "consent ought to be confirmed and corroborated by a solemn betrothal," we might wish that some provision for such a service had been included.
     Between the Responsive Services and the Festival Services there are twelve pages of prayers for special purposes and occasions. The book closes with thirty-six selections from the Psalms designed for alternate reading, and with fourteen chants that may be either read or sung. In this connection it should be noted that all quotations from the Sacred Scripture are according to the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, which therefore replaces the traditional King James Version.
     In order to facilitate a gradual development of the ritual between new editions of the book a loose-leaf Supplement is provided for the use of the clergy.
     GEORGE DE CHARMS
LOVE, LIFE AND WORKS MAKE ONE 1973

LOVE, LIFE AND WORKS MAKE ONE 1973

Love, life and works with every man make one. . . . Love constitutes the life of man, and his life is such as his love, not only the life of the mind but at the same time the life of the body; and as that which a man loves in mind he also wills, and in the body does, it follows that love and actions or works make one. It can be shown by many considerations that works proceed from the life of man, both internal and external, and thus that they are the activities of the sphere of his affections and thence thoughts surrounding him (AE 842).

135

LEADING BY INFLUX 1973

LEADING BY INFLUX Editor 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.

Published Monthly By

THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
BRYN ATHYN, PA.
Editor               Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager          Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
All literary contribution, should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications, should be sent to the Business Manager. Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.

     TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$5.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 50 cents.
     It is the constant prayer of every devout man that daily he may be taught by the Lord what he must say and be led by Him to what he must do. Unfortunately, some men await manifest influx, a perceptible inspiration; while others, having started the day with prayer for guidance, tacitly assume that everything they say and do must be the result of inspiration. But it is not thus that the Lord teaches and leads. Man is not taught and led immediately by any dictate, or by any perceptible inspiration, but by an influx into his spiritual delight; and from this he has perception according to the truths of which his understanding consists. When man acts from this influx he appears to be acting from himself, yet he acknowledges in heart that he does so from the Lord.
All the angels are in such a state, and the extent to which they are is determined by the quality and number of truths in which they are. The way to come under the Lord's teaching and leading, for the man of the church, is not to seek them directly but to shun the evils enumerated in the Writings because they are opposed to the Word and therefore to the Lord and because they are from hell. He will then be living according to the laws of the true Christian religion. He will be led by the Lord and his works will be good for he is led to do good and speak truth for their own sake, not for the sake of self and the world. Such a man is indeed taught daily by the Lord what he must do and what he must say; for when evils are removed, man is continually under the Lord's guidance and is enlightened by Him.

136

     FACE TO FACE

     A well-known hymn in our Liturgy concludes with the words: "O teach Thy wand'ring pilgrims by this their path to trace,/ till clouds and darkness ended, they see Thee face to face." When we seek a scriptural basis for them we find two apparently contradictory teachings and a third the explanation of which in the Writings reconciles the others. It is written that Jehovah spoke "face to face" with Moses; yet when Moses desired to see His glory, Jehovah answered him: "Thou canst not see My face: for there shall no man see Me and live." But of the Lord's servants in the holy city, New Jerusalem, it is written: "And they shall see His face."
     Evidently the two statements in Exodus signify different things. The first refers to the conjunction together of all Divine things in the Word, the second to the fact that the Divine interiors of the church, of worship and of the Word could not appear to the Israelitish nation. They could see the externals of these, but not the internals. When these two series are distinguished, it can be seen that there is no contradiction. By the face of the Lord is meant the Divine itself-the Divine love and wisdom-good, mercy and peace.
     To see the face of the Lord is to turn to Him. No one can see the face of the Lord as He is in His Divine love and wisdom, and live. This would be as if one should enter into the sun. What it does mean is to see the truths which are in the Word through and from Him, and thus to know and acknowledge Him. It is to see the Lord in the externals of the church, of worship and the Word from internals. This the men and women of the New Church can do, and should especially delight in doing as the season of Easter draws near; and it is of this, seeing the Divine Human in the letter, that the hymn speaks.
"HE POURED OUT HIS SOUL UNTO DEATH" 1973

"HE POURED OUT HIS SOUL UNTO DEATH" Editor 1973

The student of the Gospels soon becomes aware of a problem raised by the appearance of two personalities in the Lord. At times He spoke with the Father as with Himself; said that the Father was in Him and He in the Father, and that the Father and He were one. He taught as one having authority, did miracles, and told Pilate that he could have no power over Him at all unless it were given. At other times He prayed to the Father as to a Being distinct from Himself, underwent temptations, suffered the cross, and in that last trial prayed to the Father not to forsake Him. The difference is so radical that it can be accounted for, seemingly, only by the existence of two personalities.

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     We find the solution of this problem in the teaching of the Writings that in the Lord while on earth there were two states of consciousness between which He alternated. Because He was conceived of the Divine itself and born of a virgin He was at birth very God and imperfect man. By putting on the Human from the conceiving Divine He became God on the plane of consciousness and was in what is called the state of glorification. In the human from the mother He was imperfect man and was in what is called the state of exinanition or humiliation. This was because all consciousness is in the human.

     By exinanition is meant emptying or pouring out; an enfeebling; exhaustion; humiliation; an abasement: all ideas which go with pouring out and with the nature of the infirm human. This state is described in many places in the Word, especially in the Psalms and in the Prophets, and particularly in Isaiah, where it is said that He "poured out His soul even unto death."
     Obviously the Lord could not be simultaneously in the state of glorification and in that of exinanition. But He could and did alternate between the two states; and it was necessary for the fulfillment of His purpose in coming into the world that He should experience the state of exinanition. It was the state of progress toward union of the Human with the Divine, the union itself being the state of glorification. The Divine could not be tempted, nor could the Divine truth in so far as it was united with the Divine. But the Divine truth by itself could be tempted because it was bound in appearances; and when the Lord was in the Divine truth separately, or in exinanition, and in the infirm human He could be attacked by the hells, reproached by men, could undergo temptation and rejection, -be tempted and crucified.
     Man's regeneration images the Lord's glorification, and in genuine humiliation man acknowledges that self is nothing but evil and all good is from the Lord. Therefore he is averse to evil; puts off from himself all power of thinking and doing anything from self, and relinquishes himself entirely to the Divine, so that the Lord can inflow with good. In exinanition the Lord said that He did the Father's will and ascribed to the Father all that He had spoken and done.
     Yet the very nature of these states was such that exinanition was destined to be put off and glorification to prevail. In pouring out His maternal human and abasing it before the Divine, the Lord enfeebled and exhausted that human successively so that it was finally put off completely. Then the Human was entirely Divine.

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PERMISSION AND NATURAL DISASTERS 1973

PERMISSION AND NATURAL DISASTERS ERIK E. SANDSTROM 1973

Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:

     The series on the Doctrine of Permissions has been most interesting and welcome. The Rev. Peter Buss has gathered a mass of material from the Writings to cast much light on the aspects of disease and disasters in the world around us as well as in our midst.
     In the fourth installment (December 1972), Mr. Buss mentions concerning naturally occurring disasters such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions: "To my knowledge the Writings do not speak directly to this subject, and it is difficult to see the inferences from which we may build an understanding of the problem." (p. 544)
     Perhaps he says this after considering the evidence of Spiritual Diary 4137, 4138 and Diary Minor 4630. I feel that even if these numbers refer to accidents due to what Mr. Buss calls "technology or human inventiveness," they do add somewhat to our understanding of what Mr. Buss has so well presented. Accordingly, the most pertinent parts of these three numbers read:
     "Just as far [as evils and falsities from the proprium] are left to themselves, just so much of the evil and false is produced, therefore so much of misfortune or disaster, which if it does not appear at once, will yet manifest itself afterwards" (SD 4137).
     "I perceived that no disasters or fortuitous evils, as they are called, can happen to a man with whom the Lord is [The example of a horse and rider is given]" (SD 4138).
     "Lest [those who are in good should arrogate to themselves merit and justice] . . they are let into common misfortunes so that they come to grief as far as life, riches and possessions are concerned equally with others. If, however, they were of such a character that they would not hence attribute good to themselves, they would more often be exempted from ordinary misfortune" (SD Mm. 4630).
     The question is whether "common, ordinary misfortunes, disasters and fortuitous evils" refers also to what we call the naturally occurring disasters.
     ERIK E. SANDSTROM
135 Mantrna Road
Tooting
London, SW 17, 8DX, England

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Church News 1973

Church News Various 1973

     HURSTVILLE, AUSTRALIA

     A healthy body is an active one. It follows that the Hurstvile Society is healthy. Looking back over 1972, we can see that it has been a busy, happy and fruitful year and a good pattern for the year to come.
      At the Nineteenth of June banquet there was a change from the usual kind of program; no speeches, but instead New Church films were shown. These were Animals of the Bible, The Water of Life and Noah's Ark, with a brief commentary by the Rev. Douglas Taylor. Some toasts and songs rounded off a program which stimulated animated conversations afterwards.
     A growing group of young people meets regularly for classes, discussions and social activities. Now they are able to use the new room added to Baringa, home of the late Rev. Richard Morse, now occupied by Chris and Grace Horner and family. It is a fine room, and, incidentally, those who know Baringa and had seen it unfortunately deteriorating are delighted at its restoration. There are pleasing reports of Brian and Margaret Homer, now at the Academy.
      The Sydney radio program continues every Sunday evening and evidently reaches a fairly wide audience. One program recently brought more than the usual number of responses. It was entitled, "What the Lord Has Revealed About the Spiritual World." Visiting an isolated family recently, I discovered that in the week they had bought a white horse for their young son, the radio talk was, that's right, on the White Horse; result, a very keen interest!
      Why hire entertainers when you can unearth plenty of talent for a Variety Show in your own Society? Ours, held in September, was great fun and every family took some part. Besides, a useful contribution to the Organ Fund resulted. In early December there was a Sale of Work and Auction, which provided a big boost for the Tennis Court Restoration Fund. Incidentally, our pastor as an auctioneer showed that he can sell anything. Later someone noticed that the church sign was missing-taken for painting-and suggested that he might have sold that, too. The tennis court is well on the way to completion. It will have a first-class playing surface and its surroundings are really delightful.
     The year closed with a lovely celebration of Christmas. There was a night for the singing of carols, when also films of the Christmas story were shown, with narration by Mr. Taylor. On Sunday, the day before Christmas, the pastor preached a sermon on The Magnificat, that beautiful song put into the mouth of Mary, "My soul doth magnify the Lord" He showed first that in its internal meaning it treats of the general coming of the Lord, of His work of redemption, of judgment on the Jewish Church, and the beginning of a new church. Then we were shown that when the subject is the coming of the Lord to the individual man, Mary represents the affection of truth. The theme of the song is gratitude, humility, and praise of the Lord the Savior.
     Christmas is also a time to be glad that we have the privilege of assisting in the work of the Lord's New Church.
     NORMAN HELDON

     SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

     The San Francisco-Bay Area Circle had a good year in 1972 under the able administration of the Rev. Geoffrey Howard, our visiting pastor. At the Annual Meeting in January we voted to retain Jonathan Cranch as secretary, "Red" Pendleton as treasurer, and Tom Aye as vice president.

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This meeting was a little later in January than usual because Mr. Howard forgot that plane tickets would be difficult to obtain on a Rose Bowl weekend.
      The Current Issues Class, an informal Monday morning class which had been held sporadically, was organized into a more formal pattern. Topics for discussion were chosen ahead of time so that Mr. Howard could assign readings and prepare a short introduction to the discussion. We have considered "Woman's Position in Society and Church," "Drug Abuse and Alcoholism" and "Youth," to name only a few. These meetings have been well attended, with some men joining in when they were free of classes or could manage to be absent from work. We have even borrowed from the Egyptians and considered the popular best seller, I'm OK, You're OK, by Harris, and discussed the information given in the book in the light of the Writings.
      The March meeting of the Women's Guild was held in Lottie Muller's sunny apartment overlooking San Francisco. There was a tasty luncheon and surprise housewarming gifts for Lottie.
      A highly successful Men's Weekend was held at Pajaro Dunes in April.
      In the spring and summer many of our Circle left the Bay Area to visit. Ray and Lena (Synnestvedt) Odhner visited Bryn Athyn. Lawson, Marcia and Jennifer Pendleton flew to Hawaii while Alan and Nathaniel toured Europe. Alan is presently in Egypt. The Tom Ayes took a boat trip to Alaska. Red and Chris Pendleton were in Bryn Athyn for Michael's graduation, and were there when the engagement of Lynne Horigan of Pittsburgh to Michael was announced. Lottie Muller visited in British Columbia. The Michael Woods left this area and moved to Bryn Athyn.
      Don and Danna (Junge) Kistner invited the pastor's family to spend a few days with them at the time of our Easter service. It was a marvelous opportunity for our families to get to know the Howards.
      The family New Church Day picnic was well attended. The service under the trees included readings by the young people.
     In June Vic and Dee Griffin left for Washington, D. C. They will be missed, but we expect them back in the future. In June also the Paul Coopers welcomed their new daughter, Sonia Jean.
     Because there were so many people traveling in June, our banquet was held in July. After a delightful dinner at the Refectory in Menlo Park, where we were joined by many teenagers back from school, our toastmaster, Jonathan Cranch, presented a most unusual and interesting program. The speakers and topics were as follows: Don Kistner, "Parapsychology"; Elaine Pitcairn, "Faith in Healing"; and John Doering, "Comparative Religious Thought Among the Chinese."
     Among the many visitors to our church services were Lynn and Diane Pitcairn, the Bob Synnestvedts, John and Kay (Boggess) Doering and Court Lee. In July we were invited to a barbecue at Kistners and found upon arrival that the occasion had been the betrothal of Elaine Pitcairn to Court Lee. We were unhappy to hear that they planned to move to
Washington, D. C., after their marriage in November, but we hope they will move back here to live in the future.
     Perhaps we are settling down for a while. Three families bought houses during the past year. The Lawson Pendletons found a house with a pool in Menlo Park. The Jonathan Cranches bought in Palo Alto. After a September wedding in the new Los Angeles church, Bill and Susie (Coffin) Andrews bought a house in Mountain View.
     We were asked by Stanford University if we wanted to be included in their pamphlet for new students concerning available religious services. Working on the committee to give a statement about our religion with Chris Pendleton and Dolly Ashley, we found it was quite a trick to make a meaningful statement within the limit of sixty-five words.
     In the fall we welcomed Micheline (Iungerich) Schoeffling and two children, Karen and Rohert, who came from New Jersey. We were just getting to know them when they moved to Los Angeles in December.
     Anne (Boggess) Finkeldey visits so often that she is really an honorary Circle member.

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She was here in March and presented the Circle with a set of beautiful hand-blown glass vases for use on our chancel. Then she came at Thanksgiving to help Hannah move into the new house. She was here at Christmas time for an Open House at Jon and Hannah's, and then flew off with them to Hawaii after Christmas.
     The Circle's Christmas celebrations were most enjoyable. A buffet supper after church at the Red Pendletons had a special visitor from Los Angeles-Diane Davis's mother, Mrs. Madge Davis. Since the Kistners had again opened their home to the pastor's family we enjoyed having them to visit with us at the supper, and even got to know Jeremy! This reminded us of the celebration held last year at the Lawson Pendleton home when a storm had caused a power failure and we met in candlelight and fire shadows but with very warm hearts. The Monday evening class met at a San Francisco restaurant with the Kistners as hosts, and despite the rain was enjoyed by all.
     On Christmas Day the Chris Clarks invited everyone to a lay service followed by a social time. Present were Tryn's brothers, Harry and F. E. Grubb, F. E.'s wife (Susan Kendig), and son Owen. John and Kay Doering, visiting John for the holidays, and almost the entire Circle dropped in.
     In the spring Mr. Howard gave a series of doctrinal classes on the internal sense of the Word. He covered the doctrine of genuine truth, correspondences and enlightenment. In the fall had a series on ritual, showing why we do what we do in services and giving us meaningful information about Baptism and the Holy Supper.
     Judy Wyland is the only Circle teenager now attending school in Bryn Athyn. She will be graduating in June. Her father, Ray Wyland, will be able to attend the Commencement Exercises as he is on temporary duty in Washington, D. C., until June 30.
     We look forward to another happy year in 1973. We hope that people passing through San Francisco during the year will call Jonathan Cranch and let us know they are here. We always enjoy visitors!
     RUTH C. WYLAND

     THE CHURCH AT LARGE

     General Convention. The 119th Annual Meeting of the Ohio Association of the New Church, held at Urbana College, was reported recently in the NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER. The three subjects chosen for workshop discussions were: 1) Ministry to Married Couples; 2) Church-College Relations; 3) How to Serve the Isolated and Elderly. At the son Business Session it was reported that the Indianapolis (Indiana) Church, which is a member of the Association, is disbanding.

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TWENTY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1973

     Announcements

     BRYN ATHYN, PA., JUNE 12-15, 1973

     Prior Events

Monday, June 11
     2:00-5:00 p.m.     Registration of Guests
     8:30 p.m.          President's Reception
Tuesday, June 12
     10:30 a.m.          Commencement Exercises
     2:00-5:00 p.m.     Registration of Guests

Assembly Events
     Tuesday, June 12
     8:00 p.m.          First Session of the Assembly

Wednesday, June 13
     10:00     a.m.          Second Session of the Assembly
     2:30     p.m.          Meeting of Theta Alpha
     2:30     p.m.          Meeting of the Sons of the Academy
     8:00     p.m.          Third Session of the Assembly
Thursday, June 14
     10:00 am.          Fourth Session of the Assembly
     2:30 p.m.          Fifth Session of the Assembly
     7:00 p.m.          Assembly Banquet
Friday, June 15
     9:30 a.m.          Divine Worship
     11:30 a.m.          Divine Worship

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ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH SCHOOL CALENDAR: 1973-1974 1973

     Ninety-seventh School Year

     1973

Sept.     5     Wed.     Faculty Meetings
     6     Thur. Dormitory students must arrive before 8:00 p.m.
               College registration: local students
               Secondary schools registration: local students
     7     Fri.     College registration: dormitory students
               Secondary schools registration: dormitory students
     8     Sat.     8:00 am. All student workers report to supervisors
               8:30 p.m. President's Reception
     10     Mon.     Classes commence in all schools following Opening Exercises
Oct.     19     Fri.     Charter Day
               11:00 am. Charter Day Service (Cathedral)
               9:00 p.m. President's Reception
     20     Sat.     2:30 p.m. Annual Meeting of the Academy of the New Church Corporation
               7:00 p.m. Charter Day Banquet
Nov.     21     Wed.     Thanksgiving Recess begins after morning classes
     25     Sun.     Dormitory students must return by 8:00 p.m.
     26     Mon.     All schools resume classes
     30      Fri.     End of Fall Term
Dec.     3      Mon.      Winter Term commences in all schools
     21      Fri.     Christmas Recess begins after morning classes

     1974

Jan.     6     Sun.     Dormitory students must return by 8:00 p.m.
     7     Mon.     All schools resume classes
     15     Tues.     Deadline for applications for 1974-1975 school year
Feb.     18     Mon.     Washington's Birthday: holiday after special school observances
Mar.     8     Fri.     End of Winter Term
               Spring Recess begins after morning classes
     17      Sun.      Dormitory students must return by 8:00 p.m.
     18      Mon.      Spring Tern commences in all schools
Apr.     12      Fri.     Good Friday: Holiday after special chapel service
May     17      Fri.     7:45 p.m. Joint Meeting of Faculty and Corporation
     27      Mon.      Memorial Day holiday
June     7      Fri.     8:30 p.m. President's Reception
     8      Sat.     10:30 am. Commencement Exercises

     NOTE:     At the beginning of the Thanksgiving, Christmas and Spring recesses student workers remain after classes for four hours of student work.

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PUTTING OFF AND PUTTING ON 1973

PUTTING OFF AND PUTTING ON Rev. LOUIS B. KING 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. XCIII     APRIL, 1973     No. 4
     "And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn [grain] of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." (John 12: 23, 24)

     The hour of the Lord's glorification was at hand. The momentous work He had descended into the world to accomplish was on the eve of its fulfillment. The Human which the Lord in His merciful and marvelous love had assumed to redeem mankind was even now about to arise from humility to glory. As a grain of wheat must fall into the soil and, as to its outer covering, begin to decompose so that the inner prolific principle may commence the germination of new growth, so the body and those elements of the mind which the Lord had taken from the mother, Mary, had to be laid down and buried, so that His Divine Human might be lifted up to become glorified and visible to the spiritual eyes of men.
     Let us hold fast to the simile which the Lord used; and let us note to whom He addressed His words. Certain Greeks had desired to see Him. They were of and represented the gentile nations among whom the Lord would establish His new church. Concerning this He said, in effect, "If a grain of wheat does not fall into the soil and apparently die, it cannot grow up and produce a new harvest." Unless His material body was buried in the sepulchre, there could not be resurrected a Divine body. That the Lord unlike other men rose from the tomb with His entire body is amply taught in the Word for the New Church. But that it was of the same substance before and after the resurrection is also denied. A material body was sown, a Divine body was raised, and if the inquiring Greeks would see the Lord as He truly is, they and the future Christian Church which they represented should look, not to the grain of wheat or material body before it was sown, but to the infinite substantial body or Divine Human appearing as visible Divine Man after the resurrection.

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Indeed a natural body was sown: a Divine body was raised.
      This similitude which the Lord used to illustrate His resurrection applies also and particularly to His glorification, which latter was the making Divine of His finite human mind. This glorification process involved, in every aspect and at every stage of development, a putting off and a putting on. The human understanding and affection of truth which the Lord assumed through the medium of the finite taken from Mary were gradually and successively put off, and were replaced by infinite thoughts and affections.
     This same process, described in different words, is found in Arcana 2657, where it is said: "But the Lord utterly exterminated the first rational, so that no trace of it remained, for the merely human and the Divine cannot be together. Hence He was no longer the Son of Mary, but was Jehovah as to each essence."
     It was necessary that the hells attack and tempt the Lord's human mind while it retained finite limitations. In this way, through the natural human, the Lord might meet with the hells, receive their onslaught, and totally reject them without destroying them. And as the hells were successively defeated by the Lord throughout His earthly life they were subjugated; His Human was gradually made Divine; and the human race was redeemed. Redemption was the end, the goal; glorification was the means; and the passion of the cross was but the final combat with the hells whereby the Lord completed both redemption and the glorification.

     Until the Writings of the New Church were made available through the Lord's second coming men believed-and those who have not the Writings still believe-that the passion of the cross alone effected redemption. But we read in True Christian Religion 134e: "The passion of the cross was not redemption, but the uniting of the Lord's Human with the Divine of the Father; while redemption was the subjugation of the hells, and the restoration of order in the heavens~ and unless this had been done by the Lord when He was in the world there would be no salvation for anyone on the earth or in heaven."
     Everything of the New Church depends upon our idea of the risen Lord as God, Divine Man; and of the redemption He alone wrought for angels and men by His advent into the flesh of this natural world. We must beware of the false doctrine that God the Father sent His Eternal Son into the world to have His innocent blood shed upon the cross, and that with this single expression of pure and unselfish love for His fellow men the Son removed for all time the accumulated sin of the world.

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This is a heresy arising from the deadly division of the Godhead into three separate but equal Divine persons. Such a doctrine would have us believe that pure love alone redeemed mankind, and that pure faith alone-faith in this redemption of love alone-can save men.
     And yet neither love nor faith alone can accomplish anything. Love is life, motive and purpose. Wisdom is love's form, its right arm and its sole directive, whereby positive use is effected. So the Lord was born a man among men that from an infinite love for the salvation of all men He might effect their redemption by means of infinite truth received in and made active through the finite, human mind He would put on. In this way the hells would be free to attack Him through the hereditary nature acquired from the mother. In no other way could the force of hell be met by His infinite love and rejected thereby. In rejecting the hells the Lord assumed supremacy over them in their own field of reference and thus made them subservient to His Divine will. So was their dominion over the souls of men broken and their dominant effect swept from the world of spirits.

     Let us never forget that the redemption of man was accomplished, historically, in the spiritual world, for it is in that world that the minds of all men are active, though not consciously so until after death. To be sure, men's outward lives were affected in the natural world by the Lord's work of redemption. But the work itself was carried on in the spiritual world where the Lord's mind, as those of all men, was present. The human mind functions in freedom only when in a state of equilibrium, that is, when midway between incentives to good and evil and ideas of falsity and truth. To secure this state the Lord provides for a continual and exact balance between influx from heaven and from hell. When this influx becomes unbalanced, freedom suffers.
     Prior to the Lord's advent evil had gained ascendancy in the minds of men. The world of spirits had become disordered and infilled with imaginary heavens. Influx from heaven was all but cut off and equilibrium productive of true spiritual freedom was all but extinguished. Men on earth were the cause of this. Deliberately they had turned away from the Lord, closing their minds to heaven above and opening them permanently towards hell below.
     So the Lord came down to put on man's fallen nature-to put on those hereditary forms of thinking and willing which had obscured the Word, closed up heaven, and caused any true idea or worship of the Lord to vanish almost completely. Through these hereditary human forms the hells could approach and tempt the Lord.

148

He, in turn, through the internal Human could meet the hells head on and, without annihilating them, reject their persuasions, revealing openly and thus condemning their hidden motivations. So did He break their power over men by     sweeping clear the world of spirits.
     In the presence of truth which He brought into the natural world and which immediately became effective in the spiritual world, falsity and evil completely lost their power. It is only when truth is absent that falsity has power. So the Lord said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." And the Word which He made flesh in Himself set men free from the bondage of evil and falsity.

     Because the power of hell had infilled the whole world of spirits, even the angels of heaven were infected by doubts arising from activated proprial thoughts and affections. So the Lord by revealing His truth and rejecting the hells redeemed angels, spirits and men. The form which this redemption took was the complete separation of evil from good and of truth from falsity. Good and truth, where united in spirits, separated them into a new heaven. Evil and falsity united in the remainder separated them into a corresponding hell. The world of spirits was thereby swept clear of imaginary heavens, so that the genuine spiritual heat and light from the spiritual sun might issue forth unmolested into the minds of men on earth. And the Lord not only subjugated the hells and ordered the heavens, thereby returning freedom to mankind; He also established with men a new vision of Himself, that He might become an objective and visible God, that a church might once again exist among men-a church capable of genuine worship based upon a true understanding of the Word.
     Redemption was wrought long ago in the spiritual world by the Lord. It was accomplished, not by a single act, but by a successive and continuous work within the Lord's own life, from the moment of birth to the last hour upon the cross. It was a work purely Divine which He alone could accomplish. Yet it is a continuing work in each individual who would look to the Lord, believe in Him, and do His commandments. Every truth learned, reflected upon and applied to life, separates good and truth from evil and falsity further and more perfectly, thus continuing to eternity the individual's redemption by the Lord. This particular redemption is called the work of regeneration, the Lord's own work in man which separates and liberates him from what otherwise would be eternal bondage to evil and spiritual death.

     So are all things reduced to order in man's mind, or in his own spiritual world-evils are shunned as sins that the power of hell in his life may be broken; the things of the church are established in his thought and affection, ordering and establishing a state of heaven in his internal mind.

149

And the peace and delight of use, descending therefrom into the external mind and then outward into word and deed, become the substance and form of his new regenerate life-the New Church in him and from him. All men are capable of regeneration, of this redemption and new birth. The Lord so wills it and from mercy and omniscience provides for every conceivable contingency. But all men are not willing.
     Those, however, who would receive the benefits of His redemption reflect with profound gratitude this Easter morning that He was born and died, that He rose from the grave a Divine Human being, and that He has come again to explain the eternal need of "putting off and putting on," as He Himself put off the Mary human and put on a Divine Human. This means that He put off the power of the hells and put on for mankind the freedom of redemption, as He, in putting off the material body in the tomb, put on and raised up a Divine body visible and to be seen forever in His Word; as He today puts off the obscurities of the letter and puts on the power and glory of the spiritual sense in His second advent. Yea, as He in so many ways has "put off and put on" for us, so are we to put off evil and falsity as of self, so that He may put on in us and for us the fullness of regenerate life. And how true His words: "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto Me." Amen.

     LESSONS:     Psalm 116. John 12: 1-24. Apocalypse Explained 899: 13, 14.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 560, 570, 564.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 35, 150.
VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

150

CHILDREN'S EASTER ADDRESS 1973

CHILDREN'S EASTER ADDRESS Rev. DAVID R. SIMONS 1973

     It is unusual to hear the Christmas story at Eastertime. You may very well wonder why this story was included in our lesson and what Christmas has to do with Easter.
     Have you ever noticed anything alike in these two stories? Did you ever try to compare them, to see their similarities?
If you have, then you have discovered a wonderful truth: these two stories have very much in them that is alike. They have very much in common. They are intimately and inseparably linked together. So much so, that we can say Christmas took place for the sake of Easter. Easter fulfilled Christmas and made it eternal.
     The Lord Himself tells us exactly how these two great events are related when He says, "Ye must be born again."* On Christmas the Lord was born on earth as a natural man, as the son of Mary, wrapped in swaddling clothes. On Easter He was born again! He was resurrected from the dead, born as a spiritual Man. For He put off the grave clothes and rose in His glorified Divine Human, as the one God of heaven and earth.
     * John 3:7.
     When you understand these things, then you can come to understand the relation of Christmas to Easter, and why these two stories are similar: why in the Easter story there is a Mary, like the mother of the Lord; why there is a Joseph, like the husband of Mary; and why there are grave clothes anointed with sweet smelling spices, like the swaddling clothes and the frankincense and myrrh. Indeed, the more we study these two stories, the more likenesses we find, the more things in them we discover that are similar. Similar yet different.
     The two women were both named Mary, Mary the mother and Mary Magdalene. Yet they were quite different. Mary, the mother of the Lord, was called "blessed among women"* because of the great use she performed. Through her the Lord was born into the world and cared for until He entered His public ministry. She was the very first person to know about the birth of the Lord on earth. Yet, as was prophesied by the aged Simeon at the temple, a sword was to pierce her soul,** that is, her son was to reject her.

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The Lord was to put off everything from His earthly mother and to become one with His heavenly Father. This is the reason Mary was never called "Mother" by the Lord but "Woman," as on the cross when He said, "Woman, behold thy son"*** meaning that John was now to be her son, that He Himself was her son no longer. For He was to be born again on Easter morning, a rebirth that is called glorification.
     * Luke 1:42.
     ** Luke 2: 35.
     *** John 19: 26.
     Mary Magdalene, on the other hand, was the first person to see the risen Lord. She was different from the mother Mary. She sought out the Lord in sorrow, knelt at His feet weeping, washed them with her tears, dried them with the hair of her head, and anointed them with precious ointment. Mary Magdalene was sorry for her evils, for the "seven devils" from which she was freed by the Lord. And on Easter morning it was her tears that made her think the Lord was the gardener, although as soon as He spoke, she knew His voice "and saith unto Him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master."* Mary, the mother of the Lord was the first person to know about His birth, but Mary Magdalene was the first to see Him born again in His resurrected, glorified Human.
     * John 20: 16.

     The Joseph, in the Christmas story, was a simple carpenter. He cared for the safety of the child Jesus. At the angel's command he fled with his family into Egypt to protect them from Herod and when the danger was over he brought them back to a city remote from Jerusalem, to Nazareth, where Jesus "grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him."*
     * Luke 2: 40.
     But Joseph of the Easter story was a man of wealth and position. Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the highest and most important council of judges in the land, the Sanhedrin. He was both brave and generous. Brave, because he, along with Nicodemus, stood against the chief priest and the whole council when they condemned the Lord to death; and, because, when the deed was done, these two men went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus. And Joseph was generous, in that he gave up his own new tomb, a "sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid,"* as a burial place for the crucified Lord. At His birth the Lord had been wrapped in swaddling clothes, but now He was carefully wrapped in shrouds, in long strips of cloth anointed with precious spices as a sign of respect and love. These grave clothes the Lord left behind when He rose to show that He was completely glorified. He left nothing but those wrappings in the sepulchre so men could know that He had risen a Divine, infinite Man.
     * John 19: 41.

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     We see, then, that the Christmas and Easter stories are closely linked together. They have their similarities and their differences. These things are important to know, think about and carefully compare. For they are not written by accident. They are no mere coincidence. But, like everything else in the Word, they have an inner purpose. They are provided to teach us something special. For every detail in these stories has a spiritual meaning. Every likeness and every distinction is given to teach us something, first of all, about the Lord and His glorification, and secondly about ourselves-about how the Lord causes us to be born again.
     Mary, the mother of the Lord, means our love of natural truth called curiosity. Every baby is born with this thirst for knowledge. All you children are interested in finding out as much as you can about things. And this is important for it leads you to be interested in the truths of the Lord's Word, in taking them into your minds, and in remembering them. Consequently, it makes it possible for the Lord, as Divine truth, to be born into your minds.
     Yet there is a more important love, pictured by Mary Magdalene. This is the love of truth; not just from curiosity and interest, but the love of truth for truth's sake-to see our own evils, to be sad for our own selfishness and greed. This new love can come to our minds when we learn to bow in humility before the Lord with the sweet spices of genuine worship and gratitude for His spiritual care of our lives. This love of truth for its own sake opens our minds to see the Lord spiritually, to see His love and His wisdom, His providence looking after all men, and leading all to heaven who are willing to follow.

     In the Christmas story the Lord was born into Joseph's household, since Joseph corresponds to the good of innocence-the innocence of ignorance from which children willingly follow and obey their parents, their teachers and the Lord.
     But this good must become the good of conscience. It must become wise. It must, like Joseph of Arimathea, become wealthy in truths, wise in justice, and above all, brave-willing to stand up for what is right, no matter what the consequences, no matter what others think, or what forces are arrayed against us. For in this way, and in this way only, can we become true disciples of the Lord.
     And when both the Christmas and the Easter story take place spiritually in us, when our affection for knowledge brings the truths of the Word into our minds and when we come to love these truths by using them to fight and overcome our evils, and when our innocent willingness to obey the Lord is strengthened by wisdom into a religious conscience, then both the swaddling clothes, which are the first simple truths our minds can understand, and the grave clothes, which are the external truths of the letter of the Word, will be replaced by an internal sight of truth, an internal acknowledgment of the risen Lord.

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The Lord will, as it were, grow up in our minds, until we see Him in all His majesty and glory. For when the Christmas story is fulfilled by Easter, then our minds will change. Our old man, our old selfish ways will be put to sleep, and a new self will be awakened-a self who loves the neighbor and the Lord above all things. We will be born again.
     It was to make sure that this new birth should take place in each one of us, it was to raise all men to Himself in heaven, that the Lord God of the universe willed to be born on earth at Christmastime and to be reborn at Easter, the one God and Savior of us all. Amen.

     LESSONS:     Luke 2: 1-7. John 19: 38-42, 20: 1-2, 11-18.
     MUSIC:     Hymnal 218, 217, 216.
     PRAYERS:     Hymnal 103, 108.
GLORIFICATION 1973

GLORIFICATION 1973

That the Lord had a Divine and a human, the Divine from Jehovah as the Father and the human from the Virgin Mary, is known. Hence it is that He was God and man, and so had the very Divine essence and a human nature, the Divine essence from the Father and the human nature from the mother; and therefore He was equal to the Father as to the Divine, and less than the Father as to the human. But then He did not transmute this human nature from the mother into the Divine essence, nor did He commix it therewith, as the doctrine of faith called the Athanasian Creed teaches; for the human nature cannot be transmuted into the Divine essence, nor can it be commixed with it. And yet it is from the same doctrine that the Divine assumed the Human, that is, united itself to it as a soul to its body, so that they were not two but one person. From this it follows that He put off the human taken from the mother-which in itself was like the human of another man, and thus material-and put on a Human from the Father; which in itself was like His Divine, and thus substantial, by which means the Human also was made Divine. (Doctrine of the Lord 35).

154

MAN 1973

MAN Rev. WILLARD D. PENDLETON 1973

     (The last of three doctrinal lectures.)

     Some three thousand years ago the Hebrew Psalmist asked the question, "What is man?"* The same question is being asked at this day. It is to be noted, however, that the Psalmist assumed the existence of a God in whose image and likeness man was created, for he said: "What is man that Thou art mindful of him?"** The modern mind, however, makes no such assumption in that it does not credit the validity of any premise that is not confirmed by sense experience. Among the learned of the day, therefore, it is generally assumed that man is an accidental by-product of the same forces that corrode metal and ripen grain. Convincing as this may be to those who see in man nothing more than a physical organism, it does not satisfy those who believe that the concept of a creation without a Creator is a meaningless postulate that in the end can lead only to futility and despair. We are therefore naive enough to believe that there is a purpose in creation and that this purpose is man.
     * Psalm 8: 4.
     ** Ibid.
     Childlike as this may seem to the informed atheist, we hold with the Writings that in his faith in a Divine Being the child is wiser than the learned of the day. While we fully recognize that without knowledge man cannot attain to wisdom, it does not follow that knowledge is wisdom. As Swedenborg said in his introductory chapter to the Principia, "He who thinks himself wise, while his wisdom does not teach him to acknowledge the Divine and Infinite, that is, he who thinks he can be wise without a knowledge of, and veneration for, the Deity, has no wisdom at all."* Swedenborg was not speaking here of the idea of God as a person, but of a God who in essence is good and truth. For to perceive what is good and true is to perceive what is from the Lord with man, and therefore to perceive what it is that makes man to be man. For what is man but a form of good and truth; that is, a form which has been endowed by the Creator with the ability to perceive good and truth? It is in this that man differs from the beast.
     * Principia: Tansley ed., p. 38.
     When it is said, therefore, that man is an animal, we disagree. Yet this is the thesis of what is commonly referred to as advanced thought.

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In the field of modern biology, man is repeatedly referred to as an animal; and while it is true that biologically speaking man differs but little from the animal, we need not necessarily conclude from this that man is an animal. In this connection we refer your attention to a recent book in which man is described as a territorial animal, by which is meant that man's most powerful urge, as exhibited in other species, is the defense of his own territory from aggression by others.* This is what is known as the territorial imperative. But whether the defense of one's real estate is in man, as in lower species, a stronger instinct than hunger, sex or survival is a matter we willingly leave to the behavioral psychologists. The point is that in this, as in any other modern theory of why people behave as they do, the assumption is that basically, and therefore essentially, man is an animal.
     * The Territorial Imperative: Robert Ardrey. Athenaeum Press, 1966.

     We must distinguish, however, between what is basic and what is essential. While it is true that what is basic is a necessary condition of existence-and in that sense is referred to as an essential-it does not follow that what is basic constitutes the essential nature or essence of a thing. Take, for example, a house. The basis of a house is its foundation; it is that upon which the structure rests. The foundation, therefore, is a necessary condition to its existence, but it is not the house. In essence a house is a home; this is the purpose for which it is built. To understand the essential nature of anything, therefore, we must think of it in terms of the use it is intended to serve. In no other way can we forma true idea of what, in essence, a thing is.
     In applying this to man we readily acknowledge that basically, that is, as to his basic instincts, man is as the animal. Indeed, the Writings say that "man is born an animal, but becomes a man."* By this the Writings mean that from birth, man possesses every natural instinct that is necessary to existence, but he is also endowed with a capacity that the animal does not possess. This capacity is the rational faculty; that is, the ability to abstract meaning out of experience and to be governed by reason rather than by instinct. Thus it is that man, as distinguished from the beast, is able to formulate for himself rules of conduct which from reason, as differentiated from instinct, he perceives to be good.
     * DLW 270.
     It is to be noted, however, that the Writings also state that "no one . . . [could] ever become rational unless some delight or affection . . . [aspired] thereto."* It is in this that the child at birth differs from the beast; for potentially, with the child from birth there is a love or affection that the animal lacks.

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This love is described in the Writings as the love of growing wise. This love is first manifested in the child as the love of learning. Were it not for this affection, man would be a beast. When it is suggested therefore that the thought of the church has been confused by attributing to man what, in fact, man shares in common with beasts, I do not understand. All that can be predicated of man, as distinguished from the beast, is the love of growing wise. But when we consider what this love involves, and that to which it leads, we in no sense downgrade man. For by virtue of this love, man is set apart from all other creations, and is gifted with the ability to see what is true and from truth to do what is good. It is, then, in the love of growing wise that the essential human consists. Hence the further teaching of the Writings that "rationality is human nature itself, for by it man is man, and is distinguished from beasts."**
     * AC 1895.
     ** Five Mem. I.

     When it is said in the Writings, therefore, that "man is not born a man, but becomes a man,"* what is meant is that man is not born rational but becomes rational. This, as also plainly taught in the Writings, is effected by means of the educational process. If it were not for the fact that man is capable of being instructed in knowledges he would remain a creature of instinct. But man, being what he is, is a being who is capable of acquiring ideas in the form of knowledge and thus entering with understanding into the nature and causes of things. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the sciences of our day, which are a tribute to the amazing power of the human intellect. Unlike the beast, therefore, man is a dual creation in that he possesses both a will and an understanding; this is, an understanding which is progressively formed by means of knowledges acquired by way of instruction. Thus the Writings state that "all instruction is simply an opening of the way"**; that is, of the way in which the rational is formed and man puts on what is human.
     * CL 156b; TCR 692: 6; DLW 270.
     ** AC 1495.
     For the most part we tend to take education for granted; that is, without reflecting upon what is actually taking place in the mind of the child. Actually, education is the humanizing process, that is, the means whereby the potential man becomes man. Assume, as the Writings do, an infant lost in the woods who by some miracle of favorable external circumstances grows to physical maturity without any human associations. He would not be able to communicate by means of words; neither would he have any idea of basic quantitative relationships. What is more, he would have no concept of good or of evil, or of right or of wrong; neither would he have any perspective of self in relation to others.

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"Who cannot see," the Writings ask, "that such is the nature of man when not instructed? Is he not a man according as he is instructed . . . ? From this we conclude," the Writings say, "that without instruction man is neither man nor beast, but he is a form which can receive that which makes a man."*
     * CL 156b Acton translation; CL 152a Alden translation.
     When we speak of the human form, therefore, we do not have reference to the human figure, but to the mind of man; for it is as to his mind, and not as to his body, that man is essentially different from the beast. Because man, as distinguished from the animal, can be instructed, that is, because man can acquire knowledges which are structures or forms in which, as in mirrors, truths may be seen, he can, if he will, enter with understanding into the perception of good. For what are knowledges but forms in which truths, which are still more interior forms, can be presented to the sight of the understanding; and what are truths but forms in which what is good is revealed? To see what is good is to see what is of use, and to see what is of use is to see what is essential in anything.

     If, then, like the Psalmist, we ask what man is, we must look beyond the appearance and ask ourselves what, in essence, man is? As already considered, man is a form of truth from the love of growing wise, for it is by means of knowledges, which are forms of truth, that the human mind is formed. We must distinguish here, however, between two kinds of knowledges-between those which men acquire by way of experience and reflection, and those which are from the Word. Whereas the former are those of which the natural-rational is formed in the understanding, the latter are those by which the spiritual-rational, or conscience is formed. Note here the teaching of the Writings: "The external man is corporeal and sensuous; nor does it receive anything celestial and spiritual unless knowledges are implanted in it, as in ground; for in these, celestial things can have their recipient vessels. But the knowledges must be from the Word."*
     * AC 1461.
     The reason for this is that apart from knowledges from the Word, man cannot form for himself any true idea of what good is. Thus the Writings speak of many kinds of good which in themselves are not good, such as spurious good, meretricious good, natural good, collateral good, all of which appear as good but are not good. The only good which is good is the good of use. Thus it is that the real man, or the essential man, is a form of the use man was created to perform.

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This use is that man may be of use to others; and how can a man be of use to others unless in his relations with others he acts from conscience? Is not this what the Lord meant when He said: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God"?*
     * Matthew 4: 4; Deuteronomy 8: 3.
     The mouth of God is the Word. Here, and here alone, will man find those knowledges out of which a genuine conscience can be formed in the understanding. The reason for this is that it is by means of knowledges from the Word that the way is opened to the acknowledgment of what is true, and therefore of what is good. For what is conscience but the perception of what is true and good? Does not he who acts from conscience act from truth in order that he may do what is good? That is why the Word has been given. It has no other function or purpose. May it not be said, therefore, of him who acts from conscience, that the Word is inscribed upon his heart?

     It is, then, in order that the Lord, who is the Word, may be known, that we have established a New Church educational system. Our purpose is that by this means our children may be systematically instructed in knowledges from the Word in order that the basis of a spiritual conscience may be laid in the understanding. I say, the basis of a spiritual conscience, because a moral and social conscience are basic to a spiritual conscience. Thus the first objective of New Church education is the establishment of a moral conscience in the understanding. Before a man can do those goods which are of use to the neighbor he must first learn to live according to order; that is, according to the order prescribed in the Word: "Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."*
     * Exodus 20: 13-16.
     But the moral law, although basic to the life of religion, is not in itself the life of religion. As the Lord said to the young man who from his youth had observed the commandments, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor . . . and come and follow Me."* What the young man lacked was the willingness to serve, that is, a sense of social responsibility. The life of religion does not consist merely in those things which are not to be done, but also in that which ought to be done; that is, in the will to do that which is good to the neighbor. The second objective of New Church education, therefore, is the formation of a social conscience in the understanding. The concept of unselfish service is therefore also basic to spiritual life; and while it exists with the child only as an ideal, nevertheless, ideals are important.

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For what is an ideal but an idea which looks to what is good? If these be lacking, there is no way in which the Lord can form in the understanding of man any kind of conscience.
     * Matthew 19: 21.
     We come, then, to the third and final objective of New Church education. This is what is referred to in the Writings as a spiritual conscience. It differs from a moral conscience as that which is done from the love of a use differs from that which is done because it is a matter of order. It differs from a social conscience as that which is done from the love of a use differs from that which is done from the love of the person. He who acts from a spiritual conscience acts according to order because he believes that order is basic to use. He who acts from a spiritual conscience also acts from a genuine love of the person because he believes that the person is a form of use. In both instances he is motivated first by the love of use, and second, by the love of that which supports and serves use. Thus he who acts from a spiritual conscience loves the Lord, for to love the Lord is not merely to love Him as a person, but, as the Writings state, it is "to do uses from Him."* Indeed, the Writings say, "No one can love the Lord in any other way."**
     * Love XIII: 1.
     ** Ibid.

     To do uses from the Lord is to see and acknowledge that the good which we do through the uses we perform is not from ourselves but from the Lord alone. In other words, it is to acknowledge what few at this day are prepared to believe, namely, that good is not inherent in man, but is with man from the Lord. In this connection we note with interest a shift that is beginning to take place in modern Christian theology. As a result of the "God is dead controversy," which exposed the weakness in the traditional Christian concept of God as Being, it has been suggested that it may be better to present the idea of God in terms of values; that is, of God as Good, rather than of God as Being. But what this new school of Christian theology fails to perceive is that the idea of a God who is Good, apart from the idea of a God who is Being, leaves the mind without any focus of thought; that is, without any determinate idea upon which the thought of the mind may rest. We cannot simply say that God is Good and let it go at that. Unless we can form some idea of what good is it becomes a meaningless abstraction. As anything else, good must have form, that is, a form in which it can be presented to the sight of the understanding. This form is truth, and it is as truth, and never apart from truth, that good is presented to man's understanding.
     The truth is that God is Divine Man. This is the fundamental teaching of all Divine revelation. It is in order that man might know the truth that the Word has been given.

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In the Old Testament, in the New Testament, and in the Writings this truth is progressively presented. If the Lord is to be seen in the Word, however, we must think spiritually and not naturally concerning Him. To think naturally concerning Him is to think of Him from the infirm human which He derived from the mother; but to think spiritually concerning Him is to think of Him in His own Divine Human; that is, as the good of use and as the truth of doctrine.
It is by means of the truth of doctrine, that is, by means of doctrine from the Word, that man enters into the perception of what is good, or what is the same, into the perception of that which is of genuine value. We would agree, therefore, with the new school of theology, that the idea of God to be meaningful must be presented in terms of values; but this is not possible apart from the idea of a God who is Divine Man. Without the idea of a God who is Divine Man the human mind has no point of reference, and therefore no basis of understanding that which is of value. We are not speaking here of a God who is human in figure, although this is basic to the interior idea of a God who is human in form. We are speaking of the Lord as the Word; that is, of the Lord as He is now revealed in His own Divine Human in the spiritual sense of the Word. Here we will find what is of value, for what is of value is of use, and what is of use is from Him, and from Him alone.

Unlike those, therefore, who believe that formal education should be restricted to secular subjects, we hold that man does not live by bread alone. Thus as parents and teachers we are deeply concerned with values. To understand New Church education, therefore, we must not think of it as a defensive measure whereby we seek to hold our children in the faith of their fathers, but as the logical application of doctrine to those formative states of human development whereby man becomes man. To grasp the full significance of this we must bear in mind that New Church education is founded upon a new concept of God; that is, upon a new concept of good which opens the way to a new set of values, to a sense of spiritual values which in turn impart new meaning to social and moral values. It also is founded upon a new concept of the man whom the Lord God created after His own image and likeness. For what is man but a unique vessel receptive of life from the Lord? I say, a unique vessel, because of all created forms, man alone can be conjoined with God. The reason for this is that man is endowed with the ability to see what is true, and from truth, to do what is good. And because man can see truth he can see God; and because he can do good he can love God.

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Hence the notable teaching in the work, Heaven and Hell, where in treating of the subject that as to his mind every man is a spirit, it is stated:

"All of this has been said to convince the rational man that viewed in himself man is a spirit, and that the corporeal part that is added to the spirit to enable it to perform its functions in the natural . . . world is not the man, but only an instrument of his spirit. . . . Those that have established themselves in the opposite view are accustomed to think that beasts likewise have life and sensations, and thus have a spiritual part the same as man has, and yet that part dies with the body. But the spiritual of beasts is not the same as the spiritual of man is; for man has what beasts have not, an inmost, into which the Divine inflows, raising man up to itself. . . . Because of this, man, in contrast with beasts, has the ability to think about God and about the Divine things of heaven and the church, and to love God from these and in these, and thus be conjoined to Him; and whatever can be conjoined to the Divine cannot be dissipated; but whatever cannot be conjoined is dissipated."*
* HH 435.
ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH 1973

ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH 1973

The Academy would like to send to parents of students who may be transferring to the Boys School or Girls School information about the schools' curricula. We hope that this information will help them to plan ahead and to take courses in the 9th and 10th grades that will fit in with the offerings of the Academy.
Those on this continent presently in grades 7 through 9 who are on the General Church Religion Lessons list and in church centers will receive this information. Anyone not in these categories who wishes to receive it will please write to Miss Sally Smith, Principal of the Girls School, and/or the Reverend Dandridge Pendleton, Principal of the Boys School, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009.

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SCIENCE AND COGNITIONS 1973

SCIENCE AND COGNITIONS Rev. REGINALD W. BROWN 1973

     (Continued from the March issue.)

     To appreciate the advantages of having distinctive terms to express, on the one hand, knowledge derived scientifically from and specifically concerning the world and nature, and, on the other hand, similar knowledge derived primarily from revelation, specifically concerning Divine and spiritual things, it is only necessary to refer briefly to certain universal doctrines which enter into all the teachings set forth in the Writings. These doctrines are so basic that there was need of terms to import their meaning into particular teachings without the need of constantly repeating the universal doctrines which they symbolize.

     1. In order that human beings could be endowed with the faculty of freedom and rationality it was necessary to create two worlds, the spiritual and the natural.
     2. And for the same reason, in correspondence with this twofold universe, every human being is created twofold. He is both a microcosmic spiritual world and a microcosmic natural world. As to his internal or spiritual man he is formed to the image of the world.
     3. Internal or spiritual man is formed from the cognition of spiritual things; his external or natural man from the sciences of the world. At birth this twofold man is simply a twofold organism not as yet in the exercise of either its natural or its spiritual faculties, these must be opened or developed as to their proper functions through use and exercise. "The externals which are of the world, are opened with man from infancy even to manhood successively, in like manner the internals; but the externals are opened by those things which are of the world, whereas the internals are opened by those things which are of heaven."*
     * AC 9279.
     4. It is further taught that in each case, that is, in the case of both the natural and the spiritual man, there is a twofold opening.

     "The things which are thus opened are twofold namely, intellectual and voluntary; the intellectual are opened by those things which have reference to truth, and the voluntary by those which have reference to good; for all things which are in the universe, as well those which are in the world, as those that are in heaven, have reference to truth and to good; those which have reference to truth are called scientifics and cognitions, but those which have reference to good are called loves and affections. . . .

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As to what concerns [the opening of the internal man] which is formed in the image of heaven, it is the cognitions of the truth and good of faith from the Lord, which open its intellectual things, and it is the affections of truth and good . . . which open its voluntary things."* [Italics added.]
     * AC 9279

     In connection with these universal teachings in regard to the twofold nature of the universe and of man, let me call your particular attention to statements made in Heaven and Hell, 531, which contains the gist of the matter that I am presenting for your consideration.

     5. "Man's interiors are formed only in heaven, his exteriors are formed in the world. . . . The interiors can be formed only in one way, namely, by man's looking to the Divine and to heaven . . . and man looks to the Divine when he believes in the Divine, and believes that all truth and good, and consequently all intelligence and wisdom, are from the Divine; and man believes in the Divine when he is willing to be led by the Divine. In this way and none other are the interiors of the man opened. The man that is in that belief and in a life in harmony with his belief has the ability and capacity to understand and be wise; but to become intelligent and wise he must learn many things, both things pertaining to heaven and to the world, things pertaining to heaven from the Word and the church, and things pertaining to the world from the sciences. . . . The simple are those whose interiors have been opened, but are not so enriched by spiritual, moral, civil and natural truths. The wise are those whose interiors have been both opened and enriched."*
     * HH 531.

     It is explained that those knowledges which are obtained from the Word are cognitions.
     6. One may learn from the world the scientifics which open the external or natural man and fit it for participation in the uses of the natural world by means of the sciences. But the internal man can be opened and prepared for heaven, only by means of the cognitions or sciences (doctrinals) of spiritual things. As is said in Heaven and Hell 512:

     "One can learn from the world what civil and moral good are, which is called justice and honesty, because there are civil and moral laws in this world that teach what is just, and there is intercourse with others whereby man learns to live in accordance with moral laws, all of which have relation to what is honest and right. But spiritual good and truth are learned from heaven, and not from the world."

     As Swedenborg said of Aristotle in the Fibre, n. 268;

     "The intellect is not capable of penetrating beyond or above nature, thus into the eternal or infinite, therefore he [Aristotle] does not discriminate the one from the other.

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But we being better enlightened by the Scriptures, we know that these two, namely the Divine and the natural, are utterly distinct."

     7. There are two foundations of truth, the Word and nature, or revelation and science. The general relations of these two foundations is in each helping to clarify and advance the other, as indicated in Swedenborg's statement in De Verbo 12 that it was granted him to be alternately in both worlds, and from the one to explore the other, since no angel knows the difference between the natural and spiritual, because no angel can change his state. Swedenborg from his natural experience, analyzed in the light of his spiritual experience, was enable to instruct even the angels.
     No matter how much man may learn from the world by means of his senses, by means of the sciences, and worldly philosophy, no matter how accurate and useful his experience, his science, and his philosophy, in so far as it is derived from the world alone, it reveals nothing of the spiritual world and of spiritual life as distinct from natural life. The knowledge of spiritual and Divine things, all scientific doctrine concerning things spiritual and Divine, and all doctrine concerning the spiritual import of things natural, must be derived from revelation.

     There is need, therefore, of a distinctive term to express not merely knowledge in general derived through the senses from revelation, but more specifically also the more generalized, organized, scientific or doctrinal formulation of revealed truth, primarily as expressed in revelation itself, and secondarily as concluded and drawn from the revelation by men with the end of interpreting the teachings of revelation and of applying them to the varied uses of life. It is this scientific or doctrinal knowledge derived from revelation that the Writings specifically call cognitions in contrast to the sciences derived from the phenomena of nature and from the experiences of men.
     The idea which stands out in the distinctive use of the two terms is that which is so clearly expressed in Heaven and Hell, 531, where it is said, that for man "to become intelligent and wise he must learn many things, both things pertaining to heaven and things pertaining to the world-things pertaining to heaven from the Word and the church, and things pertaining to the world from the sciences." The term cognitions does not happen to be used in this passage but it is used in contrast to sciences throughout the chapter in which it occurs. In this particular place a definition is substituted for the term, namely things pertaining to the world learned from the sciences. It is still more explicitly explained in n. 353 that "By sciences are meant things of experimental origin of various kinds, physical, astronomical, chemical, mechanical, geometrical, anatomical, psychological, philosophical, historical pertaining to kingdoms and the literary world, things critical, languages."

165

     The distinction is even more explicitly expressed in Arcana Coelestia 2657, where it is said that

     "The first [rational], which is before regeneration, is procured by the exercise of the senses, by reflections on things in civil and moral life, by the sciences, and by reasonings from them and by means of them, and also by cognitions of things spiritual derived from the doctrine of faith, or from the Word." "But the rational after regeneration is formed of the Lord by the affections of spiritual good and truth which are wonderfully implanted by the Lord in the truths of the former rational."

     This first rational procured on the one hand from the world by means of the sciences, and on the other from the cognitions of things spiritual from the Word, is here contrasted with the rational formed by regeneration by means of the affections of spiritual good and truth.
     It will be noted that by both cognitions proper and sciences proper as indicated in the number just quoted is meant something about the sensual degree of the mind, something which is the outcome of reflection and which, used as a basis for reasoning, forms the rational. This intermediate kind of knowing, distinguished from sensual experience on the one hand and from rational philosophy on the other, is what is properly called scientific knowing, as we will explain later on. This common meaning as well as the distinction between cognitions and sciences appears in Apocalypse Explained, 739, where both are contrasted in a clear cut way from purely sensual knowledge. It is said: "Every man at his birth is absolutely sensual, so that even the senses of his body must be opened by use. He next becomes sensual as to thought, since he thinks from objects that have entered through his bodily senses; afterwards he becomes more inwardly sensual." Note that up to this point man is described as sensual.

     "But," the number continues, "so far as by visual experience, as by means of the sciences, and especially by means of moral life, he acquires for himself natural light, he becomes an interior natural man. This is the first and outmost degree of man's life. At the same time [i.e. simultaneously with the worldly sensual and scientific development] because he imbibes (haurit) cognitions of spiritual good and truth from parents, masters, and preachers, and from reading the Word and books thence derived, and stores them up in his memory like the other scientific things, and because of these cognitions he lays the foundation of the church in himself; but even so if he goes no further he continues natural." [Italics added.]

     If he goes on further, and lives according to these cognitions from the Word the interior degree is opened in him and he becomes spiritual.

166

In the same number it is said of the men of the Most Ancient Church that although they had perception

     "It is to be noted that they were never forbidden to procure for themselves cognitions of good and evil from heaven, for by these [cognitions] their intelligence 6 and wisdom was perfected; neither were they forbidden to procure for themselves cognitions of good and evil from the world, for from the latter source, their natural man had its science."
     The fundamental distinction between cognitions and sciences is further emphasized in the same number by the statement that "the sensual man thinks that wisdom is to be procured by means of cognitions from the world, and from the natural sciences." Whereas, as is shown throughout the Writings, the cognitions of spiritual things can be derived only from revelation.
     The unique character of cognitions as having specific reference to spiritual things is involved in the teaching of Apocalypse Revealed, 916, that all cognitions

     "have relation to one cognition, which is their containant, which one cognition is the cognition of the Lord. it is called one cognition although there are many (cognitions) which constitute that one cognition; for the cognition of the Lord is the universal of all things of doctrine and thence of all things of the church. . . . The reason why the acknowledgment and cognition of the Lord conjoins into one all the cognitions of truth and good from the Word, is because there is a connection of all spiritual truths." [Italics added.]

     This essential peculiarity of cognitions is spoken of again in Apocalypse Explained, 110, where it is stated

     "That all cognitions of good and truth look . . . to the Lord, is known to the Christian Church, for the doctrine of the church teaches that there is no salvation apart from the Lord, also that all salvation is in the Lord. Cognitions of good and truth, that is, doctrinals from the Word, teach how man can come to God and be conjoined with Him." [Italics added.]

     "That all cognitions of good and truth, that is all doctrinals from the Word, go forth from the Lord is also known." "To love God and to believe in Him involve all that the church teaches, called doctrinals and cognitions, since from these God is loved and believed in."
     Having in mind the specific meaning of cognitions intended by Swedenborg, namely that of doctrines derived from revelation, we may readily understand the full force of such teachings as that of Spiritual Diary, 4264,

     "That man ought to have cognitions because he knows nothing of spiritual and celestial things; they are above his comprehension; therefore he ought to have such cognitions in order that by means of them be may be regenerated, and may receive charity from the Lord, and thence act from charity."

167

     Or again the similar teaching of Apocalypse Explained, 105, that

     "Cognitions are necessary, since without them man can know nothing of spiritual life, and he who knows nothing of spiritual life cannot become spiritual; for that which a man knows he can think, can will, and can do, but not that which he does not know. . . . Cognitions merely teach how man ought to live. To live according to the cognitions of truth and good is to think that man must do thus and not otherwise, because it is commanded by the Lord in the Word. When man thus thinks, and thus wills and does, he becomes spiritual."

      If in such passages we substituted "sciences," or simply "Knowledges," for cognitions the specific meaning would not be so apparent, unless indeed it were explained that either the sciences of spiritual things or the knowledges of spiritual things derived from revelation was meant. The word which Swedenborg uses most frequently as a synonym for cognitions is doctrinals or doctrines, which in ecclesiastical literature embodies the same meaning. But he sometimes speaks of doctrinals as non-universal and also as derived more directly from revelation.
     Cognitions are Derived from Revelation.
     The essential qualification of cognitions is, as has been said, that they relate peculiarly to spiritual things, or to what are called the mysteries of faith, and that they be derived from revelation, either directly, or through the teaching of others, or by reflection on the teachings of revelation. What is said of the cognition of God in True Christian Religion, 11, is true of all cognitions, namely, that

     "The cognition of God, and thence an acknowledgment of Him, are not attainable without revelation; and a cognition of the Lord, and thence an acknowledgment, that in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily are not attainable except from the Word, which is the crown of revelations; for man, by the revelation which is given, is able to approach God, to receive influx, and so from natural to become spiritual. . . . But cognitions of God enter through a posterior way, because they are imbibed from the revealed Word, by the understanding, through the senses of the body." [Italics added.]

     As is taught in Arcana Coelestia, 3161:

     "Man is not born rational, but only into the power of becoming rational, and he becomes so by means of scientific things; namely, by cognitions of many kinds and specks, the first of which are means leading to those which next follow, and thus in order even to the last, which are the cognitions of the spiritual things of the Lord's kingdom, and are called doctrinals; these are learned partly from the doctrine of faith [from others?], partly immediately from the Word, and thence partly from man's own study, as is well known." [Italics added.]

168

     Note that in the number just quoted things of a scientific nature, called also, "cognitions" of many kinds and species, are said to lead up to the cognitions of the spiritual things of the Lord's kingdom, which are properly doctrinals. The instrumental scientifics are also called cognitions because they also are derived from the Word. But what are referred to particularly in this connection, are those things that are taken from the experience and science of mankind to clothe the spiritual truths of revelation correspondentially and representatively. They are things which in themselves are derived from the sciences of the world; but, by virtue of the fact that they are used in the Word, and are thereafter learned from the Word, they are cognitions of relatively lower degrees. That they are not what is more properly meant by cognitions, but are rather scientifics, is explained in Apocalypse Explained, 545, where it is said that "scientifics from the Word mean all things of the sense of the letter in which doctrine does not appear, while cognitions of truth and good mean all things of the sense of the letter of the Word in which and from which is doctrine."
     The Human Element in Cognitions.

     The cognitions of spiritual things are from revelation. But man cognizes and grasps them in the light of his experience. In other words he interprets them, and this notwithstanding the fact that he acknowledges their Divine source, and seeks for them in the revealed Word. There is therefore a human element that enters into the cognitions of spiritual things such as they exist with man, and in the various doctrines and doctrinals of the church. As is stated in Arcana Coelestia, 1911:

     "The rational first conceived cannot acknowledge intellectual or spiritual truth as truth, because there adhere to it many fallacies from the sciences accepted from the world and from nature, together with appearances from cognitions derived from the literal sense of the Word, which [fallacies and appearances] are not truths."

     As further explained in Arcana Coelestia, 2524;

     "The rational as to truth is conceived from the influx of Divine good into the affection of sciences and of cognitions. . . . This takes place in such a way that its good is from Divine good, whereas its truth is not from Divine truth; for the truth of the rational is procured by means of sciences and cognitions, which are insinuated through the external and internal senses, thus by an external way. Hence it is that there adhere to its truths many fallacies from the senses, which cause the truths not to be truths; nevertheless when Divine good flows into them . . . they then appear as truths, and are acknowledged as truths, although they are nothing but appearances of truth."*
     * AC 2524. [Italics added.]

169

     The Human Element in Sciences and Cognitions.
     To effect regeneration

     "Cognitions are insinuated which are not altogether contrary to those which men had before. . . . These cognitions . . . are such that, deriving somewhat from his former life or the nature of the former life, they derive somewhat also from his new life, into which he is thus introduced; hence they are such as to admit into them whatever things are conducive towards forming the new will and the new understanding."*
     * AC 3701. [Italics added.]

     By the sciences we may indeed ascend to the threshold of the cognition of spiritual things but never enter it. We may even arrive at a scientific and philosophical appreciation of those universal philosophical principles which have more or less consciously guided the development of all use and useful scientific and philosophical thought. Such principles are spoken of as scientifics which may admit Divine truths, and are described as "all the scientifics which are true concerning correspondences, concerning influx, concerning order, concerning intelligence and wisdom, concerning affections, yea, all the truth of interior and exterior nature, as well visible as invisible, because these correspond to spiritual truths."*
     * AC 5213.

     (To be concluded.)
GORAND MAN 1973

GORAND MAN Rev. VICTOR J. GLADISH 1973

     (Continued from the March issue.)

     In the correspondence of the Gorand Man to the Interior Viscera one of the first subjects dealt with is the correspondence of the work of the stomach and other parts of the alimentary canal: this despite the fact that the alimentary canal corresponds to the world of spirits rather than to the Gorand Man of heaven. The key which explains is in the following quotation: "So long as spirits are in the state in which they are like food in the stomach, so long they are not in the Gorand Man, but are being introduced into it; but when they are representatively in the blood, they are then in the Gorand Man."* Thus we see why we are told:
     * AC 5176.

170

     "In the other life there are very many methods of agitation, and also very many methods of inaugurations into gyres. The purifying in the body of the blood
represents these agitations . . ." Also this:
     "It is known that the food in the stomach is agitated in many ways, in order that its inner elements may be extracted, and may serve for use, that is, may pass into chyle, and then into blood; and that it is further agitated in the intestines. Such agitations are represented by the first agitation of spirits, which all take place according to their life in the world . . ."*
     * AC 5173, 5174.

     More concerning the relationship between the alimentary system and the Gorand Man is shown in the following:

     "For when a man dies and enters the other life, his life is circumstanced like food, which is softly taken hold of by the lips and is then passed through the mouth, fauces and esophagus, into the stomach, and this according to the nature that has been contracted in the life of the body by means of various activities. At first most spirits are treated gently, being in the company of angels and good spirits, which is represented by the food being first softly touched by the lips, and then tasted by the tongue to discover its quality. Food that is soft, and in which there is what is sweet, oily and spirituous, is at once absorbed by the veins, and carried into the circulation; but food that is hard, and in which there is what is bitter, offensive, and but little nutritious, is mastered with more difficulty, being let down through the esophagus into the stomach, where it is churned in various ways and windings; and food that is still harder, more offensive and innutritious, is thrust down into the intestines, and at last into the rectum, where first is hell; and finally is cast out and becomes excrement. It is similar with the life of man after death."*
     * AC 5175.

     It is related that spirits who have been very solicitous about the future appear in the region where the stomach is. It is added, "As solicitude about things to come is what produces anxieties in man, and as such spirits appear in the region of the stomach, therefore anxieties affect the stomach more than the other viscera."*
     * AC 5177-8.
     In the first reference to the stomach something was said about the inauguration of spirits into gyres. More is told in what follows: "There are gyres into which recent spirits have to be inaugurated in order that they may be able to be in the company of others, and both speak and think together with them. In the other life there must be a concord and unanimity of all, in order that they may be a one; just as is the case with each and all things in man, which though everywhere various, yet by being of one accord make a one."
     It is added that in the Gorand Man it is a fundamental necessity that the thought and speech of one must be in accord with those of the others in each society.*
     * AC 5182.

171

     In succeeding passages are related contacts of Swedenborg with those of the provinces of the Liver, the Pancreas, the Cystic Ducts, the Gall Bladder etc.*
     * AC 5188.
     In the continuation concerning the Interior Viscera at the end of the next chapter the correspondence of the peritoneum, the kidneys, the ureters, the bladder and also of the intestines is dealt with. These are organs and parts which aid in the separation of impurities and wastes from the nourishing fluids of the body-things which are in but not of the body. The offices of these organs are vital to the body of man, and those who belong to these provinces in the other life perform vital uses to the Gorand Man. At the conclusion we are reminded that the Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of uses, and that in the heavenly kingdom everyone is valued and honored according to his use, much more than is the case on earth.*
     * AC 5396.

     Introducing the correspondence with the Gorand Man of the Skin, Hair and Bones, we are told that the things in man which have the most life correspond to those societies in the heavens which have the most life, and hence the most happiness. But the things in man which have less life correspond to such societies in the other life as are in less life. The things which have the least life in the body are the skin, including the skins or membranes covering organs and parts within the body, the bones and cartilages which support and hold together the parts of the body, and the hairs which grow out from the skin. The societies to which the skins correspond are in the entrance to heaven, "and to them is given a perception of the quality of spirits who throng to the first threshold, whom they either reject or admit. . . ."* However, there are very many societies that correspond to the external covering of the body, with differences like those between the skin of the face and that of the soles of the feet. In general they are such as took their spiritual concepts from others, and held tenaciously to opinions which they had received, not being affected much by reasoning. It is said: "Very many such are from this earth, because our planet is in externals, and also reacts against internals, as does the skin."**
     * AC 5553.
     ** AC 5554.
     More things are told about the different gradations of the skin, and the glands in the skin, and their correspondence, but we shall go on to the Cartilages and Bones. The societies of spirits to which the cartilages and bones correspond are very many, and they are such as have little spiritual life in them, just as there is little life in the bones as compared to the soft parts which they enclose-for example, the hard bones of the skull compared with the brains which they protect."*

172

One of the interesting passages in this section is the following: "They who come out of vastations, and serve the uses of the bones, have not any determinate thought, but general, almost indeterminate. . . . Yet sometimes they are not intranquil, because cares do not penetrate, but are dispersed in their general obscurity."** Because the teeth are harder than other bones, the spirits who relate to them have scarcely any spiritual life.
     * AC 5560.
     ** AC 5562.

     Before leaving the correspondence of the skins, cartilages and bones there is something of note in the work on the Divine Providence that should be reflected on. It is said that those who could not be reached by the Gospel, but only by some religion, are also able to have a part in heaven, constituting those parts that are called skins, cartilages and bones, and that they like others can be in heavenly joy. "For it matters not," we read, "whether they are in joy like that of the angels of the highest heaven or in joy like that of the angels of the lowest heaven; for everyone who comes into heaven enters into the highest joy of his heart; he can bear no higher joy. . . "*
     * 254: 3.
     Concerning Hair we read:

     "As there is a correspondence of the bones and the skins, so there is of the hairs; for these push forth from roots in the skins. Whatever has a correspondence with the Gorand Man is possessed by angels and spirits; for each one as an image represents the Gorand Man; therefore the angels have hair arranged becomingly and in order. Their hair represents their natural life and its correspondence with their spiritual life."*
     * AC 5569.

     In a passage not dealing with the Gorand Man we are told that the "teeth, bones and cartilage" in the Word signify the truths and goods of the lowest natural.*
     * AC 6380.
     Finally we come to the section on the Correspondence of Diseases with the Spiritual World. It is introduced in these words:

     "As the correspondence of diseases is to be treated of, be it known that all diseases in man have correspondence with the spiritual world; for whatever in universal nature has not correspondence with the spiritual world cannot exist, having no cause from which to exist, consequently from which to subsist. The things that are in nature are nothing but effects; their causes are in the spiritual world, and the causes of these causes, which are ends, are in the interior heaven."*
     * AC 5711.

173

     Diseases, however, do not correspond to the Gorand Man, but to those who are in what is opposite, that is to those who are in the hells. The reason that diseases have correspondence with the devils of hell is because they correspond to the cupidities and passions of the animus (or lower mind). It is said that these cupidities and passions are the origins of diseases; for their origins are, "in general, intemperance, luxury of various kinds, mere bodily pleasures, as also feelings of envy, hatred, revenge, lewdness and the like."
     We are told that all the infernals induce diseases, while the Gorand Man, which is heaven, "holds all things together in connection and in safety." However the infernals are not permitted to inflow into the organs and parts of man's body, but "into his cupidities and falsities." Nevertheless, these facts of influx do not hinder man's being healed in a natural way; for we are told that "the Lord's Providence concurs with such means."*
     * AC 5713.
     Swedenborg was permitted to feel the influx from spirits who correspond to the impurities which are being cast off from the brain. They are now kept shut up in their hell, but he was told that they are such "as formerly had
slain whole armies, as we read in the Word; for they rushed into the chambers of every one's brain, and inspired terror, together with such madness that they killed each other."*
     * AC 5717.
     This has been a general view of the Gorand Man and its correspondence, together with something of its opposite, as presented in the chapters of the Arcana Coelestia. There are passages elsewhere in the Writings which give additional teaching on the subject, and some of these we have interspersed. Let us add a striking statement from a chapter already referred to on Influx.

     "The Lord, who alone is Man, and from whom angels, spirits and the inhabitants of earth are called men, does Himself, by His influx into heaven cause the universal heaven to represent and bear relation to a man, and by influx through heaven, and from Himself immediately into the individuals there, cause each one to appear as a man, the angels in a more beautiful and resplendent form than can be described; and in like manner by His influx into the spirit of man."

     Following which it is said that charity to the neighbor and love to the Lord are what make man.*
     * AC 6626.
     It would not be satisfactory to conclude without drawing attention to a far-reaching inference to be drawn from the presentation made. Often the Heavenly Doctrine speaks of angels and spirits of the various provinces of the Gorand Man.

174

Moreover, those associated with some province who talked with Swedenborg were often of evil life who in heart denied God.
     It seems to be a reasonable inference that those with whom Swedenborg spoke were in the world of spirits state, whether good spirits who would be elevated to heaven, angels come down into that state, or evil spirits on their way to hell. Thus the Gorand Man of heaven has its counterpart in the great monster of hell-societies of hell in opposition to each society of heaven. In confirmation of this conclusion, reflect on the following from the work Divine Providence:

      "Since therefore, every man lives after death, and is allotted a place according to his life, either in heaven or in hell, and since both heaven and hell must exist in a form that will act as a one, as said before, and since no one can be allotted in that form any place but his own, it follows that the human race throughout the whole world is under the Lord's auspices; and that each one, from infancy to the end of his life, is led by the Lord in the least singulars, and his place foreseen and at the same time provided. . . . That heaven is in the human form has been made known in the work on Heaven and Hell. . . . Hell also is said to be in the human form, but is a monstrous human form . . ."*
     * 203, 204.

     And in another passage: "It has been remarked in the preceding pages that the entire heaven is arranged in societies according to the affections of good, and the entire hell according to the lusts of evil opposite to the affections of good."* There are other passages to the same effect, notably numbers 68 and 69 of this work, from which I will quote only this sentence, "Left to himself man tends continually to the lowest hell, but he is continually withheld by the Lord; and he who cannot be withheld is prepared for a certain place there . . . and this place there is opposite to a certain place in heaven. . . . " The same teaching is given in Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment 21.
     * 287b: 6.
MINISTERIAL CHANGES 1973

MINISTERIAL CHANGES 1973

The Rev. Kurt P. Nemitz has accepted appointment as Pastor of the Central-Western District, resident in Denver, Colorado, effective September 1, 1973.
The Rev. Ragnar Boyesen has accepted appointment as Pastor of the Stockholm Society and as Visiting Pastor of the Circles in Jonkoping, Sweden, Copenhagen, Denmark, and Oslo, Norway, effective September 1, 1973.

175

SPIRITUAL ELIJAH 1973

SPIRITUAL ELIJAH Rev. FREDERICK L. SCHNARR 1973

     Elijah was the first great prophet to be raised up by the Lord after the kingdom of Israel had been divided into the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel. A prophet of the northern kingdom, called Israel, he lived during the wicked reign of Ahab, sometime in the 9th century B.C. This was a reign long to be remembered with horror, for it was a time of open idolatry and evil. Ahab turned his back on the Divine commandments, and to crown his blatant disregard for Jehovah, he married the daughter of a Phoenecian king. His wife Jezebel brought into the land of Israel the worship of Baal. She raised a temple to Baal in Samaria, the capital city of Israel, and filled the land with priests and prophets of Baal imported from her own country.
     But Ahab and Jezebel were not to live in peace with their idolatry and evil. Although Jezebel had endeavored to subdue and destroy the prophets of Jehovah God, there emerged in the land a strange prophet; a prophet who lived mostly in the wilderness, dressed as one from the wilderness, and yet did great and wonderful miracles throughout the land. This prophet, Elijah, preached against the sins committed by Ahab and Jezebel, thereby stirring up their wrath against him, so that they set in motion every means of destroying him.
     Elijah appealed to the people to throw out the worship of Baal. A contest was held on Mt. Carmel by Elijah to show the people that Jehovah was God. Apparently without the knowledge of Jezebel, four hundred and fifty of her prophets went to Mt. Carmel, raised an altar to Baal, and called on him to send fire from heaven to burn up the offering. When nothing happened Elijah built an altar to the Lord, and after he had soaked it with water, fire came down and licked up the offering, the water and the altar. The people declared their belief in the Lord, fell upon the prophets of Baal, and slew all of them that had come to Mt. Carmel.
     It was after this episode that a remarkable incident took place. Jezebel, enraged by the destruction of her prophets and by the threat to her power which it implied, made every effort to find and destroy Elijah, an endeavor to which Ahab gave his consent. At the same time, the people did not revolt against Ahab and Jezebel. Elijah, wearied and discouraged, finding no place of shelter or refuge in Israel, fled southward into Judah and continued to the city of Beersheba in its southernmost boundaries.

176

From there he went a day's journey into the barren hills of that wilderness area, and in utter despair sank down beneath a tree to die. "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers."* All of Elijah's efforts to fight the powers of evil and wickedness seemed to him to have been in vain. His work had failed; his life was useless.
     * I Kings 19: 4.
     But Elijah was not allowed to die. Angels were sent by the Lord to nourish him with food and water. This did not change his state of mind, but it did give him strength to continue his journey. For forty days and nights he wandered southward through the land in which the sons of Israel had wandered for forty years after their deliverance from Egypt-the desolate Sinai peninsula. At last he came to the famous mountains of Horeb, ringing the high peak that is Mt. Sinai, where Moses had received the Ten Commandments. Here it was that Elijah found a cave, and again hid himself away to die. But again the Lord is present with him. Elijah hears the voice of the Lord asking: "What doest thou here, Elijah?" The prophet answers and explains his despair: "I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the sons of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life to take it away."*
     * 1 Kings 19: 10.

     The Lord instructs Elijah to go forth and stand upon the mountain, to see the Lord pass by. There is a great wind that rends the mountains and rocks; then there is an earthquake; and finally a fire. But the Lord is not in any of these, and the prophet returns again to hide in his cave. Then it is that he hears a small, almost silent, voice calling to him. He wraps his mantle about his face and moves to the entrance of the cave. There the Lord asks for the second time: "What doest thou here, Elijah?" Elijah repeats his statement, but this time the Lord tells him that he must continue his work, and return to the land of Israel. He is to anoint Hazael king of Syria, Jehu king of Israel, and Elisha prophet in his place. The Lord also admonishes Elijah, telling him that there are still those in Israel who can be saved. "I have left seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him."*
     * I Kings 19: 11-18.
      We have reviewed this in some detail because it is one of those stories in the Word in which something of the spiritual sense stands forth to view.
     Because of this it provides a picture that has great power to impress and move the heart.

177

We see the natural story of a man in a state of discouragement and despair, and of the Lord's relationship to him in that state. Very easily we can identify ourselves with Elijah's state by recalling our own states of discouragement and despair, and we open our minds with affirmation to the further instruction of the spiritual sense of the Word.

     The Writings tell us that Elijah in the kingdom of Israel represents the Word of the Lord in the human mind, that is, the state of the reception or rejection of the goods and truths of revelation with man.* Elijah does many miracles in Israel to represent that the truths and goods of the Word do many marvelous things for man, of most of which he is scarcely aware. Truths and goods from the Word reform and re-order the content and quality of our mind and character, whenever we give the Lord the freedom to exert His power. This we do every time we make the effort to shun evils as sins against the Lord, and seek to do and obey His commandments. Man is not conscious of the interior changes within him that result from the Lord's work; yet there are times when the states formed from these changes rise up to challenge, defend, and fight for man's spiritual life.

     * AC 9372; AR 132,437:2; AE 430: 13.
     There are in man, ruling the things of his natural life, an Ahab and a Jezebel who worship the god Baal. Jezebel represents that love of self and of the world in man which is evil, and which spawns all evil and falsity. Self-intelligence, with the falsities from it, is the companion, Ahab, that supports and justifies the love of evil. The love of self and self-intelligence together worship evil-the god Baal or, what is the same, the love of self worships self.* It is the delight of the evil of self-love to seduce and destroy everything that stands in opposition to its nature and life. And what is in opposition except the Lord's presence in the goods and truths of His Word? Goods and truths are Jezebel's enemies; they are the Elijah who cries out against her sins and who challenges the evil, the Baal, that self would serve.
     * AE 160, 1146; AC 4581:9.
     When Elijah wins the victory over Jezebel's prophets in the contest on Mt. Carmel it would seem that man has been victorious in temptation, that the goods and truths of the Word have conquered evil. Yet this is not the case, for Elijah's states of discouragement and despair are yet to follow. Spiritual temptation is a clash between heaven and hell in man. Man does not see the evil love of self: Jezebel was not even present at Mt. Carmel. What he sees are the delights and imaginations of evil which pour forth from the love of self, the prophets of Baal.

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The truths of his conscience, Elijah, rise up to defend and protect him, and if man heeds their voice he compels himself to resist and does not do the evil act itself. The evil itself is rejected, the prophets of Baal are killed. The temptation seems to be finished. Yet spiritual temptations are not so easily effected. The power of the love of self is not destroyed by man's resistance against the delights and imaginations of open evils. That contest must take place before the Lord can accomplish anything else with man; but there are still other things that must be accomplished. The power of the love of self cannot be broken finally until man really believes that the power to overcome his evils is not from himself, nor even from his own use of the goods and truths of the Word. He must believe that the real power is the Lord's, and the Lord's alone. And he must not only believe this; he must desire with all his might that the Lord do for him what he cannot do for himself.

It is, then, the further story of temptation that we see when Elijah flees from the face of Jezebel into the wilderness of Beersheba. When the evils of self-love return to plague man after he thinks he has fought and conquered them, he enters into a state of discouragement and despair. The fight against recurring evils seems hopeless and useless. The states of apathy, sorrow and self-pity into which man then plunges call into question and doubt all his former convictions of truth and good. The appearance is that Elijah has fled from Israel-that the Word and its strength has departed from his mind; and as to his conscious perception this is true. The sure knowledge and belief in the Lord, in His purpose for man, in the life after death, in the mode of reformation and regeneration, in the holiness and beauty of marriage, in the importance of the life of use; all of this seems suddenly as a dream in the night, and as of no real truth. The spiritual truths and goods of the Word, which are as living forms in man's mind, seem no longer living; their life and power seem dead, a dejected and defeated Elijah lying under a tree and wishing to die in the barren wilderness.
The appearance to man in temptation is that the Lord is not present; and the fact that in temptation man calls into question the very existence of the Lord emphasizes this appearance. Prayers to the Lord go unanswered; the state of depression remains, and the battle on Mt. Carmel that had appeared to be a victory now seems to be turned into defeat. What is the use of effort? What is the use of strife? The power of Jezebel seems too great; the love of self sends forth its terrible states of discouragement and despair, to make man cease his resistance and even look for death, spiritual death. And Elijah said: "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life."

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     Divine revelation warns man that the appearance of the Lord's absence in temptation is false. He is closer to man than ever before, and it is important for man to remember this truth before he enters states of temptation that remembrance of it may give him strength. The Lord is as an angel to Elijah in the wilderness, secretly nourishing him with bread and water, with interior states of good and truth. Were this not so, all men would fall in temptation. It is the Lord, through influx into the truths and goods of the Word with man, who gives him the strength and courage to endure the state of temptation to the end. In man's struggles to see and to be led by the Lord, in the fact that he cannot by his own power overcome the spheres of hell, there is given the means by which the Lord's love and mercy can draw close and, although hidden from man's perception, can lead him on to the end of good which the Lord alone can see.* It is this nourishment from the Lord that leads man spiritually through forty days and nights of travel to Mt. Horeb. "Forty" signifies the fullness of temptation, and "Mt. Horeb" the Divine law or the Divine truth.**
     * AC 6828, 2723; AE 730: 4.
     ** AC 8581, 10,543.

     While man's states may remain morbid and depressed, with nothing of heavenly delight or peace in evidence, the nourishment of the Lord's presence sustains the function of his understanding. Though his thought of truth is in confusion and doubt, the Lord as it were sends him back to fundamentals. It will be remembered that it was on Mt. Sinai in the mountains of Horeb that Moses first received the Divine law from the Lord, the Ten Commandments. A man in the life of regeneration, an Elijah, does not see the Ten Commandments in the same light as the young mind that is just starting the process of reformation, a Moses. Yet the Ten Commandments, representing the major Divine truths of religious life, are in a sense a starting point also for the man who is in spiritual temptations. In temptation man's understanding must come back to the very point at which his understanding of truth first began; because, no matter how severe the temptation, no matter how obscure any loves of good may be at this time, as an Elijah hidden in the cave, the Lord still assures him that the understanding will retain the perception of fundamental truths. The conscience of a man in temptation and even in despair yet sees and knows that the commandments are true.
     When man in temptation re-confirms such truths they begin to function as a voice of conscience-a new voice from the Lord. This is the voice that challenges the apathy, the self-pity, the despair and the suicidal tendencies that have obscured the happiness and peace of heaven which are hidden as in the darkness of a cave.

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"And, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?"* It is such thought that begins to change man's state. Elijah's reply, in which he presents the reasons for his condition, represents man's first effort to examine his own feelings and attitudes from the acknowledgment of fundamental truths. Why does the Lord permit temptations? Why do they recur in so many different forms? Why do they last so long? What does the Lord do for man in temptation that cannot be done in any other way? How can the Lord destroy the evil Jezebel of self-love, the wicked Ahab of self-intelligence, and the worship of self, the ugly god Baal? Can it be done without temptation? All of Divine revelation says that it cannot. The life and stages of evil and falsity from self-love and self-intelligence must come forth into man's conscious perception so that he can see and sense them, and then fight as of himself to reject them. The Writings tell us that if man did not have the freedom to do this the evils would remain bottled in, and the Lord would have no means of removing them without the man feeling that his freedom was being infringed upon and even destroyed. That the Lord permits temptation to reach a state of utter despair is so that man may know and acknowledge that he cannot overcome evil from self, that he must seek for the Lord to battle for him.**
     * I Kings 19: 9. See AC 2463.
     ** AC 1787, 2694, 5279, 7166.

     When man in temptation begins so to examine himself from the acknowledgment of fundamental truths he begins to be raised up toward the life of heaven. The good that is within him is vivified and brought out of darkness. So Elijah was told to come out of the cave, stand on the mountain, and see the Lord pass by. Elijah saw a strong wind break the mountains, then an earthquake, and then a fire; but he did not see the Lord in these things. Man cannot see or sense how the Lord causes the love of good to grow in him, and so Elijah could not see the Lord in these dramatic events. But still, in the last part of temptation, they do take place. The wind describes a new influx of the Lord with man into his truths. This is the wind of which the Lord says: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit."* The earthquake describes the great change of state that is taking place in man's interiors, and the fire tells of how a new love of good is born.**
     * John 3: 8. See AC 8286; AE 405: 48.
     ** AE 400: 14; AC 934: 4, 5313:13.
     These changes bring man's conscious thought into a new perception of truth, a perception not only of natural truths in the Word but of the clear light of spiritual truth as well.

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While man's delight in good and his peace of mind yet seem to be in a cave of obscurity, he begins to see again with clear conviction the Lord's nature and quality, His purpose in creation, the beauty and intelligence of heavenly life, and the pathway that leads to that life through the ordered steps of reformation and regeneration.
     It is the perception of spiritual truth that is as a small, silent voice that again calls to Elijah and brings him forth from the cave for the last time, with his face wrapped in his mantle. The perception of spiritual truth at the end of temptation is as a small, silent voice because while man sees the truth, and as it were wraps himself up in its mantle, he does not yet feel the delights and happiness of a new love.* Still, the perception of spiritual truth gives man the means to re-examine himself again, for the last time; to see his states and attitudes in the light of heaven, to ask himself again: "What doest thou here, Elijah?"
     * AC 8823, 1933, 5565; AR 37; AE 353, 395: 3.

     As long as man does not falsify the truths he learns in order to serve Baal, the love of self, and as long as he does not profane the goods which he has been given by mingling them with the evils of life, which is to kiss Baal, the Lord can lead him through the despair and discouragement of temptation toward the good of life.* He will send man forth from temptation with a new and eternal love of good, the oil with which to anoint a new king in Syria-the rational faculty in which good from heaven shall reign as king; the oil to anoint a new king in Israel-the spiritual understanding in which good shall rule; and the oil to anoint a new prophet in Israel, Elisha-the rule of good in the spiritual goods and truths of the Lord's Word, which form the spiritual mind.
     * AC 3574.
     The loves of heaven are born only through man's willingness to suffer temptation and its despair. There is no other way for the Lord to separate us from the terrible power and intelligence of self and to do it with our free desire and consent. We may stand in fear of temptation, and may shudder at the barren wilderness and the dark caves in which our battles must be fought. But they must be fought. It is for us to arm ourselves according to the Lord's instruction; to learn, obey and use His Divine truths; to give the Lord the means of bringing our temptations to a sure conclusion: and if the way in the wilderness is long, to give us the strength and courage to endure, knowing that we do not endure alone; that the power, the love and the mercy of the Lord constantly surround us, to protect, sustain and lead us where we cannot lead ourselves-to the delight and peace of heavenly life.

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REVEREND HENRY ALGERNON 1973

REVEREND HENRY ALGERNON Rev. GEORGE DE CHARMS 1973

     When Henry Algernon passed into the spiritual world on December 20, 1972, the General Church Mission in Demerara, Guyana, lost a faithful and devoted leader. He was born in Georgetown in what was then known as British Guiana on August 4, 1881, and he gave fifty years of his life without reserve to the work of establishing a stable center of the New Church in his native land. We know nothing about his childhood, but in 1915 he married Fannie Hann Maria Moriah, and established a home in Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana. There he entered the ministry of the Baptist Church, and became the leader of a Christian Mission. Just how or when he became acquainted with the heavenly doctrines we do not know; but he received them gladly, and in 1923 he was baptized into the New Church by the Rev. J. B. Spiers of the General Convention and was recognized by that body as a missionary pastor. He served in that capacity until 1935 when for reasons of health he had to return to Georgetown, where the General Convention was already supporting a Mission under the leadership of the Rev. Walter E. Fraser, and could not afford to maintain two ministers in the same place. Meanwhile, Mr. Algernon had become acquainted with the General Church through NEW CHURCH LIFE, and found himself in doctrinal sympathy with it. He therefore applied for membership, hoping that in this way he might be able to continue his work as a New Church minister. He was received as a member of the General Church in 1936, and was authorized by that body as a missionary leader.
     In this capacity Mr. Algernon established the "Tabor Mission," and undertook by public lectures and services to attract a membership interested in the Writings. He was a man of intellectual attainments, a graduate of the university, and a competent student of history. Although he received a small stipend from the General Church he had to find employment to support his family of four children. He did so by teaching and lecturing on a part-time basis at the university, and in connection with the government.
     In 1940, as Executive Bishop of the General Church, I visited Georgetown, and ordained Mr. Algernon into the first and second degrees of the priesthood of the New Church.

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From that time on he devoted all the time he could possibly spare to the task of establishing a permanent center of the General Church in his native country. He was confronted however, with enormous difficulties. For lack of means he was unable to secure any adequate center for his work. He was unable to provide for his family more than the barest necessaries of life. He felt utterly alone, having no means of contact with his fellow ministers except by an occasional letter and through NEW CHURCH LIFE. Yet he faced every trial without complaint, clinging desperately to the hope that he might be the means in the hands of the Lord for the establishment of a small center from which the General Church in Guiana might take root and grow.

In 1963, Mr. Algernon wrote as follows to the Secretary of the General Church. "Thirty years ago I recorded in a letter to Bishop George de Charms as Executive Bishop, my complete accord with the program of the General Church in pursuing a vigorous policy of fostering New Church education in Bryn Athyn, Glenview, and other centers, reserving until later support of external missionary work. At that time I suggested to Bishop De Charms that I would try to collect here what I could in the hope that the General Church would consider appropriating a dollar for every dollar that I may succeed in collecting locally. This suggestion was accepted by him; but I have been sorely disappointed, as acquaintances and 'friends' bluntly expressed unwillingness to help me in any way to establish a New Jerusalem (Swedenborgian) society. . . . My friends simply would not try to understand the need for a New Christian Church in the world. . . . I had, however, interested and gathered about a dozen persons who attended services and meetings held by me in a hall of a Friendly Society, available for a time: but the owners permitted it only when they did not require its use for their own activities."
In the same letter Mr. Algernon records the death of his eldest son, who had been a great help to him in the Mission work. But still, in face of advancing age and decreasing strength, he was persistently continuing his efforts on behalf of the Church. Surely he was, a "voice crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord" (Matthew 3: 3). His grand-daughter, Rowena Algernon, writing to report his death, says that at the present time "one or two, outside his own small family circle, still profess their interest, but nothing more. . . . In spite of these deep disappointments, from year to year, and despite his age, he never gave up his efforts, and even a few days before he suffered a fatal stroke he had intended to write Bryn Athyn to further discuss proposals for continuing the work, as he knew that his days were numbered, and he could see no immediate successor in sight. . . . It is understandable that his mind was troubled when he realized that the end had come before he could see a church well organized as he deserved for his many years of service, but he accepted all as the will of the Lord, and so must we."

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We are glad to express our deep affection and our admiration for this man whose spirit of humble devotion to the New Church, and whose unswerving faith in the Heavenly Doctrine, cannot fail in the Lord's Providence to have profound consequences beyond anything we can now realize or imagine.
POWER OF PANORAMA 1973

POWER OF PANORAMA LEON S. RHODES 1973

     For many, this suggestion will be neither new nor needed, but for this writer it represents an experience which others may find of value. In preparing for one of the private doctrinal classes, opportunity arose to read in a single sitting the full book of Numbers, and the experience prompts me to suggest that others will find a new and special power in the broad panoramic view we tend to overlook.
     In our schooling, our home worship or our devotional reading, we read from the Word in rather small sections, usually a chapter or less. We become familiar with "incidents" in the biblical story-beautiful and dramatic little stories from Genesis, events in Abraham's life, Joseph sold into Egypt or become ruler, the escape from Pharaoh and incidents in the wilderness, and so forth. Our ministers customarily develop sermons from a text of a few words or verses, and over the years we feel that we have come to know very many of the stories of the Bible and are familiar with the historic series of the Old and New Testament,
     There are many of the Stories in the Word which spread over a number of chapters. Although we feel that many or most of the parts of these stories are already familiar to us, there is a new experience in the broad picture and complete story read without interruption. Characters become clearer and more alive, the drama is heightened, the setting of time and place enhances the message, and, above all, the power of God and His presence is strikingly heightened. There is an effect of changing the "old familiar stories we learned in childhood" into something immeasurably new and living.
     The book of Numbers, as an example, begins after the sons of Israel leave Sinai, and follows them until they are ready to enter the Promised Land. In its 36 chapters, some 60,000 words, are dozens of familiar vignettes as well as many sections which we find difficult to read genealogies and statistics and detailed rituals; but as a dramatic story its fifty pages far excel the most exciting novel.

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The laws set out in minute detail do not strike us as dramatic and the division between the tribes may be difficult to follow; but from these pages emerges a new Moses, struggling with a seething mass of disorganized, rebellious people in the wilderness, and the familiar stories of the manna, the fiery serpents, Balaam's blessing, and characters such as Joshua, Eleazar and Balak acquire new dimensions.
There are, of course, many other sections of the Word in which the same new power would emerge in the panoramic view. It might be that, instead of a text of a phrase or verse, some of our ministers might develop sermons on the vast texts of the story of Solomon, the Moabites, the complete story of Samuel or Daniel. And it may be that this sort of reading of the Word would be of value to supplement our regular devotional readings or our studies.
Perhaps the best example of how the broad panoramic story gains power and meaning is to read the four Gospel accounts of the Easter story. The six pages in Matthew, four and five in Mark and Luke, and the eleven pages in John add up to less than the shortest novel or even a magazine article, and the eighteen pages which present the complete Apocalypse would be a suitable evening of reading. Yet what they could add to our celebration of Easter or the Nineteenth of June!
BOOK OF WORSHIP 1973

BOOK OF WORSHIP GEORGE DE CHARMS 1973

Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:
     In my recent review of the Book of Worship published by the General Conference of the New Church (NEW CHURCH LIFE, March, p. 133), I expressed regret that there was no provision for a betrothal service. I failed to notice the fact that such a service is included in the Supplement, and is in process of development by the ministers before being introduced in more permanent form in the Liturgy for general use.
     I am delighted to know that such a service is contemplated, and apologize for not having noted it in my published review.
     GEORGE DR CHARMS

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"BEHOLD THE MAN!" 1973

"BEHOLD THE MAN!" Editor 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.
Published Monthly By

THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
BRYN ATHYN, PA.
     Editor               Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
     Business Manager          Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications, should be Scot to the Business Manager. Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.

     TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$5.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 50 cents.
     After the Lord had been scourged, and led out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe put on Him by the soldiers, He said: "Behold the Man!" In the King James Version these words are attributed to Pilate, though "Pilate" is italicized to indicate that it is not in the original, which contains only the pronoun "he." However, the Writings ascribe the words to the Lord Himself, which is highly significant spiritually.
     It is the teaching of the Writings that in His passion the Lord represented and portrayed in Himself sins against the Divine truth of the Word-the state of the Word in the church, or the state of the church as to the Word. By "man" is signified the church, and by "the Man" the truth of the church, consequently the Word. What is meant, therefore, is that the Word was so treated and regarded by the Jews among whom was the church. By the crown of thorns is signified that in that church the Divine truth was suffocated by the falsities of concupiscence, the falsities which are confirmatory of the things of the world and its pleasures; by the purple robe is meant that the genuine good of the Word was mocked.
      Still we may hear the Lord saying: "Behold the Man!" There are many who claim to respect the Word, but who mock the idea that it is inspired and an authoritative revelation of Divine truth. We restore the Word to its true place only when we venerate it as the Divine truth, as, indeed, the Divine love in human form which is the "Man." So to restore the Word was the purpose of the Lord's coming again.

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     THE SCOPE OF REDEMPTION

     If the passion of the cross was not redemption, neither can the Lord's work as the Redeemer be thought of as having been completed during His earthly life. It cannot be limited to the past, but continues in the present and will extend into the indefinite future. Profound as is the truth expressed and the gratitude it should evoke, we do not speak the whole truth when we say, we have been redeemed. To that we must add, we are redeemed; and, if we are such that the church will be established in us, we shall be redeemed. We have been redeemed; we are redeemed; we shall be redeemed!
     In emphasizing that redemption was not effected by a single Divine act, the Writings speak of it as a successive and continuing separation and deliverance from evils-an idea which applies equally to the redemption wrought by the Lord in His first and in His second advent.
     The first of redemption was the separation of the evil from the good, the elevation of the good to heaven and the removal of the evil into hell. This was the judgment, and historically it was effected in the past. The second of redemption was the co-ordination of all things in heaven and the subordination of all things in hell, by which a still more distinct separation was effected. This was the formation of a new heaven and a new hell, and it, too, took place in the past, although it extends into the present and the future.
     The third of redemption was a revelation of truths out of the new heaven, and thereby the establishment of a new church on earth. By this the good were still more distinctly separated and freed in the past; and by it they are separated and freed in the present and will be separated and freed in the future.

     Another way in which this teaching is presented is in the idea that the regeneration of man, because it is a separation and deliverance from evils and falsities, is a particular redemption by the Lord, one which exists from the general redemption effected by Him. Evils are first separated from goods in the mind, and this answers to the judgment. Goods are then collected and arranged in a heavenly form to constitute a new, individual heaven. Lastly, a new church is implanted in the mind as an external from that internal, and the development of that church in the present will continue throughout life on earth and beyond.
     That is why we say that redemption is an ongoing process, not one that was effected forever in the past. The Divine love and mercy active in redeeming men never cease. Therefore we may say, with ever new gratitude: We have been redeemed, we are redeemed, we shall be redeemed!

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     ON COUNSELING

     We are taught in the Writings that the understanding does not lead the will, that wisdom does not beget love. The understanding simply teaches and shows the way; teaching how a man ought to live and showing the way in which the will ought to go. This seems to have a bearing on counseling in almost any field; on the respective roles of counselor and counselee and the relation between them.
     Authorities on the subject appear to be agreed that where the purpose of counseling is to reach a decision the decision should be made by the counselee, not by the counselor. The role of the counselor is to aid in the process by furnishing knowledge, information, even advice; it is not to try to constrain the counselee to one particular course, and he may not recommend any course at all. In this we may see the function of the understanding in relation to the will; not leading, or generating love, but teaching and showing the way.
     There is, of course, another side to this, for it is true also that the will does nothing of itself apart from the understanding, and that whatever in the understanding agrees with the love of the will man calls wisdom, and his will acts with it. If, then, it is the will of the counselee to act according to the truth, the understanding of the counselor must show the affection of truth; otherwise there will be nothing to which the will may respond and which it may call wisdom. Then the will leads and causes the understanding to act as one with it.

     However, the teaching goes beyond counseling, and a real appreciation of it may help us to avoid some false conclusions. Whenever it becomes necessary to discipline a student, there is always someone to ask: "Don't they teach them any better than that?" The same thing may happen when an adult violates some rule of conduct accepted in the church. "Didn't he know any better? What has the church taught him?"
     Yet the fact is that the schools and the church have taught better, and if they have failed it has not been in instructing. The understanding does not lead the will, it simply teaches and shows the way. If the will is not ready to be taught and led, all the teaching and showing of the way in the world will be in vain. At the same time, the church and its schools must show unmistakably that they are on the side of the truth they teach. A non-committal, disinterested attitude should not be regarded as protecting freedom. If the joint action of the will and the understanding is to result in good it must start with truth. And in dealing with adolescent states, which are not yet of freedom and rationality, the adult can help from his own states.

189

Church News 1973

Church News Various 1973

     RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL

     Episcopal Visit

     Greetings from Rio de Janeiro to the readers of NEW CHURCH LIFE!
      We know that you have hardly heard about us, so we realize that it is time to give a brief account of certain events which took place in Rio last year.
      Although ours is a small society, we have a church built downtown, at Rua das Gracas 45, a lovely place to hold services.
      1972 was an outstanding year for us, since we were honored by a visit from Bishop and Mrs. Willard D. Pendleton. The Bishop proved to be very interested in the future of the Brazilian Society, His aim in coming to Rio was to increase the uses of the New Church among us.
      The Bishop and Mrs. Pendleton arrived on November 15 and left Rio on November 21. They were here for only six short days, and we wished that they could stay longer with us.
      The Bishop had three meetings with Pastor Figueiredo and Mr. Mendonca Lima, the secretary of the Society. He stressed the need for the church to increase instruction for the children and young people. It was his thought that we should send young people to the Academy, where they might have contact with the organized church. To reach this aim he said that he could help with the granting of scholarships for young boys and girls who want to go to Bryn Athyn.
      On Sunday, November 19, the Bishop preached a wonderful sermon on the Lord's Prayer which was translated into Portuguese by Pastor Figueiredo. The church was full of people who expressed their delight at the coming of the Bishop to our temple. The Bishop and Mrs. Pendleton greeted each member of the Society in a warm and friendly fashion. It was an unforgettable day for all of us.
     It was the first time since the dedication of the temple that we could meet and talk to the leader of the General Church.
      During their stay in Rio, the Bishop and Mrs. Pendleton, who were lodged at the Copacabana Palace Hotel, accepted invitations for dinners and luncheons. They were guests of Pastor and Mrs. Figueiredo, Mr. and Mrs. Aureo Bastos de Roure, Mr. and Mrs. Raymundo de Araujo Castro, and Mr. and Mrs. Oswaldo Tolipan. On Monday, November 20, the Bishop and Mrs. Pendleton paid a visit to Mrs. Joao de Mendonca Lima in Petropolis, 40 miles from Rio. In spite of the language difference between English and Portuguese, they could feel how happy their presence made us. Miss Patricia Santore and Miss Beatriz de Mendonca Lima were the interpreters for our visitors.
     On November 21, the Bishop and Mrs. Pendleton left Rio. We took them to the airport to say goodbye, and we all hope that some day they can come back to Brazil.
     ELOAH ARAUJO CASTRO

     THE CHURCH AT LARGE

     General Conference. The Rev. Ian Johnson, Director of the New Church College, reports in the NEW-CHURCH HERALD that an interim board of studies has been appointed to plan ahead for the training of both ministers and lay people for future service to the Church. The site of the former College building will be auctioned early this year, and it is hoped to purchase a doctor's house and consulting rooms in Whitefield, Manchester, to serve as a new center. A Writer's Weekend was arranged for March at Purley Chase.

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TWENTY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1973

     Announcements

     BRYN ATHYN, PA., JUNE 12-15, 1973

     Prior Events

Monday, June 11
     2:00-5:00 p.m.     Registration of Guests
     8:30 p.m.          President's Reception
Tuesday, June 12
     10:30 a.m.          Commencement Exercises
     2:00-5:00 p.m.     Registration of Guests

     Assembly Events

Tuesday, June 12
     8:00 p.m.          First Session of the Assembly
Wednesday, June 13
     10:00     am.          Second Session of the Assembly
     2:30     p.m.          Meeting of Theta Alpha
     2:30     p.m.          Meeting of the Sons of the Academy
     8:00     p.m.          Third Session of the Assembly
Thursday, June 14
     10:00     am.          Fourth Session of the Assembly
     2:30     p.m.          Fifth Session of the Assembly
     7:00     p.m.          Assembly Banquet
Friday, June 15
     9:30 a.m.          Divine Worship
     11:30 a.m.          Divine Worship

The full program will be published in the May issue.

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ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH SCHOOL CALENDAR: 1973-1974 1973

     Ninety-seventh School Year

     1973

Sept.     5 Wed.      Faculty Meetings
     6 Thur.      Dormitory students must arrive before 8:00 p.m.
                    College registration: local students
                    Secondary schools registration: local students
     7 Fri.     College registration: dormitory students
                    Secondary schools registration: dormitory students
     8 Sat.     8:00 a.m. All student workers report to supervisors
               8:30 p.m. President's Reception
     10 Mon.     Classes commence in all schools following Opening Exercises
Oct.     19 Fri.     Charter Day
               11:00 am. Charter Day Service (Cathedral)
               9:00 p.m. President's Reception
     20 Sat.     2:30 p.m. Annual Meeting of the Academy of the New Church
     Corporation
               7:00 p.m. Charter Day Banquet
Nov.     21 Wed.      Thanksgiving Recess begins after morning classes
     25 Sun.     Dormitory students must return by 8:00 p.m.
     26 Mon.     All schools resume classes
     30 Fri.     End of Fall Term
Dec.     3 Mon.     Winter Term commences in all schools
     21 Fri.     Christmas Recess begins after morning classes

     1974

Jan.     6 Sun.     Dormitory students must return by 8:00 p.m.
     7 Mon.     All schools resume classes
     15 Tues.     Deadline for applications for 1974-1975 school year
Feb.     18 Mon.     Washington's Birthday: holiday after special school observances
Mar.     8 Fri.     End of Winter Term
                    Spring Recess begins after morning classes
     17 Sun.     Dormitory students must return by 8:00 p.m.
     18 Mon.     Spring Term commences in all schools
Apr.     12 Fri.     Good Friday: Holiday after special chapel service
May     17 Fri.     7:45 p.m. Joint Meeting of Faculty and Corporation
     27 Mon.     Memorial Day holiday
June     7 Fri.     8:30 p.m. President's Reception
     8 Sat.     10:30 a.m. Commencement Exercises

     NOTE: At the beginning of the Thanksgiving, Christmas and Spring recesses student workers remain after classes for four hours of student work.

193

Title Unspecified 1973

[Frontpiece: Interior and exterior photographs of the Church of the Los Angeles Society.]
VINEYARD OF NABOTH 1973

VINEYARD OF NABOTH Rev. WILLARD D. PENDLETON 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
     VOL. XCIII     MAY, 1973     No. 5
     "And Ahab spake unto Na both, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs . . . and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money. And Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee." (I Kings 21: 2, 3)

     To understand the story of Naboth, we must know that the ancient Israelite held his land as a tenant and not as a landowner. The reason for this was that the land of Canaan belonged to Jehovah, and no man, be he priest or king, could take to himself that which belonged unto God. So it was that when the sons of Israel occupied Canaan, all land grants were issued in the name of Jehovah on strict but equitable terms of vassalage. According to the law, the right to live on the land and work the, soil descended by right of birth from father to son, but in no circumstance was it to be conveyed to another. There was, however, an exception to this, in that the landholder was permitted to sell or, in effect, lease his land in payment of a debt, but at any time he could redeem it for the price of the estimated value of the crops up to the time of the year of jubilee. In the year of jubilee, that is, every fiftieth year, all land reverted to the original owner or his male descendants in recognition of the fact that the earth is the Lord's. "For the land is Mine; ye are [but] strangers and sojourners with Me."*
     * Leviticus 25: 23.
     Not only did this remarkable agrarian law serve to remind the Israelite of his dependency upon Jehovah, but it also provided for the inalienability of estates.

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The imprudent Israelite might impoverish himself, but he could not, through sale to another, deprive his descendants of the use of the land. In purpose the law looked to the preservation of a race of freemen, that is, of men who could not be dispossessed of their means of existence. Yet this law, which was intended to provide for the security of the individual, was, in effect, nullified by later day circumstances. As the number of heirs increased, the original land grants could no longer sustain them. Like all laws which no longer relate to existing situations, this law concerning the ownership and disposition of land was gradually forgotten by all save a few who, like Naboth the Jezreelite, were God-fearing and faithful. So it was that when Ahab, who was king in Samaria, inquired of Naboth in regard to the sale of his vineyard, Naboth answered him, saying, "The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the in- heritance of my fathers unto thee."

     As man is dependent upon the earth for his existence, so he is dependent upon the Lord for life. But man is not forced to acknowledge this dependency: He can think in favor of God or against God, as he wills. It is in this that man's freedom consists. Like Ahab, therefore who sought the vineyard of Naboth, we can, if we will, think and reason from the appearance of self-life, that is, from the appearance that the good which we do is inherent in self. This is the illusion of our age. In attributing to himself the good which he does, man rejects the primary teaching of all Divine revelation, that is, the teaching that the Lord alone is good. We can understand, therefore, why it was that when Ahab sought the vineyard of Naboth, Naboth answered him, saying, "The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee."
     By the vineyard of Naboth is signified the church. We are not speaking here of the organized church but of those goods and truths in which the life of the church consists. So it was that in ancient Israel not only did the land belong to the Lord but also the harvest. It was in recognition of this that every Israelite was required to appear before the Lord three times in the year and to bring with him as an offering a portion of his harvest. It is the same with the man of the New Church; in the doing of that which is good, we are not to forget that the good which we do is from the Lord.
     Now it is to be noted that Ahab did not want the vineyard of Naboth for a vineyard but for a garden of herbs. Herein lies the key to our text. Like Ahab there are many at this day who profess an interest in religion, but their interest is not in the good of doctrine but in those moral and social truths to which the Word in its letter attests. In effect, they regard the church as a social institution, that is, as an institution which is provided to promote social progress.

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Everywhere the cry is for social action, that is, for a better world.
     In reviewing the problems of modern society, we have no difficulty in understanding man's concern. What is more, there is a social gospel implicit in Scripture. It is clearly and directly defined in the New Testament. This is not to be confused, however, with the social gospel that is preached at this day. Whereas the New Testament emphasizes the need for repentance on the part of the individual and the recognition that the origin of all evil is in self; the modern gospel assumes that self is inherently good and that all that is required for a better world is the collective action of men of good will. There is a world of difference between these two approaches to the problems that beset society, each based upon a different interpretation of the nature of man.

     It is the teaching of all Divine revelation that of himself man is evil and that from himself he cannot do good. Man can, if he will, however, shun what is evil in self and do good from the Lord. But how can man shun what is evil unless he first knows what evil is; and how can he do good from the Lord unless he first knows the Lord? This is the reason why the Word has been given, not only the Word as revealed in the Old and New Testament but also the Word as it is now revealed in its spiritual sense. It is the latter which imparts life and meaning to the former and enables the mind to enter with understanding into what has heretofore been referred to as the mysteries of faith. The primary function of the church, therefore, is to teach the Word in order that what is Divine may be known among men. In this, and in no other way, can the ultimate solution to the problems which beset humanity be found. After all, the origin of evil is not in society as such but in the greed and self-seeking of man.
     It is a curious thing that the term, evil, is rarely used at this day. What was formerly regarded as evil is now referred to as a social maladjustment. The assumption here is that good is a matter of social effectiveness and that if those conditions which inhibit man's ability to be of use were removed, all men would be good. While it is true that adverse social conditions have a powerful impact upon the mind and that many are caught up in situations with which they cannot effectively cope, it does not follow that if these conditions were removed, man would instinctively do what is good. If this were so, how do we account for the fall of man? The fact is that modern thought does not account for it at all, in that men no longer credit the scriptural account of man's first disobedience. This is another manifestation of the spiritual ignorance of our day. In assuming that man is inherently good, men make the further assumption that what seems good to self is good.

196

Nothing could be further from the truth; for the truth is that God is good and if, in the exercise of his freedom, man chooses to be led by himself, he turns what is good into evil in himself, for all evil is the perversion of good. Is not adultery the perversion of conjugial love, the lie a perversion of the truth, and self-seeking the perversion of the use that self is intended to perform? How, then, can we hope to cure the ills of society unless we first shun what is evil in self? In other words, how can we act from a social conscience unless this is sustained by a spiritual conscience?
The function of the church, therefore, is to teach the Word. In this, and in no other way, can a spiritual conscience be formed in the understanding. To lose sight of this purpose is to sell the Lord's vineyard for a garden of herbs, that is, to use it for a lesser purpose. Social involvement, useful as it may be, is not the responsibility of the church. The only exceptions to this are what are described in the Writings as the benefactions of charity, which are provisions for the care of the poor and the needy. It is noted, however, that because these things lie outside the use that is proper to the church, they are not to be regarded as obligations but as benefactions. The benefactions of charity, however, are one thing, and social involvement is another. By social involvement is meant collective action on the part of the church to induce government and other political agencies to pass laws which will provide basic security for all and insure social justice.

Political action for social purposes, however, is not a use of the church; it is a use of the community. We must distinguish, therefore, as the Writings do, between those uses which are proper to the man of the church and those uses which are proper to the member of the community. It is true that we are speaking of the same man, that is, of the same individual, but in treating of the degrees of the neighbor, the Writings carefully distinguish between those responsibilities which belong to the man of the church and those which pertain to the member of the community. Herein is to be found an effective separation of church and state. As New Church men, we should have a deep concern for social justice, but it is as citizens that we should participate in those forums designed to promote the common good. Let us have no illusions in this regard; in no way do the Writings relieve us of our responsibilities to the collective neighbor. As clearly and undeniably taught in the New Testament, all men are the neighbor who is to be loved and served. To this, however, the Writings add that each is to be loved according to the use which he performs. An indiscriminate love of the neighbor is not truly a love of the neighbor, for interiorly speaking, the neighbor is the use which the person performs.

197

     So it is that the Writings distinguish between uses, according to each the honor and dignity of the good which is served.
     The highest use is the good of the church, which looks to the salvation of all men. The function of the church, therefore, is to teach the Word so that what is Divine may be known among men. Apart from the Word the Lord cannot be known, for in no other way can the Divine truth be revealed to the sight of the mind. Thus it was that the Lord came into the world as Divine truth in human form, and was it not to His Divine Human that He referred when He instructed His disciples, saying, "If ye continue in My Word . . . ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free"?* It is to this use, that is, to the continuation of His Word, that the church is dedicated. We admit to no other purpose. Like Naboth, therefore, who refused to sell his vineyard for a garden of herbs, we hold that the church is the Lord's and that it was not intended to serve as a social institution.
     * John 8:31
     As already stated, however, this in no wise relieves the man of the church, who is also a citizen, of his social responsibilities; indeed, it would seem as if the doctrine of use, as it is taught in the Writings, would strengthen and confirm our social conscience. Everywhere there are needs which await men of conviction, that is, men who are convinced that the purpose in life is to be found in serving the good of the neighbor. There is no teaching in the Writings that supports a withdrawal from life and the resulting disregard of our social obligations; indeed, the Writings seek to awaken in us an increased sense of social awareness and urge us to act in social affairs not only from a sense of human obligation but for the sake of the use which is served.
     Man does not live for himself alone but in order that he may be of use to others. The ideal of use, however, is a meaningless concept, unless it is ultimated in service to others. To be of use, therefore, man must also be of service; and wherever there is a need, there is a service to be performed. In service to the church man supports the use of the church, and in service to the community man supports the use of society. Yet in the service of one or the other, it is vital that we distinguish between them lest, as is the case at the present day, we lose our perspective, and in confusing the use of the one with the other, we make of the Lord's vineyard a garden of herbs. Amen.

     LESSONS:     I Kings 21: 1-14. Luke 10: 25-37. True Christian Religion 413-415.
     MUSIC: Liturgy, pages 440, 498, 591.
     PRAYERS: Liturgy, nos. 8, 25.

198

USE OF SENSUALS IN THE FORMATIVE YEARS 1973

USE OF SENSUALS IN THE FORMATIVE YEARS Rev. FREDERICK L. SCHNARR 1973

     (The first of four lectures given to the Educational Council, August 14-17, 1972.)

     A REVIEW OF THE CONTENTS AND USES OF THE SENSUOUS DEGREE OF THE MIND

     Every infant, when he first awakes in this world, begins to enter the life of what is purely sensual. The five senses develop and open in an ordered sequence, bringing to the mind the activity and life of the world.
     The Lord's life, clothed and adapted to human reception by the life of the celestial heavens, inflows from within. It descends through the higher degrees of the mind; and finally, in the lowest plane of man's life, his sensuous, it meets, interprets and orders for future use, the sensations from the world. In this meeting of life from within and sensation from without the human mind begins the process of formation. In a sense, this is the beginning of the educational process, a process which continues to relate to the sensual plane throughout man's life.
     Our first thought concerning the sensual is that, being first, it is simple and relatively uncomplicated when compared to the higher degrees of the mind. The knowledges and delights that form the sensual seem easily observed and identified. Who is not aware of the knowledges and delights that flow through the senses of the body and continue with some degree of familiarity and activity all through life? Old age, even when accompanied by considerable wisdom, does not seem to stifle the desires and cravings of the senses; the body hungers and thirsts, and needs attention and care. There is delight in the sights and sounds of nature, harmony, beauty and form. There is desire to see and cherish familiar objects, places and friends, and to touch and fondle with love and affection infants and children, and that special person who has shared the deepest hopes and joys and, perhaps, the states of the conjugial itself.
     Yet, despite our familiarity with sensual things, the Writings show us that the sensual is a most complex plane of life. It serves many uses, both to heaven and to hell. It is where all life begins and, in a sense, it is where all life comes back to rest. It is a necessary means in the formation of the mind, a foundation that must support and ultimate all rational and spiritual thought and life.

199

Because so much of its formation takes place prior to man's adult life, it is of special concern to parents and educators alike.
     The Writings give us a great deal of instruction that relates to the proper education of the sensual with our children. Some of these teachings we consider of the greatest importance as guides in our endeavor to establish a formal educational system that is in the highest degree in accord with the Lord's order and purpose for man here on earth. There is, perhaps, nothing new in the teachings we would review and discuss, but we would believe that from time to time they should be re-examined and reflected upon to ensure that they are an active and living part of our thought and effort. These teachings are a part of that total instruction that is fundamental in any field of education if that education is to be enlightened and nourished by the Lord in His Word.

     As a background for considering the teachings that relate to the education of the sensual and the use of sensual knowledges, we would first review the nature of the sensual degree of the mind itself.
     Most commonly the Writings speak of man's natural mind as consisting of three degrees; the lowest being the sensuous, the middle the natural, and the highest the rational.* Each of these degrees is in turn often there spoken of as consisting of two parts; thus we read of the interior or exterior rational, or the interior or exterior sensuous,** and so forth.
     * AE 543: 3, AC 1589: 2, 4038: 2.
     ** AC 10236, 4570: 2.
     Though the sensuous, like the other degrees of the natural mind, is unopened and unformed at birth, it is, nevertheless, not empty. It contains the impress of man's heredity, almost all of which is utterly twisted and distorted from evil and falsity in former generations. In time, as man grows toward adult life, this heredity will infect everything that enters the sensuous mind with the desire and affection for evil.* Indeed, the Writings say that the complex of all evil is in the sensuous, and that it is the very fountainhead of all evil, and falsity therefrom.**
     * AE 543: 4
     ** AE 739 9; 645: 71.
     What, then, happens to the influx of the Lord's life, clothed in the states of the celestial heavens, that flows into the sensuous mind through the higher degrees of the mind? Why is it not twisted and perverted right from birth? The answer is that the will of man from heredity cannot become active until there is a memory and thought therefrom in the understanding whereby the desires of the will can have life and come before man's conscious thought.
     But there is another aspect of this teaching that is of great importance.

200

Influx from the Lord through heaven does not flow into man's hereditary will at birth; but it nevertheless flows into the sensuous degree of the mind and there receives and interprets the sensations that have started to inflow from the world through the five senses. The baby has no control over these sensations-no freedom to accept or reject them. He is as yet completely incapable of thought. This meeting of influx from heaven with the first sensations of the senses, without the conscious interference of man's states, has been provided in the Lord's wisdom as the means of gifting man with delights and affections for the goods and truths of heaven. These are the first remains, without which a man could never think or will anything good or true. He could never respond to the life of heaven, but would suffocate, as it were, in the lusts born from his heredity.* So indeed it was in the fall of the Most Ancient Church when man's first remains began to perish; then it was that the Lord had to provide a new means whereby such remains could be given. And so it is now that in the environment of his mother's arms, and the world of his infant crib, remains from heaven are formed in man's sensuous despite the fact that it is such a disordered form. Thus also is born man's first memory, a memory that will remain above and beyond his conscious thought, even though it was formed in his sensuous.
     * AC 1050, 1450, 1548, 1906.
     Though man's remains are born in his sensuous, they are not allowed to remain there. If they did, they would be destroyed by the power of evil that so affects the sensuous; and they would be destroyed before man could prevent this through the rational sight of truth in the understanding. The Lord, therefore, removes these first remains, this infantile memory, and stores them away in the interior of the rational mind.* Here they continue to act as a constant but secret means of receiving the life of heaven, and especially of nourishing man with that all-important love, the love of truth for the sake of truth. This is the love that makes it possible for man in his twisted and perverted states yet to will to seek the Lord in His Word, to know Him there, and to do His will.**
     * AC 1906: 3.
     ** AC 6156, 9014.

     Can parents have an effect upon the amount of first remains that an infant receives? Do parental states pass to the child through the media of the senses, and provide for the possibility of more or fewer remains? That parents and teachers can have a profound effect as to the means whereby ~
remains are received in later infancy, childhood and youth, seems abundantly clear. Most remains depend on goods and truths that are learned from the Word, and on the activity, for example, of such things as a love of parents. Obviously, parents and teachers are a means of either providing or denying many of such necessary means.*

201

There are passages which speak of greater and fewer remains, and imply, certainly, that the amount of remains depends upon the knowledges of the Word that are offered to the young mind. As to the formal instruction in truths from the Word, we would certainly believe that, most interiorly viewed, New Church education is indeed a primary means of providing our children with a way of obtaining a greater and greater reservoir of remains. (To pursue this subject further we would direct your attention to the chapter on Remains in Bishop Pendleton's Foundations of New Church Education.)
     * AC 561, 1450.
     Apart from this first use of serving to establish remains, the sensuous mind performs many other uses throughout man's life. Before we briefly review these uses, let us be sure that we understand just what is meant by the sensuous things that form the sensuous degree.
     In defining sensuous things, the Writings first declare that they are not the five senses of the body, but rather ". . . that which is proximately from these."* Man has the five senses, and the sensations therefrom, in common with brute animals, but because such ultimate sensation is merely physical it perishes with the death of the body. "The external sensuous that is not common to animals, and yet is an external sensuous, is that which man has in his memory from the world, and is constituted solely of worldly, corporeal and earthly things."** Sensuous things are all the knowledges and delights, and the immediate or proximate thoughts and affections therefrom, which flow through the five senses and form the first memory.*** The sensuous is the first to be opened with infants and is such that an infant can be affected,
     * AC 9730.
     ** AC 10236.
     *** AC 5157, 8872; AE 543: 2.

     ". . . by no other objects than those which make one with the five senses. For infants learn to think by means of the senses, and to be affected by objects that are in accord with the things that are pleasing to the senses; consequently, the first internal that is opened with them is the sensual, that is called man's ultimate sensual, or the corporeal sensual."*
     * AE 543: 2.

     A man who thinks and desires from nothing except the cravings of the senses of the body and their appetites, the Writings declare to be a sensuous man.*
     * AC 9730, 10236.
     When man's will and understanding were separated after the fall, it was necessary that each of these faculties have a means of formation and ultimation in the sensuous degree. It was also necessary that the sensations serving each faculty be kept distinct so that the life of one faculty could develop freely without being bound by the other faculty.

202

The purpose, of course, was to allow the understanding a growth and development, and finally a sight and understanding of truth free from the overwhelmingly perverted desires of the hereditary will. The Lord, therefore, changed and ordered the very senses of the body so that the senses of hearing and sight, and the knowledges and delights flowing through them should serve as a basis for the understanding in the sensuous.* There is an interesting passage in True Christian Religion which extends this idea further and states that, "there are sensual things that minister to the understanding, and these are the various natural studies called physics."** How such natural studies serve the intellect in the sensuous we will discuss in a later class, but we appeal to the Physics Department for enlightenment as to why physics alone should be so particularly and singularly mentioned.
     * AC 9996.
     ** 402: 15.
     The will is served in the sensuous by the senses of taste and touch, and the knowledges and delights flowing through them. The sense of smell is the ultimate of perception relating to both.*
     * AC 9996.

     The relationship of sensual things to the will and understanding, and the implications of the teachings relating thereto is a study in itself. We will refer to aspects of this relationship in later classes, but we cannot enter into it any more fully at this time. We would draw your attention, however, to the many references and the useful comments relating thereto in Bishop Benade's Conversations on Education, the long chapter, Suggestions to Teachers, but only the part in pages 75-107.
     To understand more clearly what the sensuous is, let us now review the uses it performs. We would note that these uses are very closely interrelated; and we realize that each use mentioned could, in turn, be divided in to other particulars. This perhaps is also the reason why it is difficult, if not impossible, to list these uses in the order of their importance.
     1. The first use of establishing remains we have already discussed above. Since remains are necessary to man's very existence, this obviously is a primary use. Once the first infantile remains are formed and stored away in the interior rational, the sensuous still continues to serve in the formation of remains. Remains continue to be formed throughout infancy, childhood and youth, and indeed throughout life. In the formative years these remains become more and more exterior as man's primary spiritual associations change from the higher heavens to the lower heavens. It seems strange that for a time as the mind is opened from one plane to another the remains should become more exterior while yet the degrees of the mind opened become more interior.

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Whether remains are formed in the sensuous, the natural or the rational mind, they are all states of delight and affection for what is good and true; and, being such, they are all protected from man's evils by being raised into the interiors of the rational. From this they come forth only when there are suitable and corresponding externals with which they can be conjoined, and when there is not the presence of the activity of an evil. The function of the sensuous in this respect is that it is in the sensuous, where are the external forms whereby the remains were first introduced, that man must in time receive again the activity and states from remains when they return.* We will refer to this further in another relationship when we discuss how the sensuous must be prepared to serve spiritual things.
     * AC 17382284, 2967: 2, 5342: 3, 5897, 6156, 7556: 2.
     2. The second use of the sensuous is that of providing a plane of thought and life whereby the middle or natural degree of the mind can be opened. We noted the teaching that infants learn to think from the senses and by means of the senses-that they are affected by objects that are pleasing to the senses. All of these objects and sensations are taken from the world. They are the infant's world through his whole first six or seven years of growth.* In the curiosity born from his external innocence, the infant lives in the pleasures especially of touch and taste, and then of hearing and sight. He cannot think above these pleasures of the senses, but he can think from them, and in this the understanding and the will come into the first plane of independent thought and affection. Until something of such a plane is formed, the mind cannot begin to extend itself through imagination and reason to concepts that are beyond the environment of what is purely sensual.** Things of the understanding arise from those of sense by a sort of extraction, for things of the understanding are conclusions. A boy, not yet of mature age, composes his ideas still from the exterior natural because his ideas are from sensual things. When he can draw conclusions as to causes, he begins to think from the interior natural, and later the rational (immaterial and intellectual things).
     * AC 10225-five years.
     ** AE 543: 2. Cf. AC 5580, 5497.

     3. The third use of the sensuous is that of communication. For man's thoughts, desires and intentions to come into act, or for them to be conveyed from one person to another, it is obvious that they must enter into sensual things as a means.* How cold and meaningless the meeting of friends would be if they could communicate nothing of their feelings of delight through the touch of the hand, the expression of the eye, physical 6 gestures, or the spoken word.
     * AC 9216; TCR 402: 13.

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     4. The fourth use of the sensuous is that of ultimation. This is, of course, closely related to the use of communication. All things of man's spiritual life, as well as everything of his rational and natural life, must, in time, descend into the sensuous. There is a way in which this is also true of spiritual and celestial things. As the lowest plane of the life of the mind, the sensuous contains the material and sensual impressions in which all things not only come to rest but are, as it were, given body and substance. The Writings speak of the sensuous as a garment or covering. The most abstract, immaterial and intellectual idea the rational is capable of forming must, in time, be clothed with sensual images if it is to enter the things of life to perform uses. In a somewhat different way, the same is true of spiritual and celestial things. These are not only clothed in the words and phrases of language that is composed of sensual things in the Word, but even the ideas of spiritual life find meaning and identification by the use of the sensual things into which they fall. How would we understand all the teachings and descriptions concerning the spiritual sun, for example, if there were no sensual knowledge relating to a natural sun wherein the spiritual idea could be clothed and presented?* The use of the sensuous in ultimating all things of man's life has so many aspects that we cannot discuss it more fully at this time. Suffice it to say that     the general law of Divine influx is that it passes from primes to ultimates; and with man, the ultimates are his sensual things.**
     * AC 9212:2,9215, 9726.
     ** Wis. VIII: 3.

     5. The fifth use of the sensuous is that of fixation. When things are clothed and ultimated in the sensuous, they are also fixed in the sensuous memory. Such fixation is, of course, necessary to the development of man's rational faculty. Space and time relationships exist in the natural universe because the rational cannot be formed without them. The sensuous memory retains, therefore, the sensuals of space and time relationships as a necessary basis of thought.* But more than this, the sensuous retains as a permanent record everything man has ever thought, felt, experienced or done. So the Writings say that man's life is as it were gathered together and held, and fixed in the sensuous.**
     * DLW 7; AC 3938; AE 1219: 5.
     ** AC 9216, SD 5552.
     These are five of the major uses of the sensuous. Many more uses could be added for every subject you can think of has some relationship to the sensuous. In future lectures we will examine some particular teachings concerning the special uses of the sensuals of the Word as well as the sensuals from nature in the education of children and young people.

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Our purpose at this time is to give a general idea of the sensuous as a background and basis for our consideration of particular teachings and their possible application.
     Now, despite all these good uses the sensuous performs, we would recall the reference to the fact that the sensuous is the seat and fountainhead of all man's evils and the falsities therefrom.* It is where the love of self dwells. It has nothing spiritual in it.** Because the sensuous has been corrupted by hereditary evil, and because it receives the sensual delights and knowledges from the world and from the body, it tends to reject and even destroy all spiritual goods and truths that flow in from above. Its affections and thoughts are "diametrically contrary" to spiritual affections and thoughts which are from heaven.*** Because of the evils which live in the sensuous, it is said to communicate with hell, and to make one with its life.****
     * AE 654: 71, 739: 9.
     ** SD 5464: 8; AC 9276.
     *** AE 563: 1.
     **** AE 739: 9. Cf. AC 9341.
     Since the sensuous contains the ultimate things of man's life, it is the last part of him to be regenerated. But apparently there are few with whom it can be regenerated, so twisted and perverted is its life and so utterly materialistic are the ideas with which it is filled.* So the Writings state that, "the man who is being regenerated, especially at this day, is not regenerated as to the sensuous, but as to the natural which is next above the sensuous, to which he is elevated by the Lord from the sensuous."**
     * AC 7442: 3.
     ** Ibid. Cf. AC 9726; AE 739: 12.
     What, then, happens after death to the sensuous of the reformed and regenerating man? Certainly it cannot die, for it is that wherein man's whole life rests, and in which his character and quality are fixed. But the Lord can and does remove man from the activity and life of its delights and thoughts and, as it were, puts it into an eternal sleep.* It is said to be made quiescent.**
     * AC 9730, 10,236: 2.
     ** Ibid.
     Now despite the many teachings as to the completely perverted nature of the sensuous and the fact that its life after death must be made inactive because of this, we find some passages which speak of many angels in the natural heaven as being "merely sensual" and yet "well-disposed.* We read concerning them that,
     * AE 342: 4.

      ". . . because they were sensual they were unable to understand what the spiritual is, but only what the natural is; nor could they apprehend the Word and the doctrine of the church from the Word except sensually. . . . At this day there is an immense number there, because so many at this day are sensual. This lowest part of heaven corresponds to the soles of the feet."*
     * Ibid. Cf. AC 631i; AE 543: 5.

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     However we are to understand the nature of these lowest natural angels that are merely sensual, one thing is clear from general doctrine, and these angels can be no exception to it, and that is that a man cannot be saved unless his mind, his affections, and thoughts are elevated and raised up above the sensuous. A man cannot remain in Egypt and find in Egypt the life of heaven. Egypt serves its many uses to him, as we have noted in studying the uses of the sensuous. And so in the story of the Word, Abraham, Jacob and Joseph all sojourn in Egypt because the celestial and spiritual things flowing into man from heaven all need to be clothed by sensual and natural knowledges and delights, especially from the Word, whereby man can be affected by the life of heaven.* And so it is at first that the land of Egypt nourishes and sustains these visitors, and the Pharaoh of Egypt is kindly and considerate. But man's spiritual enemies from his heredity are in Egypt also; and they gradually come forth to rule, to enslave, and to destroy. A hard and cruel Pharaoh comes to the throne, representing how man's sensuous begins to act when persuaded, enticed, urged and infested by the loves of self and the world.** And so it is that man must leave the mere thought and delight of sensual and natural things lest he be hopelessly captivated there forever.
     * AE 448: 3,654:15.
     ** AC 8085, 6639; AE 543: 6,654: 74, 962: 8.
     Now we realize that the story of the sons of Israel captive in Egypt is describing an adult state. Something of natural and rational thought and life has already been active with the adult, for the natural is opened in childhood and the rational in youth. Unless the higher degrees of the natural mind are opened so that they can see and acknowledge truths that are above and beyond the sensuous, man could never be elevated from the sensuous-he could never escape from Egypt.
     An infant passing into the states of childhood moves from the life of sensual thought and delight to the life of natural thought and delight. He is not free to do otherwise for there is as yet nothing of rational thought wherefrom the "as of self" operates. He is, therefore, led according to the laws of Divine order which govern the development of the mind, assisted or retarded by the form and order of the environment that surrounds him. With the infant, therefore, the question is not one of his escaping from Egypt, but rather one of suitable preparation so that in time the escape from Egypt may come to pass more easily and fully.
     * Cf. AE 543: 2; AC 5497.

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     Each degree of the mind, including the sensuous, has its own distinct knowledges, thoughts and affections. So a man may at one time think and be affected by merely sensual things; at another time he may think and be affected by natural knowledges (often called memory-knowledges-the thoughts and conclusions he draws forth from sensual things); at still another time he may think and be affected by rational things; and, if his spiritual mind is opened, he may think and be affected by spiritual and celestial things.* Sometimes he is in one degree, and sometimes in another.** Nevertheless, while the degrees are so distinct, the higher degrees enter the sensuous to be covered and ultimated, that these higher things may have the means of communicating with others and performing uses thereby. Therefore, in the opening of the higher degrees, the sensuous is not left behind in the sense that it ceases to perform uses for the higher degrees; it is left behind in the sense that its thought and life no longer rule, but rather serve.***
     * AC 5774.
     ** Ibid.
     *** AC 5165.

     As we have noted, in a regenerative sense a young child cannot be elevated above the sensuous, nor with him can the sensuous yet become a proper servant to the higher planes of thought and life. Yet it is true that in the very Divine laws whereby the planes of the mind are opened in infancy, childhood and youth, and in the very means that the Lord has provided from the Word whereby these planes may be infilled with life from the Divine, we not only see the regenerative work of adult life pre-imaged; but we see in the preparations made by the Lord the Divine effort and endeavor to raise man from the life of merely natural things to the life of spiritual things. We believe that if we can see something of the nature of the Lord's effort in the work of preparing and opening the degrees of the mind prior to adult life, we will have the primary means whereby we, as parents and educators, may co-operate most fully with the essential purposes of the Divine for man's greatest happiness and usefulness. And, after all, these must also be the essential purposes of all education.
     Man cannot by his own imagination, his own thought, or his own will elevate himself out of merely sensual thought and life; indeed, he cannot elevate himself out of any degree of life. As we have noted, the Divine inflows into each degree of life all the way down to the very sensuous; and it brings everything of the Divine life to man, together with the states of heaven. Man, however, cannot be conscious of anything of this influx, nor can its gifts and states become a part of his life unless he has the proper means to receive and use it.

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These means he cannot invent for himself although he is responsible for acquiring them. They are, of course, the goods and truths of the Word. They come to man, as it were from without through the media of the five senses.
In our next class, we will examine the importance of the truths of the Word to the forming states of the mind; and will give particular consideration to the use of the sensual goods and truths of the Word.
SCIENCE AND COGNITIONS 1973

SCIENCE AND COGNITIONS Rev. REGINALD W. BROWN 1973

     (Continued from the April issue.)

     The Science of Cognitions.

     The science of cognitions is frequently mentioned in the Writings. This connotation further emphasizes the fundamental distinction between the uses of the terms "science" and "cognition." It is explained that a science of cognitions arises when men attempt to enter into the mysteries of faith, and develop doctrines concerning spiritual and Divine things from the things of the world instead of from revelation. It is also said that a mere science of cognitions arises when men take the cognitions derived from revelation alienated from the acknowledgment of their Divine origin, and deal with them as worldly scientifics. Again, it is I stated that "those are in the science of cognitions who are in the doctrinals of faith, and do not want to know the truths of the cognitions or doctrinals,"* which refer to life. Children are also spoken of as being in the science of cognitions in the degree that they do not perceive and appreciate their Divine origin.
     * AC 3420.
     The typical attitude implied in the phrase "science of cognitions" is that of the worldly and corporeal man, described in Arcana Coelestia, 128, who says: "If I am not instructed concerning the things of faith i.e.     concerning cognitions] by means of sensuous things, so that I may see; or by means of scientific things, so that I may understand; I will not believe."

     Cognitions Proper are Scientific in Character

     Cognitions properly so called, although they are derived from revelation and are distinct from the sciences proper, are scientific in character, that is to say, they are similar in their process of formation in the minds of men to the sciences which are the thoughtful and organized interpretation of the knowledge and experience derived from nature and from the world of human affairs.

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The sciences are man's interpretation of the experience and knowledge derived from the things of the natural world. Cognitions on the other hand are his interpretation of the teachings of revelation in regard to Divine and spiritual things, and their relation to the things of nature and the affairs of the world. For this reason cognitions are called scientific, and are said to be concluded in a manner similar to other scientifics, and to be more or less limited appearances of the truths themselves of revelation.
     Cognitions on the part of man are doctrines, or doctrinal things, drawn and concluded from the letter of the Word, or from the revelation of its spiritual sense. As stated in Arcana Coelestia, 3161, such cognitions "are learned partly from the doctrine of faith [as interpreted and taught by the church], partly immediately from the Word, and thence partly from one's own study." These learnings are all initiated by a posterior or external way by means of the senses, just like the things that are learned from the world, about the things of the world. But even though these things, as first impressed on the sensory memory, may in themselves be doctrinal or scientific in character or in form, they are not appreciated or cognized as such until through the process of thinking they are perceived in their doctrinal or scientific bearing. By this process they are raised out of the purely sensuous memory, from which they may be repeated by rote, into the memory of things thought over and concluded from thought. It is at this stage that the cognitions of spiritual things derived from revelation became cognitions proper on the part of man; that is to say, become scientifically understood. In this sense, cognitions proper are coordinated with, and at the same time distinguished from, the sciences derived from the world. In this sense they are classed as a specific kind of scientifics or things of a scientific nature. As is said in Arcana Coelestia, 9688; "Cognitions are the scientifics of the church," and in 9945; "Cognitions are interior scientifics, such as are those of the church concerning faith and love." They are interior scientifics because they refer to spiritual and Divine things, and thence to the life of charity towards the neighbor and love to the Lord.

     What is Science, and What Scientifics?

     It has been shown that the Writings class cognitions as scientifics, that is, doctrines which are scientific in their general character and mode of derivation. But they are distinguished as a unique kind of scientific since they are essentially derived from revelation; other scientifics being sometimes called "cognitions" when they attempt to cover and preempt the same field, by endeavoring to solve the mysteries of faith by purely natural means.

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     Since the Writings speak of cognitions as knowledge of a scientific character, let us turn for a moment to some of the more specific explanations given in regard to the nature of what is properly scientific.
     As stated in Spiritual Diary, 249 "Scientific truths are truths concluded or deduced from the sciences." It follows, as expressed in Arcana Coelestia, 196, that he is scientific who concludes from the sciences. It is further explained that "the sensual man believes his senses only"; whereas "the scientific man draws conclusions from the senses; [and] the philosophical man develops abstract concepts."     [Italics added.] We are further taught, as in Arcana Coelestia, 3309, that

     "sensual truths are those in which children are, scientific truths are those in which the same children are when they grow up; for no one can be in scientific truths, unless he first be in sensual truths, inasmuch as the ideas of the former are procured from the latter; afterwards from scientific truths may be learned and comprehended truths still more interior, which are doctrinal truths." [Italics added.]

     One of the numbers that Swedenborg particularly refers to in defining cognitions as scientifics concerning spiritual things, is Arcana Coelestia, 5774, in which he explains still more explicitly what is properly scientific. It is stated that

     "Sensuals are one thing, scientific things another, and truths another; they succeed each other, for from sensuals exist scientifics, and from scientifics, truths. For the things which enter by the senses are stored up in the memory, and man concludes from them what is scientific, or from them man perceives the scientific thing which he learns; from scientifics he next concludes truths, or from them he perceives the truth which be learns." [Italics added.]

     As a child, man thinks and apprehends from sensuals; as he advances he thinks and apprehends from scientifics (i.e. from scientific conclusions), and afterwards from truths (i.e. from broader rational conclusions); this is the way to judgment into which a man grows by age. Each of these modes of thinking, it is said, is distinct. Man thinks scientifically only when he elevates himself above sensuals and thinks more interiorly.
     But there are different kinds of things about which man may think either sensually, scientifically, or more truly rationally. Thence it is said in Arcana 5934 that there are scientifics of various kinds:

      "there are scientifics which concern terrestrial, corporeal and earthly things, which are the lowest, for these are immediately from outward terrestrial things or those of the body; there are scientifics which concern the civil state, its government, statutes and laws, which are somewhat more interior; there are scientifics which concern the things which are of moral life, which are more interior still.

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The scientifics which are of spiritual life are more interior [in their nature] than all [the rest]; these are the truths of the church, which so far as they are only from doctrine with man are no other than scientific."

     It is this last kind of scientifics, namely, those that concern spiritual things, that Swedenborg specifically designates as cognitions. These cognitions together with the other kinds of scientifics may exist simultaneously, as scientific knowledge understood in a scientific manner. But there is an essential difference in the kind of development that these several kinds of scientific knowledge are able to effect. The difference is that each kind is able to open the degree of the mind to which it relates, or about whose proper activities it is concerned, for scientifics according to their degree are able to open the corresponding degrees of the mind. Cognitions or the scientifics relating to spiritual things and derived scientifically from revelation are the only means of opening the spiritual mind interiorly.
     The three degrees of knowledge, namely, sensual, scientific, and rational or philosophic, Swedenborg refers to as experience, science, and reason in his philosophical works. In the Epilogue to the Animal Kingdom, n. 461, we find, in the explanation of these three kinds of knowledge, one of the clearest definitions of what he means by the sciences.

     "With respect to the sciences . . . they are the mistresses which teach us to reduce the accumulations of experience to order, to select what is fitting, to insert it in the becoming place, and as architects to construct the edifice, so that all things shall be put together according to rule. Then again the sciences examine with their compasses and levels, and ascertain whether the building that has been constructed be graceful and regular in its result. It is utterly impossible by the help of experience alone, apart from the sciences, as patrons of genius, to climb to the Helicon where simple truths reside, and where causes take precedence of effects. For the sciences bring vague and scattered ideas together, under a few heads, and place them before the eye of the mind in a simpler and more connected form, and thereby give boundaries to the rational sight, and concentrate it more closely on the essences of things: they also reduce those [ideas] to formulas or words, and circumscribe and define these words by terms, that they may fall more easily and rapidly under the comprehension of the master and the scholar; thus they give a comparatively clear representation of those things that result from the composition of a number of ideas into one, and in the end, from a number of such compound ideas, as conclusions; for these ideas are already products, and as it were children, conceived and brought forth by means of experience from the human faculties."

     Cognitions or doctrinals as generalized knowledge of spiritual things, derived from revelation in an orderly scientific manner, hold the same relation to spiritual things as the sciences proper do to natural things. Substitute cognitions for sciences in the number just quoted and we have a description of the nature and use of cognitions as described in the Writings.

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     As the sciences minister to the opening and development of the natural rational so cognitions peculiarly minister to the opening and development of the spiritual rational. Both indeed are necessary for the full unfolding of the twofold life of man in this world. Both, however, are only ministering causes making possible the reception of the Divine influx of life and light, "but man on his part," as said in Arcana Coelestia, 2004, "by means of scientifics and cognitions goes to meet this life which is from the Lord, and so reciprocally conjoins himself."

     What is meant by Scientifics and Cognitions Being Things of the Memory

     It is frequently stated that the cognitions of faith and charity are scientifics in so far as they are in the memory of the external or natural man (e.g. AC 9918). When such statements are compared, it appears that by cognitions of spiritual things being scientifics of the memory of the external man is meant that they are of an intellectual character, pertaining to the memory of things thought and concluded as well as to the memory of things simply heard and seen. That is to say they belong to the external intellectual memory in contrast to the non-interior or voluntary memory of states of affection, willing, and doing thence. Hence it is said that these cognitions enter the memory of the internal man when life is formed according to them, for

"then the doctrinals as to truth become of faith, and as to good become of charity, and are called spiritual; when this is the case, they nearly vanish from the external memory and appear as innate, because ingrafted in the life of man, like all those things which by daily use become, as it were, natural. Hence it is evident what scientifics are, and to what they conduce, consequently to what the doctrinals of the church conduce whilst they are held only scientifically."*
     * AC 9918.

     The nature of the memory of scientific things is indicated in the teaching that "there is an external memory, which is of things in the spiritual world" and that all things of the external or natural memory (that is to say of the memory of the natural man in total) are called scientific . . . "the things which are inscribed on the internal memory are not called scientific, because they are things relating to the life of man."* Swedenborg's use of the term, memory, is a very broad one, for he shows that there are kinds and degrees of memory corresponding to all the kinds and degrees of intellectual and voluntary activities; memory in all cases being the permanent state resulting from such activities.
     * AC 9922.

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     Conclusions

     In conclusion, I would repeat that:

     1. It seems essential that distinctive English expressions in translations of the Writings be used to distinguish the fundamental contrast implied in the Latin words scientiac and cognitiones. I would add that the literal rendering of the two terms seems difficult to improve upon, because they preserve this functional distinction, but also because English usage sufficiently justifies this adoption. They implicitly connote the very ideas that are intended in the Writings.
     2. The preservation of this distinction is necessary in order to understand, and in order to express, educational principles of fundamental import, the point of which turns upon it.
     3. The cognitions of spiritual things derived from revelation are necessary to open and develop the internal or spiritual man, to spiritualize the life of man, and bring it into harmony and adjustment with spiritual laws; just as the sciences of natural things are necessary to open and develop the external or natural man, and to bring that natural man into harmony and adjustment with the natural world so that it may perform uses there in accordance with natural, civil and moral laws at the same time.
     4. The two openings and developments go on simultaneously from the beginning to the end of life. Both are initiated through the senses, through which sensual ideas derived both from revelation and from nature are inscribed upon the sensual memory. Both progress through the processes of imagination and thought whence meaningful conclusions are drawn whereby more orderly cognitive and scientific concepts result, called specifically cognitions and sciences, which become inscribed upon the proximately superior and more comprehensive scientific memory. Both again progress still further through the deeper reflective processes of reason, and judgment, whereby they are elevated to the plane of intelligence and philosophy as spiritual and natural truths, or universal principles, concluded from and based upon cognitions and sciences derived from the Word and from nature, respectively.
     5. Yet not withstanding their simultaneous development, the two processes are so distinct in kind, and the learnings so fundamentally different, especially when the sources are known and acknowledged, that the one always remains within and qualifies the other.
The cognitions of spiritual things are in the middle, moral, civil, and natural scientifics arrange themselves in order successively round about; the arrangement being due to the different origin of each, the different manner in which each is regarded, and the relative depth and comprehensiveness of the affective states which accompany them.

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     6. Cognitions from their inner point of vantage, make it possible for spiritual light to be received and reflected, so as to illumine all that is received and developed in the light of the world by means of the sciences.
     7. Cognitions make it possible to see and choose what is good and true, what is the Divine and spiritual import and use of those things which in natural light alone would appear to relate only to this world.
     8. Cognitions, therefore, are the means of spiritualizing, or giving a spiritual viewpoint and quality to all the sciences. They are the basis of spiritual faith and charity.
     Cognitions are, therefore, the prime means by which genuine sciences are developed and organized into systems correspondent and in harmony with revealed truth, making possible the fruition of an active heavenly life here upon earth, in the fullness of a life of uses.
MINISTERIAL CHANGES 1973

MINISTERIAL CHANGES 1973

     The Right Rev. Louis B. King accepted a call extended recently to become Dean of the Bryn Athyn Church.
     The Rev. B. David Holm has accepted appointment by the Bishop as Director of General Church Religion Lessons and Editor of New Church Education. He will continue to teach Religion in the Bryn Athyn Church Elementary School.
     Candidate Mark R. Carlson has been employed by the Academy of the New Church to teach Religion in the secondary schools.
     Candidate Michael D. Gladish has accepted appointment by the Bishop as Assistant to the Pastor of the Olivet Church, Toronto, Canada, effective September 1, 1973.
     Candidate Thomas L. Kline has accepted appointment by the Bishop as Assistant to the Pastor of the Washington, D. C., Society, and Visiting Minister to the Southeastern, United States, District, effective September 1, 1973.
VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

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FATHER WAELCHLI: CHURCH BUILDER 1973

FATHER WAELCHLI: CHURCH BUILDER RICHARD KINTNER 1973

     The Rev. Fred E. Waelchli, affectionately known to many as Father Waelchli, left a legacy to the General Church of unique value to many of our past and present members. Perhaps, as his son-in-law, I knew him better than the rest of us who still reside in the natural world. After his wife died in 1931, until he made his journey into the spiritual world in 1942, he lived with Carol and me. So much by way of introduction to the subject of this story.

     Early Life

     Father Waelchli was born at Hannibal, near Marietta, Ohio, on September 14, 1865, the son of John and Mary Waelchli, both of whom were natives of Canton Berne, Switzerland. His parents were introduced into the New Church through the missionary efforts of the Rev. Arthur D. Brickman, then residing in Ohio. In 1869 his parents moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where his father started working for the German- language weekly newspaper Welt Bole. A few years later, John Waelchli became editor of this paper and remained so until his death in 1905.
     In Allentown, the Waelchlis, much to their delight, found a group of New Church men which they joined with joy. Father Waelchli's parents had a large family of nine children, which meant that they had a struggle to make ends meet.
     John Waelchli became interested in the new Academy movement around the year 1881. A few years later he advocated that the Allentown group join the General Church of Pennsylvania. This caused a split in the group, and he suffered actual persecution for his stand in favor of the Academy position.
     Like many other New Church men in small groups, the Waelchlis found it increasingly difficult to pass their religion on to their children when they reached the adolescent state. In this, young Fred Waelchli was no exception. At their church services young Fred, out of deference to his father, played the organ, but when the minister started the sermon, he read a dime novel. This young fellow wanted to become a printer, and probably would have except that a young minister, the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck, then with the Academy, came along and led him toward a different use, that of becoming a minister of the General Church of Pennsylvania.

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This was one of the indications of Providence that Father Waelchli mentioned so often in his later life as a minister of the church.

     Theological School Period

     In the year 1883, Fred Waelchli, a young apprentice printer of eighteen years, made a decision that changed his whole life. He entered the College Department of the new Academy of the New Church, then located in the City of Philadelphia.
     He remained with this institution until his graduation in June, 1887, receiving a bachelor's degree in liberal arts. Following his graduation, he was accepted as an authorized candidate for the ministry of the General Church of Pennsylvania in his home city of Allentown. On June 10, 1888, he was ordained into the first degree of the priesthood by Bishop William H. Benade.
     Many events of delightful memory took place during his school years at the Academy, a few of which will be mentioned. Among the students who entered the Academy the same year as Father Waelchli were N. D. Pendleton, from the south; E. S. Price and Homer Synnestvedt from Illinois; and Carl Th. Odhner, a recent immigrant from Sweden. These young students studied under Bishop Benade.
     Carl Th. Odhner and Fred Waelchli were assigned to the same boarding house in Philadelphia, which was a fairly long walk from the school. Young Fred felt that on taking the step to become a minister one had to give up all the worldly vices of a young man, such as drinking beer and smoking a pipe. For several days these two young students on their walk to their boarding house passed numerous corner saloons, eyeing each other mournfully as they walked on. On the third day temptation became too much, and with one accord they looked each other in the face and muttered, "Do you mind?" From then on they had their beer after school on the way home.
     Another event developed during their school years, the organization of a social club known as the "Knights of the Midnight Pitcher." Many subjects both profound, theological, political and frivolous must have been discussed at their meetings. E. S. Price was elected secretary of the club, and when he passed on his widow, Lilly, a sister of Father Waelchli, delivered the minutes of the club to her brother as the last surviving member. Father Waelchli, with tears streaming down his cheeks, took the minutes and burned them, as he did not want posterity to know what the young generation of his time was like. The writer is now old enough to know that some of the unregenerate acts of our youth we do not want posterity to see or know.

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I regret that I never saw these minutes!
     One other memory of Father Waelchli's school days is worth noting. One summer vacation, a group of students spent the summer camping in tents at East Branch Lake, not far from the Promised Land State Park in the Poconos. Compared with a two and a half hour journey from Bryn Athyn, this was then a long journey into the wilderness. They took a train from Philadelphia to the Delaware Water Gap. There they changed from the Pennsylvania Railroad to the Delaware and Lackawanna line, which took them to Cresco, near Mountain Home. By team they and their gear and supplies were then hauled eighteen miles over dirt mountain roads to their camp site.
     Evidently these young fellows had a wonderful time. Among the supplies they brought along were gallons of molasses for their pancakes. In getting acquainted with the natives they found that this syrup molasses was unknown. To their mutual delight they traded molasses with the natives for pure maple syrup.
     The remains of their happy school years at the Academy stayed with these future pillars of the church for the rest of their lives.

     Assignment to Berlin, Ontario, Canada

     After Father Waelchli's ordination in 1888, he was invited to take charge of the first New Church school in Canada. The school opened on September 3, 1888, at Berlin, now Kitchener, Ontario. The pastor of the society was the Right Rev. F. W. Tuerk. The well-known Stone Church of that day was one of the strong Convention churches of Canada. Mr. Tuerk addressed both the adults and the children in German, while the young Mr. Waelchli addressed the children in English. One reason Father Waelchli was selected for this use was his fluency in the German language. Later on this knowledge was useful in his pastorate in Baltimore and Arbutus, Maryland, and in his journeys to the Canadian Northwest.
     At first the relations between the old minister Tuerk and the young minister and teacher Waelchli were friendly and cordial. Both believed in New Church education, but they evidently differed on the authority of the Writings, Tuerk holding first to the Academy position and afterwards to the Convention concept, while young Waelchli held steadfastly to the Academy position. The difference between an old man and a young man soon developed. Tuerk also felt that young Waelchli was undermining him in his society. After three years 1888-1891, the difference developed into a dramatic open break. More about this later.

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     Marriage and Family

     Not long after the young Mr. Waelchli's assignment to Berlin in the fall of 1888 he was married to Alena Hughes, a native of Berlin, on April 25, 1889. He had first met her when she was attending the early Academy school in Philadelphia. Miss Hughes' parents were both dead at the time of her marriage. At that time she was living with the Richard Roschmans, Mrs. Roschman being an aunt, a sister of the young lady's mother.
     The future Mrs. Waelchli's father was a Quaker, whose ancestors fled Pennsylvania during the American Revolution. Her mother was an Ahrens, a descendant of one of the Pennsylvania Dutch who migrated to the fertile farming area around Berlin in 1820. The Ahrens family later was converted to the New Church.
     From this marriage five daughters and three sons were born. One son, John, died in infancy. The other two, Victor and Richard, settled in Bryn Athyn some years before their deaths. The girls were Olivia, wife of Geoffrey S. Childs, Sr.; Flora, wife of Loyal D. Odhner; Provida, wife of Harry Hilldale; Constance, wife of the Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner; and Carol, wife of the writer of this article. Flora, Connie and Carol are the only survivors of this large family. All of the family and their spouses became members of the General Church in adult life. Marriage within the church was important to this family.

     Ministry in Berlin and Baltimore

     From 1891 to 1897 Father Waelchli continued as pastor of the Carmel Church in Berlin. He then accepted a call to become pastor of the German New Church society in Baltimore. He remained there for three years. This society later became a society of the General Church. It moved later from the city to Arbutus, Maryland, where a house of worship was built on Waelchli Avenue. This little group continued until its merger with the Washington group in recent times.
     In September 1900 Father Waelchli returned to his first pastorate in Berlin, now Kitchener, where he remained until September 1918, when he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, to accept the call as visiting pastor of the General Church. His talents as a church builder were seen in his twenty-four years in Berlin-Kitchener and three years in the Baltimore-Arbutus areas. In both areas a new house of worship was built. It is interesting to note that these original buildings were replaced, in the Kitchener area by the move to Caryndale, and in the Washington-Baltimore area by the development in Mitchellville, Maryland.

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The move in the Kitchener area was led by the Rev. Geoffrey Childs, a grandson of Father Waelchli, and in the Washington-Baltimore area by the Rev. Fred Schnarr, a former pupil of the Kitchener Church school. Each of these General Church societies is growing and shows bright hopes for the future of the church.

     Visiting Pastor

     A group of Mennonites from Western Canada became converts to the New Church. Later, some of them became dissatisfied with the doctrinal views of the Convention. The Mennonites were a Germanic people who left Germany for the Ukraine in Russia on the invitation of Catherine the Great, who offered them a hundred years of exemption from military service. At the end of this period many of them migrated to Western Canada when the Canadian government offered them a similar deal if they would settle in this sparsely populated prairie region.
     During the year 1912 a delegation of New Church men from this area made a trip to Berlin to visit Mr. Waelchli to discuss the doctrinal position of the General Church. Messrs. Hahn and Heindricks were two of the members of this delegation. The outcome was an invitation to Mr. Waelchli to visit them. In the summer of 1913 he visited Rosthern, Saskatchewan, for the first time. A report of this visit is to be found in NEW CHURCH LIFE for 1913, page 620. This marked the beginning of Mr. Waelchli's career as a missionary and visiting pastor, a career which continued for many more years. NEW CHURCH LIFE has reports of his visits from 1915 to 1936.
     From his first visit to Western Canada, mentioned above, Mr. Waelchli spent each summer in that area until his resignation as pastor of the Kitchener Society in 1917, and his removal to Cincinnati as visiting pastor of the General Church in 1918. These visits to Western Canada were made possible by the assignment of a young minister, the Rev. Hugo Odhner, as his assistant. The Rev. Hugo Odhner succeeded him as pastor of the Kitchener Society, and also became Mr. Waelchli's son-in-law when he married Constance Waelchli in 1919.
     The idea of New Church education also took root among the General Church receivers in Western Canada. In the fall of 1916 four male students from the area entered the Academy schools in Bryn Athyn, namely, Erdman and Henry Heindricks, Peter Klippenstein and John Weib. Many other students from this region have come to the Academy over the years since then. All did not return to Western Canada, but most of them remained as active members of the General Church in our various societies. Other ministers, notably the late Rev. Karl Alden, took up the work of visiting pastor. Now Western Canada has its third resident pastor, the Rev. Christopher R. J. Smith, who is stationed at Dawson Creek, B. C.

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     One great tribute was paid to Mr. Waelchli by Bishop Elmo C. Acton, who visited this region twenty-five years after Mr. Waelchli's last trip. Bishop Acton told me that the New Church in that area meant but one thing to many of the people he visited, and that was "Mr. Vellshle"!

     Removal to Cincinnati in 1918

     In October 1918, the Rev. and Mrs. Fred Waelchli and two of their children, Constance and Richard, arrived in Cincinnati, the location selected for Mr. Waelchli to begin his full-time use as visiting pastor. Cincinnati had only a few members of the General Church at that time but two of them, Mr. C. G. Merrell and Mr. Colon Schott, agreed to under- write some of the expense of Mr. Waelchli's use if he would locate there. A house was rented on Ehrman Avenue and services were conducted in the living room on Sundays when the pastor was at home.
     In the winter months Mr. Waelchli visited the little groups and the isolated in the following locations: Detroit, Youngstown, Akron, Columbiana, Cleveland and Middleport. In the summer months he continued to visit the Canadian Northwest. In 1921 he visited members of the General Church in the states of Washington, Oregon and California for the first time. Ten trips were made to the Pacific coast between 1921 and 1931.

     In the spring of 1925, Mr. Waelchli started his visits to the members of the General Church residing in the deep South. Atlanta, Birmingham, St. Petersburg, Miami and New Smyrna were among the stops he made in his six spring visits to this area. It is interesting to note that in the Directory of the General Church, Societies, Circles and Groups total fifty-four. Mr. Waelchii had a hand, either directly or indirectly, in the formation of twenty-four of them. In the field where he labored alone for so many years seven pastors now reside.

     Twilight of Mr. Waelchli's Career

     Mr. Waelchli's beloved wife Alena entered the spiritual world on March 11, 1931. After a marriage of nearly forty-two years, this was a hard thing for the aging Mr. Waelchli. His daughter, Carol Kintner, was still with her father in Wyoming, Ohio, when Mrs. Waelchli passed away. The writer of this article had gone to Bryn Athyn to seek new employment. Later that year Mr. Waelchli and Carol moved to Bryn Athyn. Mr. Waelchli had reached his 66th year. His traveling days were largely over, although he went back to Wyoming, Ohio, for a year in 1937.

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He also visited Arbutus, Maryland, to minister to the group there from time to time.
     In Bryn Athyn he took an active interest in the affairs of the Society and was frequently asked to preach in the Cathedral. He delighted in renewing his friendships with some of the surviving "Knights of the Midnight Pitcher," Bishop N. D. Pendleton and the Rev. E. S. Price. During his career as a minister he officiated at 408 baptisms, 26 betrothals and 64 marriages.
     He was the first minister to use what today is considered the proper order for a resurrection service in Bryn Athyn and elsewhere. My mother was living with us when she died of cancer in 1936. My wife, Carol, asked her father if we could have the interment precede the resurrection service. This was an innovation which Father Waelchli wanted to think about. After some thought he came to Carol and said he thought it was an excellent idea and that he would use it.
     During the last few years of Father Waelchli's life he would visit the Geoffrey S. Childs family at Saginaw, Michigan. He came home from his last visit in August 1942 a very sick man, and after a minor operation he took a turn for the worse and passed away shortly before his 77th birthday, which would have been on September 14th.
     In this present age many children care little about the character and ideas of either their parents or parents-in-law. This did not happen with me, as I always felt that my father-in-law was the finest man I ever knew. He had the ability to reach people and in many cases lead them to see the good of life portrayed in the Writings. His abiding faith in Divine Providence sustained him through many of his own trials and tribulations.
     In the thirty years since Mr. Waelchli left this world we have seen many changes both in the world and in the church. In Mr. Waelchli's day, stress was placed on internal growth through education and marriage within the church. These two elements are still most important, but now New Church evangelism is being studied and thought of more and more. The work of Mr. Waelchli stands out in a unique way. He did not have many converts, but worked largely with those isolated people who read the Writings and looked forward to his visits as a chance to discuss the many things of interest that they found in the Writings.

     Author's Note

     I am indebted to Professor Eldric S. Klein, head of the Academy Archives, for an abundance of material he sent me. Without that help this narrative would not have been possible.

222

DEDICATION OF THE GABRIEL CHURCH, LA CRESCENTA, CALIFORNIA 1973

DEDICATION OF THE GABRIEL CHURCH, LA CRESCENTA, CALIFORNIA HELEN SCRIMSHAW 1973

     It is almost spring, and here we are, a thriving New Church society. Although Los Angeles has had a General Church society for many years, just now we are feeling both new and proud because we have a beautiful new church building. Attached to the church itself is another building for instruction and social uses, and perhaps a future school. We are in the San Gabriel Mountains, about twenty miles north of Los Angeles, at an elevation of two thousand feet.
     Although the church was bought in May last year, there was much work to be done before formal plans for the dedication could be made. Detailed plans were begun in September. There was then an enthusiastic spirit as we anticipated the joy of welcoming many visitors and possibly former pastors who had done so much to bring us to this great step. Our plans hinged upon the Bishop's schedule, for we hoped he could address us and, of course, dedicate the church by placing the Word on our new altar.
     That is why this story is coming to you now. Ever since that stirring September meeting all sorts of committees worked to be ready for the big day. There were work parties every weekend and frequently in between: ladder, scraper and paint; hammer and saw; shovel and pick; mop and pail. Yet with few exceptions we all live ten, twenty, and thirty miles from the church. We were spurred on, of course, by our talented pastor who made our beautiful altar and communion table, and did many other jobs, rarely thought of as involving ministerial talent. Every member did his part. We found that we are getting better acquainted over coffee breaks, ladder climbing, and vacuum cleaning. The church was in regular use each Friday and Sunday when one always heard excited exclamations over the changes and improvements. Then the big day finally arrived.
     Friday Evening, February 2nd. A social and big welcome evening was easily recognized by the frequently heard exclamations: "Good, look who's here," or "My dear, I haven't seen you in years," and "What a beautiful spot for a church," and so on. Visitors were having fun. Host and hostess were smiling with well-earned deep satisfaction because we looked so clean and polished. Flowers, soft lights and a full punch bowl just touched off the last needed spark.

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      Saturday, 10 a.m., February 3rd. One of the highlights of the weekend was the Bishop's address on "The New Church," telling us that the Three Testaments with Divine truth in each, were all gifts from the Lord and our great privilege to use. Each one of us must understand and cherish the real meaning of worship-seeking the truth and accepting it as a grave individual responsibility. Only when truth is made living will we be ready to pass the knowledge of the New Church on to others. Conversion to the New Church must be rational and not entirely emotional, he said. That is one reason why evangelization takes experience in meeting outsiders, seeing their point of view, but recognizing their great need for Divine truth. We need to seek a common point of interest, always remembering that the highest form of charity is freedom. Freedom to choose is the Lord's great gift to man. Man must open the door. There must be no persuasion.
     All who heard this address were obviously stirred. There followed a lively question period to which the Bishop patiently and clearly replied. In closing and summarizing he said that each one of us must become aware of our own grave responsibility as New Church men.

     The Banquet, Saturday Evening, February 3rd. Candles, flowers, lovely dresses, and proud husbands reflected the spirit that literally carried us all through a wonderful evening. With Mr. Gaylor Smith as lively toastmaster we listened to many joyful greetings from societies and friends throughout the Church. Jonathan Cranch delivered a personal greeting from San Francisco, extending the good wishes of all in that Circle. He thanked us for sharing our pastor. Then a surprise gift (though, I might add, a much needed one) from the San Diego Circle was presented. It was a stainless steel serving cart presented personally by Mrs. Carolyn Pitcairn.
     The Rev. Norman Reuter then gave us much food for thought in his talk on evangelization. He pointed to the necessity of truly knowing what we love so deeply, for only then can we rationally convey that love to others. He gave us a fascinating picture of what our first New Church missionaries had to do. They often travelled far under difficult circumstances, usually to find a very small group waiting. Looking back, many of these small groups have developed into circles and groups. Our growth in outlying areas has been through gathering our people together for the purpose of worship and instruction.
     The Rev. Harold Cranch gave us a fascinating picture of his early days in building the Glendale Society. His sense of humor and astounding persistence led him through many difficulties. He said that the original strength came through uniting many scattered people and forming them into a group.

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True growth must come from a center of well-informed Laymen.
     The Rev. Geoffrey Howard opened his remarks by first expressing his sincere gratitude to all the former pastors for their great work which has become the foundation of our present Gabriel Church. He then outlined his hopes for the future of this Society. The reason for obtaining this building was to use it as a means for bringing the knowledge of the New Church to more people. He felt that three things were needed to do this-a full time pastor, an informed and well disposed congregation, and a church building to reflect the dignity of the Lord Jesus Christ whom we worship. Through advertising, in conjunction with this lovely church building, he hopes to bring in visitors, and thus provide them with their first living contact with the New Church and its people.

     The Dedication Service, Sunday, February 4th. We all had reason to be proud of our completely renovated church, especially the chancel with its altar and the seven candles surrounding the Word. It was adorned with lovely flowers, and on this occasion had the added dignity of four ministers. The firm voice of Mr. Reuter opened the service. The lessons were read by Mr. Cranch in a clear and meaningful voice. The Bishop gave a delightful talk to the children on the true meaning of dedication.
     The great moment came as Mr. Howard presented the Word to the Bishop who placed it on our new altar with appropriate and unforgettable words. It will now remain there as a permanent symbol of the Lord's presence.
     The sermon presented by our pastor was entitled "And I Saw No Temple Therein" (Revelation 21: 22). It made us feel deeply grateful to the Lord for all of His provisions. There was an impressive silence from a full and deeply moved congregation. As the service drew to a close one had a broader understanding of the meaning of ritual. The music, so richly played by Mr. G. E. Kline, was joyously sung in our well filled church. All of this brought to a perfect close the weekend in which we learned the true significance of dedication.

     Before the departure of our good friends to various homes-we had a light luncheon. Then sounds of happy farewells and eager anticipation of meeting soon again were to be heard. For host and hostess there was deep gratitude for so many visitors having come to join us. The occasion brought to all of us a greater understanding of the true meaning of evangelization and the value in our combined effort to further the church in the West.
     HELEN SCRIMSHAW

225

DEDICATION SERMON 1973

DEDICATION SERMON Rev. GEOFFREY H. HOWARD 1973

     "And I saw no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it." (Revelation 21: 22)

     The vision seen by John of the holy city, New Jerusalem, was symbolic of a state that the Lord foresaw could eventually come to pass with man. This was to be a state of supreme blessedness and peace. It was a prophecy that at a future time Divine provision would be made for the Lord's presence to descend and fill the human mind with the supreme joy of heaven. He foresaw this possibility, and provided for its eventual fulfillment. The means whereby this could be accomplished were to be the inspired Writings of His second coming. In them the Divine truth was to be revealed fully and manifestly, enabling men who would read, and who could be affected by truth, to see the true God of heaven and earth and worship Him. The New Jerusalem was to be a living state with man. In it the Lord would reign supreme. The tabernacle of God would be with men. Every thought and action would originate from a love for the Lord and be manifested as charity toward the neighbor. The Lord foretold that He would provide the means whereby this state could come to pass. Some sixteen centuries following the utterance of this prophecy the Lord fulfilled His second coming. As with His first coming His second was also fulfilled without universal acclaim. True to prophecy, as the inspired volumes emerged, behold, He had revealed all things new. He revealed Himself as the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ, the one God of heaven and earth. He was a God whose Divine Human nature could be approached and worshiped by every man. He revealed purpose to creation. Man was to become conjoined to God in a covenant of love through the exercise of his free choice. All things of creation were shown to have their place to the end of providing for man's conjunction with God. Thus the place of man was shown to be exalted. His opportunity could indeed be blessed, if he shouldered the responsibility of his life out of deference for the Divine purpose.

     The revelation of these new truths put all things in their proper perspective. The ancient heritage of the human race, the historical record of which was completely lost, was now revealed. Indeed there was a Golden Age, a time of pristine integrity, from which man fell. Adam signified a church, called the Most Ancient Church, the church of the Golden Age. The people of it lived in the order of their lives. The presence of the Lord was seen and felt in every activity.

226

They perceived from the world of nature the same sensations that all men do. But to them it was given to perceive a heavenly significance which accompanied every sensation. The kingdom of heaven was suggested when they looked at the objects of nature. Different heavenly qualities were awakened through each experience. To them the science of correspondence was the science of sciences. As these perceptions came to their conscious awareness they felt an impelling desire to comply with a motivation to bring that heavenly perception into its ultimate fullness by living it. In this way the activity of their life led to the further enrichment of the whole, and in turn they drew more closely present unto the Lord. The integrity of this state was to endure for a certain time only. The Lord had given man freedom, and in time man chose to abuse it. Consequently the state of the human race declined and fell.

After the fall of the Most Ancient Church the perceptive awareness of the Lord in time became almost totally lost. Men became introspective, loving the things of nature as ends in themselves and claiming them as their own. The only appeal that the Lord could make with them, to redeem them out of such folly, was through the use of representatives in their worship. Certain places and certain objects became associated with the worship of the Lord. Hence in the second church, the church Noah, or the Ancient Church, worship was held on mountains and in groves. Primitive altars made of earth were erected which were representative of a state of worship from love to the Lord. Through this means knowledge of the Lord was kept alive in their worship. The practice of charity to- ward the neighbor became a formulated code of expected behavior. No longer was the law inscribed upon the heart. It now had to be learned and obeyed before the heavenly reward could be tasted.
In the Jewish Church that followed further spiritual decline ensued. This people believed in a transcendant God, and yet at the same time they manifested a peculiar fascination for external things and external rituals. Because their state was even further removed from the Lord and the things of heaven, a greater formality of worship was needed to bring them into external order and obedience. That the Lord might not be forgotten, He commanded Moses to build the tabernacle in a prescribed manner. Unknown to the church of that time, every detail was representative of the Lord Himself, of heaven and of the human mind. The Lord's presence with these people was a complete mystery unto them. They worshiped an invisible God. They could perhaps sense something of His presence when they obeyed His law and were conscious of a calming serenity.

227

     The tabernacle served this purpose when the sons of Israel were journeying through the wilderness. When they became well established in the land of Canaan, tabernacle worship was abandoned and a temple of stone was erected in Jerusalem. In the dedication of that temple the ark of the covenant was placed in the oracle, in its most holy place. "The holiness of the whole tabernacle [and of the temple] was from no other source than the law which was in the ark."* Thus, these shrines were essential in keeping alive the memory of the Lord and in helping man to remember his obligation to the Law. Without them the Jewish Church would have become totally external and consumed by selfish passions and their expression, all of which were forbidden by the law of the Lord. Thus was the destruction of the human race abated.
     * TCR 283.

     Such a remote conjunction between the Lord and His created subjects was far from the Divine intent. From His infinite wisdom the Lord foresaw a means whereby man could be redeemed from his fallen condition. The Divine endeavor is to draw all men unto itself. To provide for this eventuality the Lord came on earth. He came to reveal His true identity. He came to redeem man from his loathsome state of spiritual blindness. He abrogated many of the externals of Jewish worships He revealed the great importance of internal motives in worship. This was a new idea and a new emphasis which directly challenged traditional Jewish thought. The Divine presence was not confined to the temple at Jerusalem. Of this He said: "the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."* He unfolded the way in which men should prepare their hearts to receive His love. "If ye abide in Me," He said, "and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. . . . If ye keep My commandments ye shall abide in My love."** A new emphasis is stressed in the New Testament. It was a means leading to an ascending road of spiritual progress. In the days of Moses and of Solomon the habitation of the Most High God was identified with the tabernacle and the Temple. When the Lord taught, He sought to lead the thought of men toward the essential of worship-the worship of the Lord in spirit and in truth.
     * John 4:21.
     ** John 13: 7, 11.
     This same idea is more fully presented in the prophetic work the Apocalypse or book of Revelation. The vision of the holy city, New Jerusalem, symbolized not only the Word of the Lord's second coming, but also that living state of the Lord's dwelling with man even to the celestial things of love.

228

Hence it is said that when the doctrines of the New Church are made living in the heart of man, the tabernacle of God is with men. Within this living state there is no need for a temple to symbolize the Lord's presence, for He is present; "the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it." When man so opens his heart to receive of the Lord, his reliance upon external symbols fails to a place of secondary importance. In the truly regenerate state man thinks not so much from truth but rather from good. He perceives what will serve his neighbor well, and he performs good works from a love of doing them.
     Thus we can see that by means of the revelations given by the Lord at His first and His second advents, provision was made for man to return to the celestial state. A second Golden Age could once again begin to dawn. This is the opportunity that the Lord has placed before those who will go to His New Word, learn of His true Humanity, and shun the evils of self-love and worldly excess. Only when the Spirit of the Lord descends into the human mind does His presence become the temple therein. Only in this state can His true New Church exist.
     The Lord is not within any external object in itself. Therefore no external object is to be worshiped. But we are all heirs to the fallen condition of man. Our road to regeneration is by way of revealed truth. That is why we have a written Word. Our genius is such that we need to rely very heavily upon the dictum of truth, lest we be led astray. We need to use the Word not only for the sake of instruction but to symbolize the presence of the Lord when it is opened upon an altar. We need certain rituals which may induce a state of reverence, a sense of sanctity as we prepare our thoughts to ascend unto the court of the Most High God. We need external structures, places of worship set apart for the sole purpose of remembering the Lord and His commandments. The mind is more attuned to the reception of the Lord when all the senses are captivated and involved in an artistic ritual which ideally should be the embodiment of heavenly affections of worship.

     We are an external people, and the Lord has allowed temples to be built as necessary memorials to Him. Religious shrines throughout the world are a testimonial to this universal need. But let us never forget the real purpose they are intended to serve. External memorials are not ends in themselves. They are intended to serve to inspire and motivate man to behold the beauty of the Lord that he might enquire of Him in His temple, and then go forth into life. There in the uses of his daily life, in his commerce with his fellow man, he will be mindful of keeping the Lord's covenant.

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The life of charity opens the door for the Lord to descend and there within the temple of the human mind, establish His church. With
persistence in this course, the miracle of the Lord's coming is slowly fulfilled until at last the prophecy is realized: "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God."* Amen.
* Revelation 21:30.
ADDRESSES UNKNOWN 1973

ADDRESSES UNKNOWN 1973

     Anyone who can supply information as to the whereabouts of the following persons is asked to communicate with the office of the Secretary, General Church of the New Jerusalem, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009.
Mr. Charles E. Burton          Mrs. Guilherme Taviera
736 Azule Ave.               Suraao, Ilamhaem
San Jose, Ca. 95100          Estado de San Paulo, Brazil

Sgt. W. T. Brown               Mr. Huard I. Synnestvedt
157-36-9041                    Apt. 4800, Reading Road
4513 Romlon St., Apt. 401     Mason, Ohio 45040
Beltsville, Md. 20705
          Mrs. Holland E. Shaw
Major Seid Waddell          1057 Eagle Road
7th AFHQ-JA                    Wayne, Pa. 19037
PSC No. 2, Box 12449
APO San Francisco, Ca. 96201     Mr. and Mrs. John G. Schnarr
                         19 King Street
Miss Margaret I. Blythe          London, Ontario, Canada
Tylers Wood House
Hazlemere, High Wycombe          Mr. John D. Schnarr
Bucks, England               R. R. 4, Komake,
                         Ontario, Canada
Miss Suzanne Bernhardt
863 Bush Street               Mr. Ismar Scholl
San Francisco, Ca. 94108     166 West 87th St.
                         New York, N. Y. 10024
Miss Gloria L. Wilson
Box 155,                    Mrs. Walter Petzke
Jackson, Wy. 83001          605 Belmont Ave., Apt. 7
                         Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Srta. Lilian Lobo Taveira
Rua Domingos D Moraes          Mr. Louis C. Iungerich
Vila Mariana               2587 Huntingdon Pike
Sao Paulo, SP Brazil          Huntingdon Valley, Pa. 19006

     (Continued on Page 232.)

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BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE 1973

BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE Rev. DONALD L. ROSE 1973

     Sometimes we think of animals as being nicer than people. Animals are handsome to look at, too. There are even animals "whose faces resemble the human face."* It is true that animals are innocent of the extreme cruelties of the human race.** It is also true that considered merely on the animal level man is born as one of the more lowly creatures.*** But a human person can possess a rich and wonderful beauty, a kind of glow which the animal simply does not have.
     * TRR 417.
     ** AC 5393.
     *** CL 350; TCR 692: 4, 574.
     To be truly "human" is to be in the very form of heaven. Angels are people so beautiful that nothing can be more so. Human beings are born on earth destined to become beautiful angels*; and, truly, there are people on earth who can be called "beautiful human beings, partners and companions of the angels."**
     * AC 553; DP 330.
     ** DP 121.
     Truly beautiful people are not mere collections of external attributes. Some people can boast all the ingredients-good deeds, church going, manners, education-and yet they are like trained apes, "apes which perform actions like those of men, but the human heart is wholly lacking."* The human heart is a supreme gift. It is not just a thing which one day is implanted in a regenerated man. It can be seen in all children, for they are pictures of the kingdom of heaven. The child has the beauty of innocence, and in the gift of remains the child is elevated above the beast.**
     * TCR 568: 4.
     ** AC 530, 661.
     In children there is beautiful reaction to the Word of God, and human young people inspired with ideals are beautiful to behold.
     Although the inclination to the opposite sex can be simply an animal thing, it can be truly human. Speaking of conjugial love the Writings mark the distinction of the "human from the bestial."* Even though the conjugial sphere descends in a way to the lowest things of creation,** various species of animals are disappointing in their lack of devotion to one of the opposite sex. You can be fond of your cat or dog, but you cannot admire his social life. It is beautiful to see in some species a fidelity to one partner and a tender devotion to the mate.

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These species mirror something of the truly human affection which was "ordained from the beginning" and "implanted in man by God."***
     * CL 44: 6.
     ** CL 222, 389; TCR 44.
     *** CL 332, 57.
     The love of becoming wise is a distinctly human thing. The animal is born into the knowledge of its needs, but there is a special beauty in human aspiration. The "human" is said to consist in "willing to become wise, and in loving that which pertains to wisdom."* "This love man alone has, and no beast; and it flows in from God."**
     * CL 52e.
     ** CL 134.
     When we speak of wisdom we speak of the wisdom that comes from the Lord. People who wish to be intelligent from themselves can attain to a kind of beauty. Their faces, although fair enough, have a kind of sharpness about them in the spiritual world.* They do not have the "truly human mind," and their beauty is not above the animal level.** "Spiritual beauty" may be compared to a "living face animated by heavenly love; for such as is the love or affection that beams from the form of the face, such is the beauty."*** Those who have sought wisdom from the Lord have an inner beauty from which their faces seem to glow**** and their eyes sparkle. But this is a beauty which we cannot really express in words any more than we can paint it with a brush.***** "No painter with all his art could possibly give any such light to his colors as to equal a thousandth part of the brightness and life that shone forth from their countenances."******
     * AC 546.
     ** DP 321: 2.
     *** AC 5199.
     **** HH 489: 6.
     ***** HH 414.
     ****** HH 459.

     "Natural good" can be a mere animal thing, but the Lord does grant a natural good which is "human" in the good sense and has the lovely qualities of the "human heart." The natural good born with men is in itself a mere animal affair, for it exists also with animals; but the natural good which is acquired, or which is given to man by the Lord, contains in it what is spiritual, so that it is spiritual good in natural. This good is "real natural human good."* To angels and men is granted the possibility of becoming more and more beautiful human forms.**
     * AC 3408.
     ** AC 6605, 9503.
     A human being can be affected by truth. He is "above beasts and has a higher life, because he can not only think about causes of things but also about the Divine."* We may ascribe civility and morality in a way to animals**; but a human being can think above self and can say of a selfish inclination, "I will not do this. I will shun it, because it is a sin against God."

232

This is uniquely human and is receptive of beauty. Some people can go through all the good and pious motions and still be "like apes in human clothing. But when evils have been put away the things.. belong to the love of those who do them; and such appear before the angels as beautiful human beings, and partners and companions of the angels."***
     * AC 5084: 5.
     ** DP 96 4; Infl. 15.
     *** DP 121 ADDRESSES UNKNOWN 1973

ADDRESSES UNKNOWN 1973

     (Continued from Page 229.)

The Rev. Joseph Hoellrigl          Ricardo de Albuquerque
19 Come St.                         Vila Pompeia
Manchester, N. H. 03103               Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Mr. Julius Hiebert               Mine. Joseph Krokaert-Delterne
Cranberry Portage                    430 Chaussee Romaine
Manitoba, Canada                    Strombeek, Bever., Belgium

Mr. Lindthman Heldon               Mrs. Marvin Broten
86 Valencie Ave.                    Box 961, Meadow Lake
Lugarno, N. S. W.                    Saskatchewan, Canada
Australia
          Miss Johanna H. C. Happee
Miss Pamela Green                    Kijkdsinschestraat 209
718 5. Fairfax Street               Loosduinen, The Hague, Holland
Alexandria, Va. 22314
                              Mr. Hunter J. Reynolds
Mr. G. A. Graham                    Dempster St.
302 Waukegan Rd.                    Evanston, II. 60202
Glenview, Ill. 60025
                              Mr. John Lemky, Jr.
Mrs. Gertrude Dyer               Box 4, Gorande Prairie
280 Park St.                    Alberta, Canada
Long Beach, Ca. 90803
                              Mr. Herbert Lemky
Miss Marilyn M. Dorsey               Box 4, Gorande Prairie
511 5. State St.                    Alberta, Canada
Newton, Pa. 18940
                              Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Lattin
Mr. and Mrs. Myrddin Daniel          5427 Carlton Way
4 Old Bath Road                    Los Angeles, Ca. 90027
Cheltenham, England
                              Mrs. Hans Sigurd Jorgensen
Snra. Karilena S. M. De Padna          Tomsgaardsvej 3
Rua Itupeva 69                    Copenhagen, Denmark

     (Continued on Page 239.)

233

NO UNCERTAIN TRUMPET 1973

NO UNCERTAIN TRUMPET Editor 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.
Published Monthly By
THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
BRYN ATHYN, PA.
     Editor               Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
     Business Manager          Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions. change of address, and business communications, should be sent to the Business Manager. Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.
     TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$5.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 50 cents.
     In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul asks: "If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" The apostle is here arguing the superiority of preaching to ecstatic utterances. If the latter yield no precise meaning, how can anyone know what is said: as how can anyone recognize the call to arms if the trumpet call is not clear?
     His analogy is not without meaning for us. It has often been said in these columns that activism is not the proper role of the church; that political and social action are the concern of the members of the church as individuals. But this does not mean that the church has no responsibility. It does have a responsibility to teach the truth and the ideals of the Word; to warn of danger when these are being attacked, belittled or ignored by society, and to defend the Word against its foes; and if the trumpet does not call to arms loudly and clearly, how shall the church militant prepare itself to the battle?
     Of course we must take care that we are not crying wolf, or summoning the church to defend some prejudice or pet theory. We must be sure that it is the truth that is being attacked, and that what we meet the attack with is the truth of the Word. But society does run counter to the teachings of the Word, sometimes by legislative action, sometimes by the attitudes and postures it upholds; and when this happens the church surely has a duty and an obligation to speak out and show exactly where it stands It must do so, for "if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?"

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     REPENTANCE AND THE HOLY SUPPER

     Baptism and the Holy Supper are both said in the Writings to be sacraments of introduction and of repentance. Baptism is a sacrament of introduction into the church; the Holy Supper, of introduction into heaven. The difference is that the efficacy of Baptism is according to repentance afterwards; that of the Holy Supper according to repentance beforehand. Repentance is involved in each, but differently.
     When we consider what actual repentance is-the shunning of evil as sin when man is free to commit it and feels its delight-we may readily see that in the case of the Holy Supper repentance must precede man's approach to the sacrament. The teaching is that the man who looks to the Lord and does repentance is conjoined with the Lord and consociated with heaven by that sacrament, and that he then receives the Holy Spirit according to the repentance that has been performed beforehand. It is true that the man who is in a holy state thinks about repentance when he receives the Communion, especially the bread; yet his thought then is not of shunning evils but of the renewal of life according to the Lord's precepts which follows the shunning of evils. Actually repentance must therefore have come first.
      The teaching is that the Holy Supper introduces into heaven those who have suffered themselves to be prepared and led by the Lord; and repentance, in which the Lord leads and prepares, is part of man's preparation for the Holy Supper, not the state in which he should partake of it. Therefore we are advised to examine ourselves and to repent of the evils thus discovered before approaching the Holy Supper; and are assured that if we do this in preparing ourselves we will come into the purpose of abstaining from evils, and actual repentance will be initiated if we then abstain from one sin.

     There is a distinction between preparation for and participation in the Holy Supper. Repentance belongs to the former, and what our state should be in receiving the Holy Supper is indicated by the teachings concerning the purpose for which it was instituted and what it represents. What is represented is the cohabitation of the Lord with the man who is in the holy things of love; and the purpose of the sacrament is consociation and communication, communication of the delights of heaven. We would suggest, therefore, that the state in coming to the Lord's table should not be the sombre one of repentance, not one of sorrow, but a state of joy and happiness, one in which we look to the Lord for fulfillment. Conjunction is with the love and faith of the man who has repented, and it is that man whose sins are remitted.

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     THE UNPARDONABLE SIN

     We are taught in the Word that the Lord forgives sins to everyone, yet in the Gospels the Lord speaks of a sin which cannot be forgiven. "Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." For the resolution of this apparent inconsistency we need an understanding of what it is to speak against the Son of Man and the Holy Spirit, and of what is meant by the forgiveness of sins.
     Because the letter of the Word is written in appearances it can be interpreted differently by various minds and what is Divine truth from the Word in the church cannot be seen by everyone. A man may deny that this or that is Divine truth from the Word in the church, that is, he may deny that this or that which the church holds is really taught in the Word and is a Divine truth. He may do so in good faith, and he may be wrong; but this will not be held against him, provided he believes that there are Divine truths in and from the Word and does not form and confirm principles from appearance which destroy Divine truth in the genuine sense of the Word. That is a word against the Son of Man, and it can be forgiven.

     But to speak a word against the Holy Spirit is entirely different. This is to deny that there is any Divine truth in the Word, and therefore to deny the holiness of the Word and the Divinity of the Lord to which the Word attests from beginning to end. On the part of those who have once acknowledged these things this is the unpardonable sin because it involves profanation. It does include deceit, but its essence is the denial of the Divinity of the Lord and of the holiness of the Word; and he who is in that denial has no religion; no belief in a life after death or in a heaven and a hell. He therefore cannot be admitted to heaven and is beyond forgiveness. His is the unpardonable sin.
     It is unpardonable, not because the Lord has so decreed, but because of the very nature of the situation to which it gives rise. Under spiritual law, the Lord is present with man according to thought of Him. Only the Divine can forgive sin; and when man denies Divinity to the Lord he places himself beyond the reach of forgiveness because the Lord cannot be present with him. It is not that the sin cannot be forgiven, but that it cannot be remitted. The remission of sin is the separation of evil from good, and being held in good and truth by the Lord. This is possible with those only who repent, and these are they who acknowledge the Lord. Therefore those who deny Him cannot be forgiven.

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Church News 1973

Church News Various 1973

     LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

     In September of 1971 our new pastor, the Rev. Geoffrey Howard, and his wife Nadine were enthusiastically welcomed by the Society. They found us, however, in somewhat of a dilemma. We had at that time outgrown our facilities on Riverdale Drive in Glendale, and faced enlarging them or re-locating if a suitable church could be found. Having built the Glendale church and Sunday school rooms with much love, invention, and sweat of brow, some of us felt nostalgia, even while common sense and real estate agents alike advised that the time was ripe to sell. An eager buyer awaited our decision. Among the properties and buildings considered for solution of our problems was a beautiful church in the La Crescenta area. We decided to sell the Glendale buildings. Several months later the Society authorized the Board of Directors to begin negotiations for the purchase of the abovementioned church at 5027 New York Avenue. However, from that time in November 1971 until the acquisition of the new building in May of 1972, we rented facilities in La Crescenta.
      It was distressing to have our organ, lecterns, library and other treasured church equipment in storage or in members' homes, but renting enabled us to continue Sunday services together in the interim. Doctrinal classes were held in homes, as were the children's weekly classes. Our first church service in our new church building was held on May 21 amid sincere rejoicing and gratitude to the Lord. The church's setting, high on a mountainside among whispering California pines, commands a spectacular view of the valley below. Inside the church itself, a streak of soft red light from ceiling to altar directs our focus to the Word, the source of all we are given. Rafters of redwood and stately beams separating panes of glass, through which may be seen green branches and blue sky, leave the impression of a peaceful clearing in a forest where the quiet beauty of nature seems to hold the Lord's words: "Be still, and know that I am God."
     With renewed spirit we pursued normal society uses, greatly facilitated by the large multi-purpose building adjacent to the church. Doctrinal classes were held weekly, with suppers preceding every other week. Mr. Howard is giving a series of invaluable classes on missionary approaches, our fond hope being to increase knowledge of the Lord's new truths, and eventually to enlarge our membership. Young peoples' classes were held with regularity. Occasional enthusiastic discussion groups under Mr. Howard's leadership were held with the young adults of the Society, some of whom seldom join us on Sunday but are eager to discuss basic doctrine in a sphere of informal freedom. Both the young men and women and Mr. Howard felt the discussions were useful and plan future ones.
     A rummage sale, of all things, drew some visitors from the neighborhood around the church. Could this be a new method of meeting prospective members? The men of the Los Angeles Society and the San Francisco Circle held their third annual retreat in April at Monterey Bay. Under the guidance of our pastor they considered two aspects of conjugal love and also discussed the effectiveness of present forms of worship and instruction in the General Church. They reported a most enjoyable weekend.
     A festive evening celebration was held for New Church Day with speeches, toasts, and inspiring words from Mr. Howard. He urged us to new states of effort so that the Lord's will might be done through us to the benefit of all mankind.

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      The first wedding in our new church took place early in August with the marriage of Jim Zuber and Patricia Caldwell. A second wedding followed in September when Hugh Odhner and Eileen Duronslet were married. Shortly thereafter Bill Andrews and Susie Coffin followed suit. All were lovely events.
      During the summer day camp the children studied stories of the Word concerning altars. An interesting program was presented to the Society at the camp's conclusion relating many of the things learned in the three-day period.
      Interspersed with social events, work parties were held to paint the buildings, remodel where needed, stock the kitchen and tend the grounds.
      A lively Hallowe'en party earned the children's obvious and vocal delight. After the festival service on Thanksgiving Day forty members and friends gathered for a feast of friendship and gratitude for our many blessings.
      In December the children put on moving tableaux of the Christmas story. The still scenes were rendered meaningful by Mr. Howard's reading of the passages depicted.
      The zenith of activity here since the last report from this society was surely our recent dedication weekend, as described more fully elsewhere in this issue.
     The Right Rev. Willard D. Pendleton presided at the occasion, addressing us at the first meeting and at the splendid banquet, and the Rev. Norman Reuter, the Rev. Harold Cranch and the Rev. Geoffrey Howard also honored us with speeches. Despite a torrential rainfall, nothing could dampen our spirits, buoyed up as we were by the inspiring meetings, welcome visitors from near and far, and the long-awaited joy of dedicating our buildings to the use of fostering the Lord's own church on earth.
     RUTH E. ZUBER

     GENERAL CHURCH

      On March 21, 1973, Messrs. Glenn Graham Alden and Ottar Trosvik Larsen, second-year students in the Theological School of the Academy, were recognized by the Bishop as candidates for the priesthood. Candidate Alden will assist and gain experience of pastoral work this summer in the Kitchener Society. Candidate Larsen will assist and gain experience of pastoral work in the Pittsburgh and Detroit societies.

     THE CHURCH AT LARGE

     General Convention. The NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER reports a number of matters considered by the General Council at its mid-winter meeting in Waltham, Mass. For the Council of Ministers it was reported that the Committee on Worship is continuing its efforts to produce a new Book of Worship, that the Council is working toward cementing relations with the General Church, and that the Executive Committee had discussed the proposed 1980 New Church World Assembly on this continent, the Rev. Dr. Horand Gutfeldt having offered to sound out other New Church bodies. Religious education, the Swedenborg School of Religion, publications, Program Link, Urbana College, and the ordination of women were among the matters discussed. On this last matter, it was resolved that the General Council, with the approval of the Council of Ministers, recommend to the Convention that it adopt a motion allowing women to be ordained into the ministry of the General Convention. The 1973 Annual Meeting of Convention will be held at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

     Australia. An exhibition entitled "The Life, Times and Influence of Emanuel Swedenborg, to be displayed at different State Libraries throughout Australia, was arranged by the Rev. Ian A. Arnold, pastor of the Adelaide Society. The exhibition opened at the State Library, Hobart, Tasmania, at the end of January. The Library and Documents Committee of the General Conference, the Swedenborg Foundation, the Swedenborg Society, and the Swedenborgiana Department of the Academy all contributed to the exhibition.

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ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH 1973

ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH N. BRUCE ROGERS 1973

     Announcements
     The Annual Joint Meeting of the Faculty and Corporation of the Academy will be held on Friday, May 18, 1973, in the Assembly Hall, Bryn Athyn, Pa. The program will include the usual administrative reports of the year's work and a presentation by Mrs. Sanfrid Odhner on the work of the Academy Museum. Mrs. Odhner is the head of the recently appointed Museum Committee, and she and her committee have been very busy reorganizing the Museum and restoring it to active usefulness. All friends of the Academy are cordially invited.
     N. BRUCE ROGERS
          Secretary
SWEDENBORG SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION 1973

SWEDENBORG SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION MORNA HYATT 1973

     The Seventy-Sixth Annual Meeting of the Swedenborg Scientific Association will be held in the auditorium of Pendleton Hall, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, May 2, 1973, at 8:15 p.m.
      Brief reports and election of President and members of the Board of Directors will be followed by an address by Dr. Horand Gutfeldt, Urbana College, on the subject: "Swedenborg and Modern Parapsychology."
      All members and friends are cordially invited.
     MORNA HYATT
          Secretary
ADDRESSES UNKNOWN 1973

ADDRESSES UNKNOWN 1973

     (Continued from Page 232.)

     Mrs. Walter Gould               Mr. Michael H. Everts
     655 Coronation Boulevard     600 Rosemary Avenue
     Galt, Ontario, Canada          Burbank, Ca. 01505

     Mr. Arthur French

     15628 Curtis               Mrs. Troland Cleare
     Detroit, Mi. 48235          6614 Powhatan St.
                              E. Riverdale, Md. 20840

     Mr. Norman Forster          Mr. Gorge U. Naill
     66 Camborne Grove               B-16 Spruce Drive
     Gateshead 8, Durham, England     Eastern Dawn Trailor Park
                              Langhorne, Pa. 19047
     Miss Josephine L. Fairhall
     75 Fairburn Road
     London, S.W. 9, England

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TWENTY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1973

     BRYN ATHYN, PA., JUNE 12-15, 1973

     Prior Events

Monday, June 11
     2:00-5:00 p.m.     Registration of Guests
     8:30 p.m.          President's Reception
Tuesday, June 12
     10:30 a.m.          Commencement Exercises
     2:00-5:00 p.m.     Registration of Guests
                    Garden Visit: Home of Mrs. Carl Hj. Asplundh

     Assembly Events

Tuesday, June 12
     8:00 p.m.          First Session of the Assembly
                     Episcopal Address: The Right Rev. Willard D. Pendleton; "The Organized Church"
     10:00 p.m.          Open Houses
                    Sound and Light Show on Cathedral Grounds
                    Young People's Program
Wednesday, June 13
     10:00     a.m.          Second Session of the Assembly
                    Address: The Right Rev. Elmo C. Acton; "The Priesthood"
     2:30     p.m.          Meeting of Theta Alpha
     2:30     p.m.          Meeting of the Sons of the Academy

     8:00     p.m.          Third Session of the Assembly
                     Address: The Right Rev. Louis B. King; "Response"
     10:00     p.m.          Open Houses
                    Sound and Light Show on Cathedral Grounds
                    Young People's Program
Thursday, June 14
     10:00     a.m.          Fourth Session of the Assembly
                     Group Sessions: The Rev. Frank S. Rose:
                     "The Church in the World"
     2:30     p.m.          Fifth Session of the Assembly
                     Panel of Six Priests
                     "The Church in the World" (continued)

     4:00-5:30 p.m.     Tea at Cairnwood:
                     Home of Bishop and Mrs. Willard D. Pendleton
     7:00     p.m.          Assembly Banquet
Friday, June 15
     9:30 a.m.           Divine Worship. Sermon: The Rev. Norman H. Reuter.
                    Followed by administration of the Holy Supper

     11:30 a.m.          Divine Worship. Sermon: The Rev. Norman H. Reuter.
                     Followed by administration of the Holy Supper

241

GROWTH OF THE CHURCH 1973

GROWTH OF THE CHURCH Rev. W. CAIRNS HENDERSON 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. XCIII     JUNE, 1973     No. 6
     "And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there, a thousand two hundred and sixty days." (Revelation 12: 6)

     The vision seen and described by John of a woman heavy with child, star-crowned, robed in flaming light and with the moon under her feet, was a prophetic representation of the Lord's New Church in the heavens and about to be on earth. By her child is represented the Heavenly Doctrine, and by her travail the difficulty of that doctrine's being received because of the opposition from those who had confirmed themselves, in doctrine and life, in salvation by faith through grace. Her flight into the wilderness, and her being succoured there, signifies the New Church at first among a few, surrounded by those who are in no truths, but nourished and sustained by the Lord until it is with more and then reaches its Divinely appointed state.
     In unfolding the spiritual meaning of our text the Writings reveal that it is of the Lord's Divine Providence that the church should first be among a few, that its numbers should gradually increase until, from being with many, it reaches fullness. Several reasons are given for this. In the first place, the doctrine of the New Church, which is the doctrine of love and charity, can be acknowledged and thus received by those only who are interiorly affected by truths, which means, by those who are able to see them; and those only can see truths who have cultivated their intellectual faculty and have not destroyed it by the loves of self and the world. In the second place, the falsities of the former church must first be removed; for the Heavenly Doctrine cannot be received by those who are confirmed, by doctrine and life, in faith alone.

242

And in the third place the New Church on earth grows and increases according to the number of spirits introduced into the New Heaven which makes one with the church on earth.

     Whenever the true love of the church is rekindled, the affection of serving the Lord in its further establishment is also aroused. The observance of New Church Day may have this twofold effect upon many; and with this upsurge of affection it may be timely to ask what direction for our thought, our efforts and our expectations concerning the growth of the church may be found in the teachings just noted? The term, growth, is used advisedly rather than expansion, for growth suggests a process working outwards from within, from internals to externals, whereas expansion is rather an extending of the boundaries to include increase from without.
     It is of the Lord's Divine Providence that the church should at first be among a few. By this teaching the Writings would safeguard us from the serious disappointments that would inevitably attend large expectations. Little reflection is needed to see that a rapid expansion of the organized church which far exceeded growth from within would be a grave threat to its very life. There would be a multiplication of externals that did not correspond to and reflect a development of internals. Under the Lord's leading, however, this will not happen. The church can only grow slowly, indeed will best grow slowly, and this under providential leading rather than human efforts to force the pace.
     We should wait on the Divine Providence with patience. But we should not rest from our efforts, realizing that the Divine Providence cannot lead those who stand still and do nothing, and confident that our efforts will be crowned with success in the measure that we do our part. And what our part? It is to offer our minds to the Lord as internal bases for the reception and retention of spiritual influx. Without this provision for growth from within, natural growth will be in vain. At every stage of progress the church among men awaits the ultimation of the church within men-awaits the ultimation of its own inner states of life. The spirit of the New Church must produce from itself its own ultimation; the spirit that is formed by a new Divine revelation and a new view of the Lord and consists in a new internal worship of Him in a new charity and faith. If we would see the church truly grow, then, our first and continuing responsibility is to open our minds to the Lord that He may build His church within us. It is to cultivate our intellectual faculty by reading, studying and reflecting upon the teachings of the Word that we may be able to see the truths therein, be interiorly affected by them, and so be introduced by the Lord into the doctrine and life of faith and charity.

243

In this way the church among us will grow from within and become the ultimate form of the internal church, and as such a basis from which the church may be extended to many without diminution or loss of its true quality. This is essential, for while the church is the Lord's and He alone builds it, He does so as He is thus invited. And these labors will continue beyond time into eternity, for our departure from this world will increase the New Heaven, from which our sphere will work imperceptibly but powerfully for the further increase of the New Church on earth.

     But how will the church increase from the few to the many? When this will happen no man can say, but this is certain: it will not come secretly and entirely apart from the labors of men, nor will it be a sudden thing but the result of a long process. It would be a great mistake to suppose that our sole responsibility is to preserve the church, provide for its growth from within its own borders, and protect the Heavenly Doctrine in its integrity and purity, until the Lord, working in some mysterious way, suddenly sends multitudes of men and women to its gates. The Lord always operates simultaneously from within and from without; and although He alone can prepare an internal state of reception, His operation from without, through which alone the church will increase, will be through the efforts of the organized New Church to extend the church on earth.
     Only the Lord can prepare the minds of men to receive the Heavenly Doctrine, and this He does secretly, possibly over a period of many years, and in a way that is unique for every man. It is the Lord alone who establishes His church in the minds of those who receive that doctrine, for it is He who teaches them in it and moves their hearts to love it. But how can a receptive state become a state of reception unless what it has been formed to receive is presented to it? We do have a responsibility to make the Writings known and available as widely as possible, to present the doctrines with clarity and affection wherever it seems that they may be received, to spread the knowledge of the church, and to give aid and encouragement to all who respond to these efforts. We do not know who has been prepared by the Lord, but we may be confident that among those whose paths cross ours there will be some who have been providentially led to the meeting.
     How can the falsities of the former church which stand between men and reception of the Heavenly Doctrine be removed unless it is first seen and acknowledged that they are false and why they are false? And where else is the truth that exposes them to be learned than in the Writings? The human mind can discard certain traditional ideas as inadequate or untenable for modern man, and that can be an important first step; but it cannot produce the truth that should replace them.

244

Remember, the Heavenly Doctrine must be known before it can be received or rejected; and how else than through the Writings can the loves of self and the world, as dominant loves, be seen as evil and be shunned, and the intellectual faculty be cultivated to see truths, so that it may be interiorly affected by them? Certainly the church is from the Lord; but the teaching is that the church specific is from the Lord by the Word, and if it is to increase the Word must be brought to men by those who have it, and be so presented with affection that it may commend itself to them.

So there lies before us a work of evangelization which is of the greatest importance to the increase of the church, and it must be evident that if we desired selfishly to keep the church for ourselves the desire would be self- defeating, for we would not have that which we wanted to keep. Yet if we thought of the church only as something to be given to others, and not as needing also to be nourished in ourselves, any success we had would be temporary and in vain. Our efforts must be ultimates through which the Lord can work; they must be in accord with His teachings in the Word. We will co-operate with the Lord in the work of extending His church only in so far as we search the Writings for principles which may be formed into a theology of evangelism and then adhere faithfully to that theology; scrutinizing and evaluating theories and techniques of church ( extension in its light, and using those only which agree with it. For example, we may not ignore the judgmental aspects of the Writings. If we would see the New Church built, we must present it as new and as a church, distinct and entirely different from all other churches, and then present the differences clearly so that a judgment may be made.

A third factor in the increase of the church is the increase of the New Heaven. When we consider how small is the number of those who now have the Writings, worship the Lord as they reveal Him, and live according to them, we must surely realize that this increase today must be largely from the church universal-from Christians, Christian-pagans, gentiles, and all those from everywhere in the world who died in childhood as well as from that church. The formation of the church universal, and the formation from it of the New Heaven, is entirely the Lord's work. Yet even in it the church specific has a part to play as the heart and lungs of the Lord's universal church; a part which is no less vital because it seems remote and arcane. The men and women of the church universal are saved eventually by their acceptance of the Heavenly Doctrine, in the spiritual world if not on earth, and we do not know how many there are who are not ready to accept it now, but who may be prepared for eventual acceptance by some contact with the Writings disseminated by the New Church and related agencies.

245

     Our direct responsibility, however, is to the increase of the specific New Church on earth, and this responsibility is twofold. It is a responsibility for the growth of the church within ourselves-to follow the Lord in the regeneration and allow Him to build His church within us; and it is a responsibility to evangelize the world, to carry the Writings and the church to all who may receive them. These two responsibilities are one. We recognize that the church as a spiritual communion is not necessarily identical with the church as an organized body, but only confusion can result from separating them. They should be the internal and external of one kingdom, and to consider external development without relation to internal growth would involve very grave risk for the future of the church among us. The increase of the church from the few to the many is the Lord's work, but it does depend upon our efforts. Only let it be realized that the success of those efforts will depend ultimately upon internal growth; for without a spiritual basis for reception of the Heavenly Doctrine spiritual influx cannot be received and retained, and external growth would be in vain.
     Here is no ground for discouragement. In a time known only to the Lord the church will grow from the few to the many and then reach fullness. If we believe this, trust in the Lord, and persevere, these teachings will give intelligent form to our expectations and direction to our labors, and will encourage and sustain us in the use of co-operating with the Lord in building soundly. Amen.

     LESSONS:     Revelation 12. Apocalypse Explained 732.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 429, 428, 456, 461.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 51, 89.
ESSENTIAL OF THE NEW CHURCH 1973

ESSENTIAL OF THE NEW CHURCH 1973

The essential of the doctrine of the New Church . . . is this concerning the Lord, and he who wishes to be therein acknowledges it; for this church is the very Christian Church, and no one is admitted thereto but he who thinks of and believes in one God, and thus the Lord alone. It is to be known that no one is admitted into heaven except in accordance with his confession of God; a d he is explored as to the quality of his thought and faith concerning God, for through that confession there is conjunction; and when there is conjunction there is enlightenment in particulars (Athanasian Creed 147).

246

MESSENGERS OF THE SECOND COMING 1973

MESSENGERS OF THE SECOND COMING Rev. FRANK S. ROSE 1973

     A New Church Day Talk for Children

     When the Lord was on earth He told the disciples that He would go away from them, and that later He would come back. They could not really believe that He would be killed, and did not know what He meant by coming again.
     Only a few days before the crucifixion the Lord was sitting with His disciples on the Mount of Olives. They were looking across the valley at the city of Jerusalem. They were worried about all the things that could happen in that city so full of hatred and violence. They asked the Lord: "Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming?"*
     * Matthew 24: 3
     The Lord then told them about wars, famines, diseases, earthquakes and other unhappy things. They knew about these things. But when He said that the sun would be darkened, the moon would not give her light, and the stars would fall from heaven, they wondered what He meant: What would happen to the world if the sun did not shine on it, bringing light and warmth? The world would die without the sun, and how could the Lord come to a dead world?
     The disciples did not realize that when the Lord talked about the sun He was talking about Himself! The Lord is seen in the sun in heaven. That is called the spiritual sun, and it sends out rays of wisdom and the heat of the Lord's love to make angels happy. But when people no longer love the Lord, or believe in Him, the spiritual sun is darkened and the moon of heaven does not give any light. When people are not interested in the Word, and do not see the truths that shine in the Word like stars, then the stars fall from heaven. When these things happen, then the Lord has to come again.
     Then the Lord explained to the disciples that He would send His angels, with a great sound of a trumpet, to gather His chosen people from the four corners of heaven.* He was talking about something that would happen in the spiritual world. The disciples could imagine these angels being sent out in heaven to tell the good news that the Lord had come again.
     * Matthew 24: 31.

247

     It was a long time before these things actually happened. By that time the disciples had died and had gone to the spiritual world. And then, on the 19th of June, 1770, they were the ones sent out! They were now angels, and must have been very happy to know that when the Lord told them, as they sat on the Mount of Olives, that He would send His angels, He was talking about them!
     This meant that the disciples had two different uses. First they spread the news on this earth that the Lord had come into the world; then, centuries later, they took to people in the spiritual world the news that the Lord had come again.
     When they took the news of the Lord's first coming, they told people the Gospel story as we have it in the New Testament. When they took the news of the Lord's second coming, they took the Writings written by the Lord through Emanuel Swedenborg.
     These Writings are not just for the angels. People on earth can buy them, and read them, and learn about the real meaning of the Word, about what life after death is like, and about the Lord Himself. The stars of heaven can then shine again, for these stars are the truths of the Word. The moon of heaven can give its light, as people once again have faith in the Lord. And the sun of heaven is no longer dark, because people can now know about the Lord and love Him as their Heavenly Father and their God.
     This means that the disciples were the messengers of the Second Coming in the spiritual world. But the books of the Writings are messengers in this world; and as people come to read them and love them, they will see the glory of the Lord, and will know that the Lord has really come again.

     LESSONS:     Matthew 24: 1-7, 29-32. True Christian Religion 791.
     MUSIC:     Hymnal 185, 182, 181.
     PRAYERS:     Hymnal 112, 113.
PEACE RIVER DISTRICT ASSEMBLY 1973

PEACE RIVER DISTRICT ASSEMBLY WILLARD D. PENDLETON 1973

     The Twelfth Peace River District Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada, June 29 to July 2, 1973, the Bishop of the General Church presiding.
     All members and friends of the General Church are cordially invited to attend.
     WILLARD D. PENDLETON
          Bishop

248

USE OF SENSUALS IN THE FORMATIVE YEARS 1973

USE OF SENSUALS IN THE FORMATIVE YEARS Rev. FREDERICK L. SCHNARR 1973

     2. THE SPECIAL USE OF THE SENSUALS OF THE WORD

     In our first class we considered the nature of man's lowest mind, his sensuous. We reviewed the primary uses that are served by the sensuous,
     Including the formation of remains; the preparation for opening the higher degrees of the mind; providing the means whereby men can communicate and thereby perform uses to each other; the clothing and ultimating of all higher thoughts and affections so that these may be brought into consciousness, and thus become of use; and lastly, the use of fixing and making a permanent record of all things of man's life that he should have the means of developing rational thought.
     Besides these uses, we noted the inherited form and quality of man's sensuous-that it is the home and complex in which all his evils dwell and establish their first activity. We observed the instruction from the Writings that if man is to be saved, he must be elevated from the sensuous even though the sensuous itself can scarcely be regenerated with any man. While this is the work of adult life, we described how there is a pre-image and preparation for such elevation in the forming states of infancy, childhood and youth. We noted how the Divine purpose and urgency could      be seen to raise man up from merely sensual things even in these formative states, and that this vision is an encouragement and guide to parents and educators to co-operate with the Divine purposes therein.
     Finally, we stressed the teaching that man, by no will, thought or invention of his own could possibly raise himself out of merely sensual thought and life. Indeed, he cannot even properly prepare himself for such an elevation. Only the Lord can do this, and He can do it only through the use of the special means He has prepared for that purpose. We closed by noting that these means are the goods and truths of His Word.
     For the sensuous to perform its uses properly, and for it to contain the means whereby man may be prepared and elevated from merely sensual thought and life, there must be in the sensuous sensuals taken from the Word.

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This evening, therefore, we will examine the teachings concerning the letter of the Word with the effort to see how such instruction provides a basis, a guide and an emphasis that is necessary to our thought as New Church parents and educators.
     We have previously considered the general instruction that man's sensuous cannot receive anything spiritual and celestial unless there are sensual knowledges in the sensuous which act as recipient vessels. What we would note further at this time is that the Writings are clear and emphatic that these knowledges,

     ". . . must be from the Word. Knowledges from the Word are such that they are open from the Lord Himself; for the Word itself is from the Lord through heaven, and the Lord's life is in all things of the Word, both in general and in particular, although it does not so appear in the external form."*
     * AC 1461.

     In another passage, in speaking of how little children can know nothing whatever of truth until they are imbued with knowledges, we are taught:

     ". . . the better and more perfectly they are imbued with knowledges, the better and more perfectly can intellectual truth which appertains to the inmost, or to good, he communicated. . . . This intellectual truth, represented by Sarai, is the spiritual itself which flows in through heaven, and by an internal way, and with every man; and it continually meets the know-ledges that are insinuated by means of the things of the senses, and are implanted in the memory. Man is not aware of this intellectual truth because it is too pure to be perceived by a general idea. It is likes kind of light that illuminates the mind, and confers the faculty of knowing, thinking and understanding."*
     * AC 1901.

     One of the most explicit passages in explaining how truths from the sense of the letter of the Word are the means of the Divine being received by man is the passage in the Arcana which explains why Jacob was not allowed to choose a wife from the daughters of the Canaanites, but was to go to the house of Bethuel in the land of Paddan-aram. Paddan-aram represents the knowledges of the letter of the Word, and these are the particular knowledges whereby man can receive spiritual affections. Concerning this we read that the truths man

     ". . . learns as an infant child are altogether external and corporeal, for as yet he is unable to apprehend interior truths. These truths are no other than knowledges of such things as contain, in their inmost, things Divine; for there are knowledges of things that do not contain anything Divine in their inmost; and there are knowledges that do contain it. The knowledges that do contain what is Divine are such that they can admit interior truths more and more, successively, and in order; whereas the knowledges which do not contain what is Divine are such that they do not admit, but reject these interior truths; for the knowledges of external and corporeal good and truth are like ground, which according to its quality admits seeds of one nature and not of another, bringing to maturity one kind of seeds, and suffocating another.

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Knowledges which contain in their inmost what is Divine, admit into them spiritual and celestial truth and good, possessing this capacity from the Divine which is within, and which disposes; but the knowledges which do not contain in them what is Divine, admit only what is false and evil, such being their nature. The daughters of Canaan that Jacob was not to marry represent such knowledges as do not admit what is Divine.* The knowledges which are learned from infancy to childhood are like most general vessels, which are to be filled with goods, and in proportion as they are filled, the man is enlightened. If the vessels are such as to admit into them genuine goods, then the man is enlightened from the Divine that is within them, and this successively more and more; but if they are such that genuine goods cannot be in them, then the man is not enlightened. It does indeed appear that he is enlightened, but this is from a fatuous light, which is that of falsity and evil, whereby he is more and more darkened in respect to good and truth.**
     * AC 3665: 2, 3.
     ** AE 832: 2.

     The passage goes on to show how there are many kinds of knowledges from the Word, and how they are grouped as it were into nations, families and houses according to the distinctions of good and truth. There are many passages which present similar instructions and we realize that this teaching concerning the importance and use of the letter of the Word is very well known in the church. Yet it is most important instruction, and one which needs to be kept well in our thought when considering the place of the letter of the Word in our homes and schools.
     We cannot review in any detail here the various uses served by the sense of the letter of the Word. If we took the major uses of the sensuous degree which we previously considered: that is, establishment of remains, the opening of the mind, communication, ultimation and fixation, we would find that, in every case, the sense of the letter is necessary and of primary importance. Let us take, as one brief example, the use the letter of the Word serves in the sensuous as to communication. Swedenborg once heard some persons reciting words from the sense of the letter of the Word; and he,

     ". . . perceived that immediately they had communication with some society of heaven; for the spiritual sense which was in the words then recited from the sense of the letter penetrated to that society. From this it is clear what is the quality of the Word in the sense of the letter; and as it is a means of communicating with heaven; a spiritual which is holy and which agrees with the natural, flows in therefrom into the natural love of the one speaking or preaching from the Word; and this love excites the thought nearest to his speech."

     How such communication of heavenly things through the sense of the letter relates to and has an effect upon all forms of communication is a subject that could be pursued at great length; but such is not our present purpose.

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     That the sensual and natural knowledges of the letter of the Word are especially important to infants and children is made perfectly clear in many teachings. We are taught that much of the Word was written in a historic style to serve the forming states of infants and children. Persons, places, and things are all sensual and natural knowledges. So are dramatic, historic events and stories in which these are set. Just consider the tremendous variety of merely sensual impressions and descriptions that are contained in the Scriptures, to say nothing of similar things in the Writings. There are, for example, hundreds of references to colors and combinations of colors to excite and stimulate the sensories relating to sight. There are colors describing the elements, there are rainbows and precious stones, there are flowers and vegetables, veils and garments, animals and even people. The same is true with the sensations of sound. Here there is an incredible variety-the ring of the trumpet, the tinkling of bells, the rolling of thunder, the rushing of wind in the trees, the clamor of war, the roar of the lion, the laughter of children, a woman weeping, a small voice calling to Elijah, and the heavens being silent for half an hour. These, and other such sensory images, are not provided by the Lord merely to dramatize and piece together the story of the letter so that it will be interesting and acceptable to the adult mind. They serve a more necessary use to the mind of the child, for they are the means whereby the Divine of the Lord may be received with delight. As we noted previously, the mind of the infant and the young child cannot rise above sensuous things. The sensuous is the only world that it knows, and the only thing in which it can find its pleasures and delights. The Lord has provided the sensuals of the letter of His Word that these may be injected as special sensuals into the young mind, sensuals that serve a use that no other sensuals can provide. The natural pleasure and delight of the child through sensuals from the Word receive and are infilled with pleasures and delights that flow in from the heavens. Why? Because the angels are in the loves and affections that relate to the interior and inmost meaning of the sensuals of the Word. And so it is that, through the heavens, the Divine of the Lord is communicated to infants and children.*
     * AC 6333: 43690:2, 3982:3.

     Now let us not minimize this teaching or detract from the power of its implications by confusing this instruction with the means whereby the Lord provides man with his earliest remains. In establishing first remains, the letter of the Word seems to play no evident part. Such is not the case, however, in succeeding states. In these, the Word becomes most necessary to the instilling of remains; for as the mind comes into its own conscious thought and life, the Lord must act from within and from with out at the same time.

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But He must now act from without in accord with the consciousness that is man's "as of self." The means from without, therefore, become of primary importance. And since a child cannot acquire such means without leadership and help by parents and teachers, the responsibility for the increase or decrease of the implantation of remains by means of the letter of the Word falls heavily upon us.
     The need for infants and children to acquire the sensuals and knowledges of the letter of the Word was, from the beginning, one of the primary reasons for dedicated New Church men to establish some form of family worship and instruction in the home and, in the later endeavors, to establish elementary New Church education.
     Whatever the mode of teaching the letter of the Word to little children, let us be careful that its primary place is never usurped. It should rather be enlarged, matured and expanded. The theories and practices of the educated world at large will rarely, if ever, support us in this endeavor. How can they when our endeavor rests upon an acknowledgement of Divine doctrine that is unknown or foreign to the educated world?

     We mention this at this time not because we believe we are in any imminent danger of treading on our ideals or of changing our beliefs, but because much of our common experience as parents and teachers does not always seem to support the teaching that children receive the knowledges from the historical parts of the Word with delight.* Questions are constantly raised concerning this by both parents and teachers. There they are in the home, in church or in school, trying to get the children to pay attention to a story or teaching from the Word, or perhaps to the reading or instruction of a minister. And what are the children doing? Often they are paying attention and seem to be absorbing the stories with delight. Often, however, they are not. Their minds may seem to wander, they may be distracted by other things or other children, they may need to be disciplined through word or action, they may seem bored because they have heard the story or instruction before, or they may not seem able to follow.
     * See AC 6333: 4.
     That all of these things happen there can be no doubt. Nor can there be any question that the circumstances that bring them about are varied and complex. But here again, let us be careful of conclusions drawn from observation and personal experience. It is easy for such conclusions subtly to adjoin themselves to the attitudes of the world around us, and gradually infringe on the strength and integrity of the heavenly doctrines and truths we believe, support and defend.

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     While the Writings often speak favorably of the necessity and usefulness of man reasoning and drawing conclusions from experience and the observation of the senses, they consistently warn of man thinking and judging from lower things concerning the reality and quality of higher things! Reasoning and drawing conclusions concerning the validity of a heavenly doctrine or truth from the appearances of experience and observation is the beginning of all foolishness and spiritual insanity. It can only lead us to call the doctrine or truth into question, and, finally, bring about a state of denial and rejection. As in other things, therefore, let us also be most careful in our experiences and observations concerning the reception of the letter of the Word by infants and children.*
     * AC 1072; AE 569: 2, 23.
     Let us remember the teaching well that the child, from remains, is predisposed to receive the sensuals of the Word with delight more than is the case with all other sensual things; and that the letter of the Word was so written that such delight could be established and nourished thereby.*
     * AC 6333: 4, 3690: 2, 3982: 3, 1472.

     Because the state and attitude of the adults that surround and guide children and youths has an effect upon the delight that is with them, we should be very careful as to the nature and quality of our state and attitude. This is particularly true of those adults who are immediately responsible for the formal religious education of children and youths. How can the child's delights be anything but dampened and confused if there is something of a contrary delight flowing from father or mother, or teacher in school. By a contrary delight we do not mean negative delight towards the truths of the Word, but rather the very absence of evident delight in the form and style of the letter of the Word. Where there is ignorance of the uses that are to be served by the letter of the Word, or at least considerable misunderstanding concerning them, it is easy for a sense of boredom to invade the thought and hence affect the delights.
     Perhaps we find a degree of impatience with repeating or reading stories from the Word that are particularly familiar to us: or a sense of tediousness in the many repetitions and lists of difficult names, laws and descriptions; or a feeling of confusion and contradiction over the false appearance in the letter-such as that the Lord is angry, that He destroys, etc.; there may be a sense of horror, or shock, or impropriety concerning the violence or disorder described in a story; there may be a feeling that much of the story of the Word is mere ancient history: there may be frustration in understanding the nature of many objects that are referred to or the terms that are employed; and there probably will be great ignorance as to the spiritual sense of most parts of the historical Word, to say nothing of the prophetical Word.

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      Now we realize that these attitudes would rarely be all together with any New Church parent or educator. And we know, too, that it is impossible for most to have anything more than a most general idea of parts of the spiritual sense. Nevertheless, we feel that many various combinations of other attitudes just referred to do exist with most of us and have a confusing and deadening effect upon the delights of our children. Certainly we should examine our attitudes towards the letter of the Word and do everything we can to bring them into accord with the instruction the Lord has given us.
      To help formulate our thought as to how we should present the letter of      the Word to our children and what therein we should emphasize, we would examine a number of different teachings that would seem to provide us with some guidance.
      As to what parts of the historic Word should be emphasized in infancy and childhood, the Writings say very little. Examples are used of knowledges that are important from the Word, including such things as the story of the Garden of Eden, the giving of the Ten Commandments, the construction and description of the Tabernacle and the Temple, the nature of the priestly garments, and the various feasts the sons of Israel were to hold. There is no indication, however, that these references are anything more than examples.*
     * AC 3665: 5, 3690.

     What the Writings give that seems of clearer guidance is a listing of general truths that, together with and from the letter of the Word, should form a basis first for affection and then for thought. The Writings assure us that children not only eagerly learn such truths, but that they believe them. The following list of such truths is not merely a list of examples, but rather of truths that are of primary importance.
     1. "That there is a God, and that He is one."
     2. "That He has created all things."
     3. "That He rewards those who do well, and punishes those who do evil."
     4. "That there is a life after death, in which the evil go to hell and the good to heaven, thus that there is a hell and a heaven, and that the life after death is eternal."
     5. "That he ought to pray daily, and this with humility."
     6. "That the Sabbath day is to be kept holy."
     7. "That parents are to be honored."
     8. "That no one must commit adultery, murder or theft; with other like things."*
     * AC 5135.

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     We believe this list deserves careful examination, not only because of the truths that it emphasizes, but because of the truths that are left out, as, for example, the commandment not to take the name of the Lord in vain. Somewhat surprisingly, at first thought, we find no specific reference to the truth that the Lord is Divinely Human, or Divine Man. Or that Jesus Christ is the Lord. Or that the Lord is known to us only in the Word.
     In giving this list the Writings are talking about little children, and, perhaps, we see in the truths that are selected here knowledges that not only can be received with delight, but with which there can be the beginning of some understanding. Certainly, a little child can understand something about the idea of one God because he can grasp the meaning of "one" together with the idea that "someone" rules everything. The concept of the Lord as a Divine Human God, or as Divine Man, on the other hand, not only requires the knowledge of many spiritual truths relating thereto, but also the ability of the rational faculty to understand and reflect upon them.
     Yet there are many things about this list that are puzzling. An elementary concept of what is meant by taking the Lord's name in vain would not seem too difficult for a little child to understand-as, for example, that he is not to use the Lord's names in fun, in jokes, and so forth; whereas, an elementary concept of adultery seems very difficult. Yet the latter is included and the former is not.
     Can it be that, because the states of little children are primarily affectional, there is something in these particular truths that makes them especially open to the affections and, therefore, to the reception of angelic loves? And if this is the case, would it not follow that the parts of the historic Word to be most emphasized with little children are those that teach, ultimate, or somehow display these truths? This would certainly seem to be their most suitable sensual clothing.

     When the states of infancy mature into childhood proper, the uses of the sensuals from the letter of the Word are expanded and extended. Moving from a period where the thought is limited to sensual pleasures and delights, the child is now able to begin to form conclusions and think about causes. This is done from sensual knowledges. Still, it enables the mind to consider concepts that are no longer merely sensual.* He commences to understand something of what is meant by fairness, honesty, courteous- ness, consideration for others, and so forth. In other words, concepts of civil and moral life have started to form part of his thought.

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He cannot reflect upon such concepts rationally, nor does he have the knowledges of spiritual good and truth to understand exactly what all is involved in such concepts; still, the initiation of his thought concerning them has begun. And as it develops, he needs sensual knowledges relating thereto wherein these ideas can find clothing and an ultimation that is from the Lord. Courteousness, or kindness, for example, cannot be considered as to quality, but only as to form. So there must be forms, sensual pictures from the Word, of someone being courteous and kind to someone else-as Abram giving Lot the first choice of the land. The same clothing is needed from the Word for such qualities as obedience, trust, punishment and fear, to name but a few.
     * AC S497, 5580, 5774; TCR 42.

     These first relationships of quality and form are what provide the means for the child to think from the Word. This is what continues to make the Word a living and special thing to him. Every parent, teacher and minister does something of this. But we believe we should do much, much more. We know that this requires a great deal more of mutual discussion, study and preparation, and that it is something that must be gradually developed. But somehow and somewhere we must find the time and make the effort. Many of our children do not seem to be able to think from the Word, and we mean the letter of the Word. Their thought of the Word seems to be too much in terms of an ancient history that is somehow holy and special because the Lord wrote it and is present with us in it. These are, of course, the essential concepts that we are striving to instill in our children. But we believe they can be more fully and properly instilled by a greater relationship of the sensual forms with the spirit and quality they contain.
     As each age of mental development has its own new and distinct internal thoughts and affections, so must these find their primary and most important clothing and ultimation in the letter of the Word. If this relationship is not established in a living, changing form in the sense of the letter, then the clothing and ultimation will come from elsewhere, from the ideas and knowledges of the world, and the sensual impressions from nature itself. And then it is that the things of religion begin to float in the air, as a temple that has no proper foundation, and ever increasingly they become mere abstractions and theories.*
     * AC 5008, AC 9035, 5945; SS 97: 3; AE 1085-87.
     As the mind moves forward into the age of youth, the life of the first      rational begins to awaken. This rational, which we know so familiarly as the "Ishmael rational," gradually develops the ability to think intellectually and immaterially about the knowledges and concepts that had been formed in childhood.*

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In other words, it is able to think and reflect concerning a concept such as justice abstractly, without having the thought fall immediately into sensual things, as is the case in childhood. It is for this reason that the youth can begin to receive and reflect upon spiritual truths and doctrines from the Writings. From these it can, in turn, begin to see the relationship between higher and lower things; between what is spiritual and what is natural. It can begin to see something the state of childhood can never really see; a child can see the relationship of cause and effect, but a youth can see something higher-he can begin to see the purpose behind cause and effect. Thus, when a youth considers moral concepts that he has learned in childhood, for example, he sees something he could never see as a child, and that is the relationship of what is spiritual to the moral form, the Divine purpose behind the external form of morality.
     * AC 5497.
     As this plane of rational thought develops more fully and the mind is able to understand and see for itself the nature of truth from intellectual and immaterial thought, the second rational opens, the "Isaac rational." With this, the state of youth moves to its final period, and the formative years of life come to an end.

     Our purpose here is not to examine the detail of this state, but rather to inquire as to what becomes of the uses of the letter of the Word at this time. Is it left behind in the effort to reach for higher forms of, thought and life? To consider heavenly doctrines and spiritual truths, should the thought for a time be divorced from sensual and natural ultimates, including those of the sense of the letter? There are teachings that might be construed in this light; such as that the sense of the letter is for infants, children and the simple*; such as that man is to be raised above thought that is merely from sensual things which, in a sense, included the appearances and fallacies that are in the letter of the Word; such as that the remembrance of persons, places, things, and all worldly and natural sensuals from the Word is gradually put off as man learns to think spiritually, and that there is no longer a sense of the letter of the Word, such as we know on earth, in the heavens.**
     * AE 627: 6; AC 10441.
     ** AE 563; AC 9025: 2, 8891: 3, 1408: 2, 1405.
     A close examination of these teachings in proper context will show that they should not be so construed as to negate or detract in any way from the primary uses of the letter of the Word with all ages, including the age of youth. There is a special function of the letter of the Word that would seem to develop with the state of youth that we would examine before closing our consideration of this aspect of our subject.

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     The youth concentrates on learning doctrines and truths that are as abstract knowledges in his capacity and form of thought. When he becomes an adult, he is to "ruminate" and reflect upon such knowledges to determine if they are true for himself, and not accept them just because a parent, teacher or priest, has so instructed him. The spiritual doctrines and truths he learns from his own reading and study, and the understanding he has of these things from others, is to be confirmed by his seeing that such doctrines and truths are indeed also present in the letter of the Word, only there they are in the clothing and appearances of sensual things. So we have the clear instruction in the Writings that, "if doctrine is not confirmed from the sense of the letter of the Word, the truth of doctrine appears as if only the intelligence of man were in it."*
     * SS 54. Cf. AC 6047.

     Now, a youth is not an adult; and he cannot make such adult confirmations. But still, the rational thought of doctrine and spiritual truth that he comes into raises all kinds of doubts and questions concerning the truth and validity of such seemingly abstract knowledges. We believe, therefore, that there must be a means whereby a form of preliminary and preparatory confirmation takes place; and that this is one of the important uses of the letter of the Word that must come into existence at this time. The state of youth is surely capable of seeing something of heavenly doctrine and spiritual truth reflected and illustrated in the letter of the Word. And he is particularly so capable if he has learned to think and relate things from the sense of the letter in prior states.
     We are taught that doctrinals from the literal sense are especially serviceable ". . . to those who are first being inaugurated into the interior truths of the church."* Is this not the period of youth? Should there not be something of a sight from the letter that confirms and accords with the sight of the forming rational?
     * AC 5945.
     If we do not use the Scriptures in a new way with our youth from that which they experienced in infancy and childhood, the Scriptures will tend to become with them a dead and lifeless form. And the process of resuscitation is long and difficult. We appeal, therefore, for a careful examination of our approach and practice in the religious instruction of our youth to see if we are giving them sufficient ultimates from the Scriptures wherein the doctrines may most suitably rest and be confirmed.
     In our next class we will consider the uses of sensual and natural knowledges from nature and science.

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NATURE OF THE CELESTIAL MARRIAGE 1973

NATURE OF THE CELESTIAL MARRIAGE Rev. GEOFFREY H. HOWARD 1973

     (Presented to the Council of the Clergy, March 1973.)

     The Question Stated

     If we were to raise the question of the difference between the masculine and the feminine mind, we would probably receive the answer that the masculine is a form of understanding and the feminine a form of affection. Such an answer would be based on several statements to that effect. "The male is born intellectual and the female voluntary . . ." or "the masculine is a form of understanding, and the feminine the form of the love of that understanding."* When we study the Writings a little more fully, we find that this answer is true only within certain states of marriage. There are several other passages which present a new aspect to the above statements. "Be it known that women represent good and men truth, when the spiritual church is treated of; whereas women represent truth, and men good, when the celestial church is treated of."** Reference is seldom made to this second body of teaching.
     * CL 33. See also CL 76: 5,115: 5, 242, et al.
     ** AC 8337. See also 3207, 3236, 4434: 9, 4823: 2, 8994: 4.
     These latter teachings make a distinction between the representation of a husband and wife of the spiritual church and of the celestial church. In another reference this distinction is said to exist between the spiritual and celestial kingdoms also.* Nor is this distinction solely a matter of representation. "In the celestial church the husband represents good and the wife truth; and-what is a mystery-they not only represent, but also in all of their activities correspond to them."** From these teachings it may first appear as though there is a reversal of state with partners who become of the celestial church, for in that realm "husbands are in affection, but wives in the cognitions of good and truth."***
     * AC 8994: 4.
     ** AC 4434: 9. [Italics added].
     *** AC 8994
     At first these teachings may seem paradoxical. However we believe that this is dispelled when all of these teachings are viewed in their proper context. Furthermore, when they are so regarded they serve to bring about a more interior understanding of the distinction between the male and the female, and show how the Lord may eventually form a husband and a wife into one angel.

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     The Distinction Between The "Spiritual" and The "Celestial"

     The Writings assign the province of truth to the husband, and that of good to the wife, in the state of the spiritual church and kingdom. In the celestial they assign good to the husband and truth to the wife. In doing this the Writings are consistent. It is therefore important to consider this difference in the general context of the spiritual or celestial kingdom. The basic distinction between the terms "spiritual" and "celestial" is well summarized in the following statement: "Celestial love does what is good, and spiritual love does what is true."* Good is the predominant characteristic of the celestial kingdom, while truth is predominant in the spiritual kingdom. Good is more interior than truth. When therefore the Writings describe the celestial kingdom they are describing a more interior state than when they describe the spiritual kingdom. The form of things in each kingdom appears different. Married partners in the celestial kingdom will therefore appear different from those in the spiritual.
     * DLW 427.
     With these things in mind let us proceed to consider briefly the differences between the male and female minds and trace the spiritual progression that can take place in marriage. Through regeneration on the part of both husband and wife their minds can be opened to receive the kingdom of heaven in ever increasing degree. The natural degree is opened first, then the spiritual and finally the celestial. The final celestial state with married partners is going to carry a different spiritual appearance from the former states. Indeed the descriptions given in the Writings make this clear.* They also unfold this same difference in doctrinal terms. "In the celestial church the husband was in good, and the wife in the truth of this good; but in the spiritual church the man is in truth and the wife in the good of this truth."** We believe that the reason for this difference lies in the spiritual state which appears in a more external form with the spiritual than with the celestial.
     * See CL 42, 75, 76; NH 178, 188.
     ** AC 4823:2.

     The Spiritual Distinction Between Conjugial Partners

     With marriages in the heavens the following distinction is said to exist between the partners. "In the male, the inmost is love and its clothing wisdom, or what is the same thing, he is love veiled over with wisdom; and in the female, the inmost is that wisdom of the male, and its clothing, the love therefrom."* We would again like to emphasize that this is speaking of marriages in the heavens, thus also of the regenerate state. It may also be said that something of this formation comes into being as a conjugial pair mutually advance in their regeneration on earth.

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Thus with a regenerating husband the Lord has implanted a heavenly love which is veiled in a form of wisdom. His wife may become inmostly the embodiment of that wisdom, for "the intellectual of the man is the inmost of the woman."** "In her this inmost form of wisdom is veiled in a clothing of love.
     * CL 32.
     ** CL 195.
     We would again note that this is true during and after regeneration only. Obviously such a formation can scarcely be said to exist at the commencement of marriage. Indeed, there is then the promise of its formation, but that formation comes only by way of mutual regeneration. Nevertheless the Writings are given that such a conjugial relationship might be restored. They provide the truth which, if correctly applied, will lead to that end. They lead from an unregenerate state to a regenerate one. Their description of how this may come about must be relevant to the state which is being addressed. Thus the male at birth is not then a form of love veiled over with wisdom. He may become this through regeneration. It is similar with the female. "The male was created that he might become wisdom from the love of growing wise, and the female that she might become the love of the male from his wisdom and so according to it."* Note that in this and in similar passages it is said of the male that he "might become wisdom," and of the female that she "might become" the love of her husband's wisdom.
     * CL 66.

     How The Lord Provides For And Leads To This Formation

     The soul of the male is distinct from that of the female from conception. Each is endowed with its own native ability. The differences become manifested in the disposition as each develops. "That in itself the intelligence of woman is modest, elegant, pacific, yielding, gentle, tender; and the intelligence of men in itself is grave, harsh, hard, spirited, fond of licence. That such is the nature of women and the nature of men, is very manifest from the body, face, voice, speech, bearing, and manners of each."*
     * CL 218.
     Before marriage and during its initial states, the interior things of love, of actual conjugial love, are unborn. Yet when a young man and a young woman become of a marriageable age the native qualities that are becoming to a young woman have a profound effect upon her suitor. From her very nature, the external of a woman's mind, which is a form of love, is an external of a higher order than that of man. He becomes affected by the sphere of her presence. In a woman the Lord has implanted an innate sense of modesty and propriety. He has done this that it may guard the future descent of conjugial love and prevent its defilement.*

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This sphere felt from the presence of a young woman causes her suitor to curb the more base aspects of his native masculine nature, that he might prove worthy to solicit her affections. In so modifying his behavior a young man puts upon himself a new external which the Lord can infill with heavenly love. This is the beginning of that wisdom of life, called moral wisdom, with which a wife can be conjoined to her husband from without.**
     * See CL 155: 3, 167, 274.
     ** CL 163.
     Thus a wife, being a form of love in externals, may inspire her husband to seek after the true wisdom of life. She may have the effect of turning the man away from the love of his own intelligence and of inspiring him to seek after the things of wisdom. He is thereby motivated to seek the truth of the Lord. When he does so, and lives by that truth, he opens his mind to receive the Lord. Something of the Lord's love inflows. Its presence has the effect of drawing the favors of love from his wife. As the seeds of this moral wisdom germinate and grow, the Lord forms an interior affection or love within the husband to which his wife may be conjoined.

     It is vital to the spiritual progression of marriage that both husband and wife properly understand the role which the Lord intended each to fulfil. In many of the things of marriage, the male is given to fulfil an active role. He courts the bride,* provides the means whereby a home can be established. He solicits the love of his wife,** and for the sake of spiritual progression in the marriage he has been given a love of growing wise.*** "Wisdom cannot exist with man except by the love of growing wise. If this love be taken away, man is entirely incapable of becoming wise."**** It is therefore incumbent upon a husband to seek after the things which can lead to wisdom, and endeavor to bring these into the conduct of his life. He should therefore seek to apply such truths as he knows, for moral wisdom is thereby born. He should also seek the things of rational wisdom, such intellectual truths from the Word which he sees have bearing on life's problems. Rational truths expand the mind to new avenues of application, and when these become of the life they are called moral truths. The spiritual advancement of the marriage is wholly dependent upon the wisdom from which each partner acts. Hence it is said "that conjugial love is according to the state of the church because according to the state of wisdom with man."*****
     * CL 297.
     ** CL 221.
     *** CL 66.
     **** CL 88.
     ***** CL 130.

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     It is important that due emphasis be given to the term "wisdom" in its relation to the married state. It is used in its true sense, meaning wisdom which is of the life. Such wisdom can be predicated of a heavenly state of life only. The essence within all heavenly wisdom is love that is good. It is a living quality. It is the Lord's presence with man. With many young couples this emphasis is often not fully appreciated. Wisdom is sometimes mistaken for knowledge and erudition. Obviously a wife cannot love mere knowledge in her husband for this is an empty thing. Unless knowledge is used to lead him to shun evils as sins, there can be no stability in the marriage. Through regeneration the Lord implants heavenly states of good. These form stability in the person and in the marriage. Good, couched in the wisdom of life, becomes the basis of trust. Upon it a wife may confer her love.
     Thus a wife, being a form of love in externals, may inspire her husband to seek after the true wisdom of life. In this way something of moral wisdom is formed within him by the Lord to which the wife can begin to conjoin her affections. Therefore we may say that in reality what a wife can love in her husband is heavenly love, good from the Lord, for this is within his wisdom.

     Progressive States Within Marriage

     When the Writings speak in terms of beginning states of marriage and of the inevitable adjustments involved, they are speaking of a comparatively external state. Through mutual regeneration in the marriage the couple enters into the commencement of a spiritually vivified state. In its beginnings this state is heavily reliant upon truth. It may therefore be predicated of the spiritual kingdom. The love of obedience opens the door. With persistence in this course the sense of obedience is lifted and love to the neighbor takes its place. Truth has led in the formation of this love which is a state of the spiritual church. When the Writings describe states pertaining to the spiritual church they do so in terms of the predominant external. With marriages of this degree the husband appears as a form of truth and the wife as the good thereof.
     Regeneration need not stop at this state. It can advance even to the celestial. Through years of persistence in spiritual strife the external man can gradually be brought into conformity with truth in the internal. Eventually the habit of living by the truth becomes so deeply ingrained in the mind that the essential message of truth becomes more a matter of perception than of conscience. As man advances into the celestial state truth assumes a place of secondary importance while good is primary. Then does the inmost of his being shine forth. Thus with the husband who is regenerated to the celestial state, his inmost appears, and this in most is celestial love.

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Certainly the form of his love will still be truth, but that truth will be celestial truth and will be manifested through his wife. With the celestial, love is primary and truth is its external covering. The sphere of this love is so strong that the appearance of truth as such barely intercedes.

The Spiritual Appearance Of Partners Within The Progressive States Of Marriage

     Let us again consider those passages which state that the male is born become a form of wisdom, and the female to become the love of that wisdom. The wisdom that is spoken of is wisdom of life. The essence of all such wisdom is really love, whether it be wisdom in the spiritual church or in the celestial. A man is what he loves. Subjects enter into the state of the spiritual church because their ruling love is love to the neighbor. They have a strong love of truth, and have a very real dependence upon it. This love of truth is a predominant characteristic of that kingdom.
     When the Writings speak of the celestial kingdom in distinction to the spiritual, they do so in terms of the predominant appearances there. In the celestial kingdom good or love predominates, while in the spiritual, truth or wisdom predominates. Both are kingdoms of heaven since heavenly love reigns in each. Love of an inmost degree, love to the Lord, reigns in the celestial kingdom, while love of a lesser degree, love to the neighbor, reigns in the spiritual kingdom.* Hence a husband in the celestial kingdom is said to represent "good" while in the spiritual kingdom he represents "truth." In the celestial kingdom his inmost appears, while in the spiritual his inmost appears veiled in truth. Thus it is said that "the inmost of the male is love, and its clothing wisdom."** Since the inmost nature of the angels appears in the celestial heaven it is said that "love truly conjugial is naked."*** Partners in that heaven appear naked to each other without there being any suggestion of lasciviousness.**** Only in the lower heavens are they clothed, that is, more heavily veiled in truth, that the inmost of their conjugial love may be protected from defilement. In these lower heavens love must have truth as its clothing and guard.
     * See DLW 427.
     ** CL 32.
     *** De Conj. 66.
     **** Ibid. See HH 179.
     In the celestial kingdom inmost things appear. In that kingdom the male would appear as he is in his inmosts, namely, as a form of love, but still a masculine form of love. His wife would similarly appear as she is in her inmosts as a form of her husband's wisdom. She would appear there as a form of celestial truth, "for the conjunction of truth with good is circumstanced precisely as is a marriage."*

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"Celestial truth is the truth which has become of the life."** Celestial truth is said to be "beauty itself."*** "Women were created, by the Lord, affections of the wisdom of men; and the affection of wisdom is beauty itself."**** And again; "Woman was created by the Lord through the wisdom of man because from man. Hence, being a form of wisdom inspired with the affection of love, and the affection of love being life itself, woman is the life of wisdom. The male is wisdom, and the life of wisdom is beauty."***** In the celestial state a wife is the form of her husband's celestial wisdom, and "such beauty is inexpressible."******
     * AC 1468.
     ** AC 4487.
     *** AC 1470.
     **** CL 56: 3.
     ***** Ibid.
     ****** CL 42:4.
     In the spiritual kingdom the inmost of the male is still love, but his love appears veiled to some degree. Hence in that kingdom he is said to be a form of wisdom or a form of truth. Similarly with the woman, for there she appears still as the love of her husband's wisdom, but in a form more heavily veiled than in the celestial. "Those who have loved Divine truths more exteriorly, and thus have lived in accordance with them in a more external way, are less beautiful; for exterior affections only shine forth from their faces; and through these no interior heavenly love shines."*
     * HH 459.

     There Is No Reversal Of State

     In the celestial kingdom "husbands are in affection, but wives in the cognitions of good and truth."* This does not imply that wives instruct their husbands in matters of wisdom, and that the affections of their husbands follow. In the celestial kingdom there is little need of the kind of instruction that is so cogently needed in the spiritual kingdom. Reason has little relevance to the celestial husband or wife. Instead, when they hear truth, their perceptions give consent, and they are filled with an impelling desire to live it. With the celestial that desire is perhaps more strong with the husband, but its ultimation and fulfilment still rests with the wife and depends upon her feminine practicality and grace in finding a suitable form of useful expression.
     * AC 8994.
     It is therefore important that we understand what is meant by a celestial wife being "in the cognitions of good and truth."* To be in cognitions does not mean to be in knowledges. A wife of the celestial kingdom is said to be in cognitions because she has come into a state in which it is given her to perceive the verity of her husband's celestial love.

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She perceives its good, not from any good that her husband has from himself, but from the good that is in him from the Lord. In other words she is given to love the good of the Lord which she perceives to be present in her husband's celestial wisdom. As in this world, it is still the wife who primarily forms the home and adorns it. From her cognitions of his good and truth she forms an external in which the beauty of celestial love may find full expression. Thus it is said; "all truth that is celestial or that is produced from the celestial, is happy in the internal man, and delightful in the external, and with the celestial angels is so perceived. . . This celestial truth . . . is beauty itself."** Hence in the celestial kingdom a wife does not lose the grace of her femininity. Rather does she enter into it more fully, taking upon herself a more beautiful form.
     * AC 8994.
     ** AC 1470.
     We hope to have shown that these teachings regarding the apparently diverse qualities of husbands and wives in the two kingdoms are not opposite when regarded from their essence firstly and from their appearance or manifestation secondly. There is not a reversal of the roles, but rather a more profound entering into the essence of the functions which a husband and a wife were created to perform.
FAITH AND LIFE 1973

FAITH AND LIFE 1973

There is not with man a grain of truth more than there is good; thus not a grain of faith more than there is life. There is in the understanding the thought that a thing is so; but not the acknowledgment which is faith unless there is consent in the will. Thus faith and life walk on with equal step. From these considerations it is now evident that in so far as anyone shuns evils as sins so far he has faith and is spiritual (Doctrine of Life 52).
VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

Visitors to Bryn Athyn for Commencement or any other occasion who need assistance in finding accommodation please communicate with the Guest Committee, c/o Mrs. Leo Synnestvedt, 611 Waverly Lane, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009. Phone: (215) WIlson 7-3725.

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HOLY SUPPER 1973

     Compilations of Passages

     REMEMBRANCE AND THE HOLY SUPPER

     "When the Lord set up the Christian Church He enjoined only a few external observances, namely, Baptism and the Holy Supper: Baptism, that by it regeneration might be remembered; and the Holy Supper that by it might be remembered the Lord and His love toward the whole human race, and the reciprocal love of man to Him."* Therefore "when the Lord instituted this Supper, of the last Jewish and first Christian Passover, He said: 'This do in remembrance of Me.' (Luke 22: 19)."**
     * AC 4904: 3.
     ** TCR 704.
     "'Remembrance' signifies presence, for the thing which is remembered becomes present."* It "also signifies conjunction, because the remembering of anyone in the other life conjoins; for as soon as any spirit calls another to mind he appears present, and so present that they speak together."** "When anyone in the spiritual world thinks about another, and wishes to speak with him, the other immediately appears present; and as thought from any knowledge of another causes presence, so love from any affection causes conjunction. . . . From this the ground of presence and conjunction in the spiritual world can be seen, namely, that presence comes from the remembrance of another, with a desire to see him, and conjunction from an affection that springs from love."***
     * AC 5430.
     ** AC 5229.
     *** DP 326.
     "To 'remember' signifies also what is perpetually in the thought. This is evident from the signification of remembering, when said of such a thing as must not in anywise be forgotten, as being what is perpetual in the thought. That is perpetual in the thought which reigns universally there; and that universally reigns with man which is perpetually in his thought even when he is meditating on other things or is engaged in business affairs. In the very thought of man are those things which are perpetually there, that is, which universally reign there, which are his inmost things. From these man regards those things which are not perpetually there as being outside himself, and also as beneath himself, and as not yet being akin to him. . . . Be it known further that that which reigns universally is that which has been insinuated into the will itself, for the will itself is the inmost of man because it has been formed from his love itself."*
     * AC 8885.

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     "He who receives and has faith is continually in the remembrance of the Lord, even when he is thinking or speaking of other things . . . although he is not aware that he is then mindful of the Lord; for the remembrance of the Lord by those who are in faith reigns universally with them, and what reigns universally is not perceived except while the thought is directed to it."*
     * AC 5130
     "The perpetual remembrance of liberation by the Lord from damnation is signified by the Passover."* "Who does not remember and love the man who from zealous love for his country fights against her enemies even to the death, that he may thereby free her from the yoke of slavery."**
     * AC 8038.
     ** TCR 710.
     "In the union of Himself with the Father the Lord had in view the conjunction of Himself with the human race, and He had this at heart because it was His love. . . . This was His end, and this His love, which was such that the salvation of the human race, as beheld in the union of Himself with His Father was to Him the inmost joy."*
     * AC 2034: 2.

     THE ELEMENTS IN THE HOLY SUPPER

     "Because 'bread' signifies celestial things and 'wine' spiritual things they were made symbols in the Holy Supper."* "The bread and wine [of the Holy Supper] signify the Lord's Divine Human; the bread His Divine celestial, and the wine His Divine spiritual; consequently they signify His love toward the universal human race and, on the other hand, the love of the human race to the Lord."** Thus "the flesh and blood signified by the bread and wine in the Holy Supper denote the Lord's Human proprium. The Lord's proprium itself, which He acquired to Himself by His own power, is Divine. His proprium from conception was what He had from Jehovah His Father, and was Jehovah Himself. Hence the proprium which He acquired to Himself in the Human was Divine. This Divine proprium in the Human is what is called His flesh and blood; 'flesh' is His Divine good, and 'blood' is the Divine truth of the Divine good."*** "Bread is therefore all the good which proceeds from the Lord, for the Lord Himself is in His own good; thus bread and wine in the Holy Supper are [also] all the worship of the Lord from the good of love and faith."****
     * AC 1727.
     ** AC 2830.
     *** AC 4735.
     **** HD 221e.

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     "The Holy Supper is an external of the church that contains within itself an internal, and by means of this internal it conjoins the man who is in love and charity with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord. For in the Holy Supper 'eating' signifies appropriation, the 'bread' celestial love, and the 'wine' spiritual love; and this so entirely that when a man is in a holy state when eating it, nothing else is perceived in heaven."* However, "the holy things of the church are not holy unless they are solemnly received; for unless they are solemnly received the Divine does not flow into them, and all holy things with man are holy entirely from Divine influx . . . the Holy Supper becomes holy from the presence of the Lord,"** and "the holiness in [the bread and wine] comes from the fact that 'bread' is the holy of love and charity in heaven and 'wine' is the holy of charity and faith there."*** Therefore "those who are in external and at the same time in internal worship do not adore the bread and wine, but the Lord whom these represent, and from whom is the holy of love, of charity and of faith; and this they do, not from doctrine, but from love, charity and faith appropriated in the life."****
     * AC 4211.
     ** AC 4700: 2.
     *** AC 4200: 2.
     **** AC 10,208: 3.
     "When 'bread' is mentioned in the Word the angels become aware not of material but of spiritual bread; thus instead of bread they perceive the Lord, who is the Bread of Life, as He Himself teaches. And because they perceive the Lord they perceive what is from the Lord, thus His Love toward the universal human race; and they then perceive at the same time man's reciprocal love to the Lord; for these two things cohere in one idea of thought and affection."* "The Lord's body or flesh denotes the good of love, and in like manner the bread; and the Lord's blood denotes the good of faith, and in like manner the wine; and eating denotes appropriation and conjunction. The angels who are with a man when he comes to the sacrament of the Supper perceive these things no otherwise, for they apprehend all things spiritually. From this it is that there then flows in from the angels to the man, thus through heaven from the Lord, a holy feeling of love and faith. From this comes the conjunction."**
     * AC 4717.
     ** AC 10,521.
     "When a man takes the bread which is the body he is conjoined with the Lord through the good of love to Him from Him; and when he takes the wine which is the blood he is conjoined with the Lord through the good of faith to Him from Him. But be it known that conjunction with the Lord through the sacrament of the Supper is effected solely with those

     (Continued on Page 287)

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ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS 1973

ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS NORBERT H. ROGERS 1973

     COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY

     The 75th Annual Meetings of the Council of the Clergy of the General Church of the New Jerusalem were held in the Council Hall of the Bryn Athyn Cathedral, March 5-9, 1973, following an opening service conducted by Bishop W. D. Pendleton in the Cathedral chapel.

     The meetings were attended by four priests of the episcopal degree, thirty-one of the pastoral degree, two of the ministerial degree and three guests. They were the Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton, presiding; the Rt. Rev. Elmo C. Acton, the Rt. Rev. George de Charms, the Rt. Rev. Louis B. King; the Rev. Messrs. Alfred Acton, Kurt H. Asplundh, Bjorn A. H. Boyesen, Geoffrey S. Childs, Robert H. P. Cole, Harold C. Cranch, Roy Franson, Victor J. Gladish, Daniel W. Goodenough, Daniel W. Heinrichs, Henry Heinrichs, Willard L. D. Heinrichs, W. Cairns Henderson, Geoffrey H. Howard, Robert S. Junge, Kurt P. Nemitz, Ormond de C. Odhner, Dandridge Pendleton, Martin Pryke, Norman H. Reuter, Morley D. Rich, Norbert H. Rogers, Donald L. Rose, Frank S. Rose, Erik Sandstrom, Frederick L. Schnarr, David R. Simons, Christopher R. J. Smith, Lorontz R. Soneson, Kenneth O. Stroh, Douglas M. Taylor, Ragnar Boyesen, N. Bruce Rogers; and by invitation, Candidates Mark R. Carlson, Michael D. Gladish and Thomas L. Kline.
     At the first session on Monday afternoon, March 5, after the Minutes of the 1972 Meetings had been accepted as published in NEW CHURCH LIFE (June 1972, pp. 264-267), Bishop Pendleton welcomed the assembled priests and the three candidates, and mentioned some of his activities during the past year which stood out in his mind.
     The Rev. Martin Pryke then reported on the drug problem at the Academy of the New Church that had to be dealt with recently. The Academy views the use of drugs such as marijuana as a serious disorder, he said, not only because it is against the law, but also, and especially, because its effects are contrary to the moral principles given us in the Writings. The Academy tries to counteract the problem by suspending students known to use marijuana, by the education given in courses such as Religion, Human Body and Health, and by counseling. Another problem the Academy has, the Rev. Dandridge Pendleton reported, is caused by an increasing number of young people who come to the Academy with little knowledge of its principles of education and morality, and therefore, with little affirmation of those principles.

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As a result, it is necessary to lay down more and more rules to preserve order, giving the Academy the appearance of being a reform school, which it does not wish to be, nor can it fulfill its real purposes if it is forced to act as such. And the need to enforce these many school rules tends increasingly to distract both the faculty and the students from the positive activities proper to their respective functions. Both reports were appreciated and elicited active discussion.
     In the two sessions on Tuesday presentations of doctrinal studies were made by the Rev. Messrs. Ormond de C. Odhner and N. Bruce Rogers who formed the Program Committee appointed by the Bishop during the 1972 Council Meetings. Mr. Rogers' paper, entitled The Divine Human: The Visible God, stressed the need of New Church men to worship the visible God, not just an abstract concept of Him, if the New Church is to retain its integrity. Mr. Odhner's paper was on The holy Spirit. It brought out the differing teachings in the Writings about the Holy Spirit, and considered the change in the Trinity effected by the Lord's glorification. Both papers were informative and stimulating, and both gave rise to extensive discussion.
     Other papers and subjects presented for consideration at other sessions were Conjunction With Heaven by Means of the Writings by the Rev. Erik Sandstrom, Reflections on the Lord's Prayer by the Rev. Victor J. Gladish, The Celestial Marriage by the Rev. Geoffrey H. Howard, What We Do in Our Ritual by the Rev. Frank S. Rose, Significant Features in the Last Years of Swedenborg's Life and Ways of Promoting More Reading of Our Publications by the Rev. Donald L. Rose, A. C. 9349-Some Questions by the Rev. Douglas M. Taylor and The Use and Extent of the Secretary's Intercommunication Service by the Rev. Norbert H. Rogers.
     In addition to the Council sessions, a number of scheduled meetings involving ministers were held. Headmasters met with the Rev. David R. Simons on Monday morning and had lunch at his home, and later in the week Heads of Schools met with the Rev. Martin Pryke, Executive Vice President of the Academy of the New Church. The General Church Translation Committee met on Tuesday morning and the General Church Publication Committee on Wednesday. There was also an informal meeting of the Church Extension Committee of the Council of the Clergy.

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     Among the pleasant social occasions which add much to the enjoyment of the week of the Council Meetings were the small group luncheons arranged for the ministers on Tuesday, the Open House for ministers and their wives at the home of Dean and Mrs. E. C. Acton, the social dinner for ministers at the home of Bishop and Mrs. Pendleton, the luncheons with members of the General Church and Academy Boards at Glencairn, the delightful refreshments served every morning during the week of the Meetings by ladies of the Bryn Athyn Women's Guild, the Open House at the Civic and Social Club following the General Church program on Friday evening, and various other opportunities the ministers had to meet informally with lay members of the Bryn Athyn Society.
     Respectfully submitted,
          NORBERT H. ROGERS
               Secretary
GENERAL CHURCH EVENING 1973

GENERAL CHURCH EVENING NORBERT H. ROGERS 1973

After the Social Supper on Friday evening, March 9, 1973, the General Church Evening was opened with the Lord's Prayer and a reading from the Word. Bishop Pendleton then introduced the Rev. Douglas M. Taylor who gave a most interesting talk on The History and Present of the General Church in Australasia. The official beginning of the General Church in Australasia was in 1913 when Mr. Richard Morse was recognized by the General Church as the leader of a group of New Church men in Sydney. The same year the Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal had visited the Sydney Group. In 1919 Mr. Morse visited Bryn Athyn, where he was ordained into the first and second degrees of the priesthood. Ten years before, Mr. Morse had become much impressed by the recognition that the Writings were the Lord's own doctrines and were authoritative. This recognition led to the formation of a group of New Church men which in time affiliated with the General Church. The Rev. W. Cairns Henderson became pastor of the Hurstville Society when Mr. Morse retired in 1936. When Mr. Henderson left in 1946, the Society carried on under lay leadership until 1957 when the Rev. Donald L. Rose became its pastor. He in turn was succeeded in 1964 by Mr. Taylor who also serves the pastoral needs of a group of members and friends of the General Church in New Zealand. Though the Hurstville Society is not large, there are a number of members and friends of the General Church in Australia who live too far away to participate in the Society's activities. Mr. Taylor felt that Swedenborg and the New Church were becoming much better known through Australasia through his radio talks and the television show on Swedenborg which he had helped script.

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     That show had been repeated this year in honor of the exhibition of things related to Swedenborg that was held in Tasmania January 30th to February 28th.
     Respectfully submitted,
          NORBERT H. ROGERS
Secretary
General Church of the New
Jerusalem
JOINT COUNCIL 1973

JOINT COUNCIL NORBERT H. ROGERS 1973

     MARCH 10, 1973

     1. The 79th Regular Joint Meeting of the Council of the Clergy and Directors of the Corporation of the General Church of the New Jerusalem was opened by the Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton at 10 a.m., on March 10th, 1973, in the Council Hall with the Lord's Prayer and reading from Micah 7: 7-20.

     2. Attendance:
Of the Clergy: Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton, presiding; Rt. Rev. Elmo C. Acton, Rt. Rev. George de Charms and Rt. Rev. Louis B. King; Rev. Messrs. A. Acton, K. H. Asplundh, B. A. H. Boyesen, R. H. P. Cole, R. Franson, V. J. Gladish, D. W. Heinrichs, W. L. D. Heinrichs, W. Cairns Henderson, G. H. Howard, R. S. Junge, K. P. Nemitz, O. de C. Odhner, D. Pendleton, M. Pryke, N. H. Reuter, M. D. Rich, N. H. Rogers, D. L. Rose, F. S. Rose, E. Sandstrom, F. L. Schnarr, D. R. Simons, C. R. J. Smith, L. R. Soneson, K. O. Stroh, D. M. Taylor; N. B. Rogers. (32)

Of the Laity: Messrs. W. B. Alden, L. Asplundh, R. H. Asplundh, T. W. Brickman, G. M. Cooper, A. B. Fuller, B. F. Fuller, C. P. Gyllenhaal, L. E. Gyllenhaal, J. F. Junge, R. Junge, W. R. Kintner, J. E. Kuhl, L. Nelson, L. Pitcairn, S. Pitcairn, J. W. Rose, L. Synnestvedt, R. Synnestvedt, Jr., R. E. Walter, J. Wyncoll. (21)

Guests: Candidates M. R. Carlson, M. D. Gladish, T. L. Kline. (3)

     3. Memorial Resolution:
The following Memorial Resolution for the Rev. Henry Algernon was presented by the Rt. Rev. George de Charms:

     Forasmuch as it has pleased the Lord in His good Providence to remove our brother Henry Algernon to the spiritual world, be it resolved that this Council express deep appreciation of his many years of labor on behalf of the New Church. He was born in Georgetown, British Guiana, on August 4th, 1881, but after his marriage in 1915 he moved to Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana, where he served as a missionary for the Baptist Church. We do not know how be became acquainted with the Writings, but in 1923 he was baptized into the faith of the New Church by the Rev. J. B. Spiers, and was employed as a missionary by the General Convention.

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In 1935 he found it necessary to return to Georgetown for reasons of health. Here the General Convention was already supporting a mission center under the leadership of the Rev. Walter E. Fraser, and could not afford to maintain two such centers in the same place.
     Meanwhile, Mr. Algernon had become acquainted with the work of the General Church through reading NEW CHURCH LIFE, and he had found himself in complete sympathy with the doctrinal position of that body. Hoping to be able to continue his work for the Church he applied for General Church membership, and was received as a member by Bishop N. D. Pendleton in 1936. He was duly authorized as a Missionary Leader, and was granted a small stipend.
     In 1940 Bishop George de Charms visited Georgetown, and became personally acquainted with Mr. Algernon. He was deeply impressed with the devotion of this man to the Heavenly Doctrine. He found him to be intelligent and well educated. He demonstrated a deep desire to establish a permanent center from which the faith of the New Church might grow and spread throughout his native country. The Bishop ordained him into the first and second degrees of the priesthood of the New Church, and encouraged him to pursue the goal he had set for himself. To this end he faithfully dedicated the rest of his life.
     But he was a "voice crying in the wilderness." He found almost no response to his plea for the establishment of the New Church. Nevertheless, he struggled on, and refused to be daunted by the tremendous difficulties with which he was confronted. The stipend from the Church had to be supplemented by secular employment in order to maintain his wife and four children, even in very meager circumstances. He managed to secure part-time work in connection with the university of which he was a graduate, and also to serve the government from time to time in various capacities. But he gave as much time as possible to the work of the "Tabor Mission." He delivered public lectures on the doctrines of the New Church, and conducted services of worship in halls that could be rented within his very limited means. He labored in complete isolation, being unable to know his fellow-ministers, or to be known by them, except through NEW CHURCH LIFE and by very occasional correspondence. But his faith never faltered, and even to the end he clung to the hope that the work he initiated might be carried on by others, and might continue to grow beyond his own life time. In this he would seem to have been disappointed. Nevertheless, aside from his own family there are a few receivers of the Writings in Georgetown as a result of his efforts, and "where two or three are gathered together in My name," saith the Lord, "there am I in the midst of them."
     The whole Church owes to Mr. Algernon a debt of gratitude for his life-long services, and we would express to his family the deep affection and esteem we feel for him.

The above resolution was adopted in silence by a standing vote, and the Secretary was instructed to send a copy to Mr. Algernon's next of kin.

     4. The Minutes of the 78th Annual Meeting were accepted as published in NEW CHURCH LIFE for June, 1972.

     5.     Mr. Leonard E. Gyllenhaal was called on to give his Treasurer's Report. (See page 284)
     The Rev. D. Pendleton asked if it were true that self-employed pays more towards his retirement than a minister who is than the teacher does?

275

The answer was in the affirmative. Mr. Pendleton then spoke of the tax-free parsonage allowance which more than off-set the self-employed increase in Social Security payments. He thought that, now that ministers generally are better supported financially, sooner or later parsonage allowances would no longer be permitted.
     Mr. Gyllenhaal advised every minister to take advantage of his parsonage allowance. There is no final decision about what revisions to make in the General Church Pension Plan.
     The Rev. B. A. H. Boyesen mentioned that at present he had to pay Social Security in England and now in addition to that he will have to pay Social Security to the United States, and asked if there was a chance that a mutual agreement would be arranged between the two countries about it? He added that there was a mutual agreement between Sweden and England and between England and other countries, but no mutual agreement in this field between the United States and England.

     Mr. Gyllenhaal answered that the way things were now Mr. Boyesen would have to pay both, but there was a possibility that there might be such an arrangement that if you paid it in one country you would not pay it in another. He had learned at the Church Pension Conference that a person can collect his Social Security from the United States in any place in the world, but he could not collect Social Security from any other place in the world in the United States. Mr. Boyesen was paying into something in England that would not he able to benefit him here.
     The Rev. R. H. P. Cole thought congratulations were due to Mr. Gyllenhaal and his office for all the work his report represented. He asked if letters would be sent to pastors advising them how they could help in implementing the General Church fiscal policies in local Societies and Districts.
     Mr. Gyllenhaal said that a great many men worked on developing the fiscal policies and practices and put a lot of time on it, for which his office was grateful. Now that most Societies and Circles are reporting on a uniform financial statement form, they can be compared one against the other. This information will then be sent to everybody who is participating with the Finance Committee along with information that the Committee would be glad to discuss fiscal matters with them or to help them work out realistic methods and objectives. If any pastor feels there is room for improvement in his District, maybe he could go after the boards and have them contact the General Church. What he had in mind was a matter of two-way correspondence and cumulative in formation and give and take between treasurers, pastors and the Finance Committee.

276

     The Rev. L. R. Soneson spoke of his Pastoral District, which is not yet self-supporting. The District treasurer encouraged the people in the area to contribute to the local treasurer, on the assumption that this was a contribution to the General Church. He asked for clarification on this point.
     Mr. Gyllenhaal explained that any contribution to any Society was in a way a contribution to the General Church, but a contribution in an area to the local treasurer was not a contribution to the General Church. It goes to the local treasurer and it's paid to the General Church for services, but it is not posted in the General Church records as a contribution in support of the General Church central body. He suggested that if a local area was trying to reach self-support, the people should be encouraged to support locally. Support of the General Church as well, as soon as possible, should remain an objective of all.
     Bishop Pendleton asked if there should not be some acknowledgment of the uses the General Church is performing for these Societies and Districts which they are not performing for themselves? You take the Episcopal Office, you take the travel costs and moving costs-and they're tremendous. All the Districts and Societies benefit from these things.
     The Rev. M. Pryke said that he was a little concerned about the mention that in Canada and England members contribute to their own Corporations and not to the General Church. He thought it was important to be at least aware of the need for direct support to the General Church to support the Episcopal Office above all else.
     The Rev. K. P. Nemitz was very grateful that this new salary work had been done as it was going to promote the work of the General Church a great deal.

     Mr. W. B. Alden expressed concern that the effects of the floating dollar might hurt our ministers in foreign countries, and he wondered about the possibility of establishing a policy by which the minimum wage supplied through the General Church would also float month by month, so that the minister in a foreign country could count on stability.
     Mr. Gyllenhaal thought it would not be simple, but the matter had to be studied.
     Mr. William Kintner said the practice of a group having to do with scholarships of students studying abroad is to set a rate in the foreign currency and then send the money in that currency, adjusting it according to the exchange rate variations.
     The Rev. K. H. Asplundh felt that the position of the Church was that the priest should present the uses of the Church and that the laity was to determine how well those uses could be financed. He felt that in some things of the financial policies of the Church developed over the years, the clergy had not had sufficient opportunity to present what they feel are the uses of the Church.

277

As a specific example he cited: one of the sub-committee's proposals concerning increments to salaries of teachers was not supported by the headmasters, and yet this proposal had been adopted by the Board as of yesterday. He did not like to see the ministers bound by the policies that had been formulated without their having an opportunity to present their thoughts about them.
     Bishop Pendleton felt that there were times when the laity could inadvertently take steps without full awareness of the pastoral or clerical prerogatives, and also vice versa. When those things happened he soon found that there was a correction, as there was no intention of seizing power.

     6. The meeting recessed for refreshments served in the Choir Hall by the Women's Guild.

     7. Mr. Gyllenhaal noted that starting the first of January ministers who are pensioners could have up to 40% of their retirement income declared as parsonage allowance.
     The Rev. D. R. Simons said that the Finance Committee had made a very fine start in encouraging teachers' professional advancement. He stressed the need of teachers in New Church schools to have courses in New Church principles and philosophy of education, as well as working towards degrees at outside institutions, and he suggested that the General Church give credits to teachers who, under pastoral supervision, successfully complete programs involving reading, discussion and written reports of such books as Growth of the Mind, History of New Church Education, Conversations on Education, as well as other books and course notes relating to New Church education that are now available or that will be written in the future.
     Mr. Simons recommended that the Bishop appoint a committee of head- masters to research the subject and draw up a program that will better fit the needs of our General Church schools. He also suggested that the Head of the Education Department be invited to consult with that committee.
     The Rev. A. Acton felt that the Finance Committee's approach was a very sincere one in their effort to meet a very real problem and that the committee had not wanted to encroach on the priestly sphere of responsibility by specifying courses for which credit would be given. So, they simply said in their statement that they proposed giving professional increments for under-graduate or graduate work. He felt that priests should give leadership in developing programs that would encourage teachers to become better qualified to teach in New Church schools.

278

     The Rt. Rev. L. B. King noted that some teachers in our schools had no Academy training at all, and he said he was anxious that incentives should be provided for teachers to benefit from the distinctive courses of the Academy.

     8. Bishop Pendleton mentioned that Mr. Robert Asplundh was the Chairman of the Assembly Committee and that this was the third consecutive time he was serving in that capacity. He then said that according to the Order and Organization of the General Church, in the nomination for an Assistant Bishop of the General Church or Bishop of the General Church, the name was presented to the General Assembly, and how it is to be presented was to be considered in Joint Council. For the past, at quite a few Assemblies where this has taken place, we had simply followed the practice of the nomination being made by the Secretary of the Council of the Clergy, then seconded by the Secretary of the General Church, Incorporated, those giving further seconding speeches could be appointed by him. He asked if this procedure was satisfactory to this Council. It meant that the Rev. Norbert Rogers would formally present Bishop King to the Assembly for the office of Assistant Bishop of the General Church and the nomination would then be seconded by Mr. Stephen Pitcairn, the Secretary of the General Church, Incorporated. One or two more seconding speeches would be made and then the name would be presented to the Assembly for action. (Joint Council agreed to this procedure with no dissenting voice.)
     With reference to the voting on Mr. King's nomination, the Bishop said that there might be a complication because of such great numbers balloting. However, at the 1962 Assembly the voting seemed to go fairly smoothly. Inevitably, though, some people who are not members of the General Church will vote, but he did not know how we can avoid that unless we go through a very complicated procedure of checking everyone who asks for a ballot. Announcement will he made that only members of the General Church can vote, but some people will think they are members when they are not. However, he did not suppose that was serious.
     Mr. J. E. Kuhl said he had at one time served on a committee to count ballots at an Assembly, and that it was amazing how many blank ballots had been passed in. The tellers had come to the conclusion that the blank ballots could be attributed to non-members of the General Church who had been given ballots. He believed that took care of that problem to some extent. There will be others who did not know they weren't members.
     The Rev. Erik Sandstrom thought there were many who did not know whether they are members or not. There were persons who were active in Societies and who assumed they were members of the General Church.

279

He suggested that a statement be made, perhaps by the Bishop, as to what the procedure is to become a member of the General Church before the ballot is taken; it seemed a good opportunity to make the matter clear.
     The Rev. N. H. Reuter suggested that this be done prior to the Assembly.
     The Rev. F. L. Schnarr suggested a master list of General Church members of the incorporated body be posted at the first session of the Assembly, and that it be announced that everyone should check the list for his membership status.
     The Bishop mentioned that the Secretary of the General Church had appealed to all pastors to send in the official list of members in each Society and/or Circle or District and he was checking each name on these lists against the files. We have found some names on the membership rolls of Societies who are not eligible to be members as they are not members of the General Church. Many of the pastors have co-operated. Some others have not yet been heard from.
     The Rev. N. H. Rogers noted that what his office was doing right now depended on pastors of Districts and Societies, and would not include General Church members outside pastoral areas.
     The Rev. R. S. Junge suggested that it might be helpful if at the time of registration the registrars checked the membership list and gave ballots to registrants who are members of the General Church.

     The Bishop said that this had been thought of, but there would be people who would not have ballots with them when the time came to cast them. Even if a few people voted who were not eligible, it would not change the course of history. He noted that he was going to ask the Secretary to print on the ballots a statement such as "Do you support the nomination of the Council of the Clergy?" He thought that was an affirmative and dignified way to do it. He then said that the question of proxies had again come up. Neither the Bishop nor Joint Council was authorized to permit the use of proxies in selection of a Bishop or Assistant Bishop; only a General Assembly could act on this question. But there was no time available at the coming Assembly to take up the question properly; it would have to wait until a future Assembly. Consideration should be given to the matter.
     The Rev. M. Pryke thought it would be difficult to settle the question of proxies if discussion of the question began at an Assembly. He thought it would be better to consider the question in Council and then send a formal recommendation to the Assembly.
     The Bishop agreed that that would be a good way to do it. The implications involved should be kept in mind. If we acted affirmatively on proxies, it would affect the other bodies of the Church, and we would become a proxy voting Church.

280

The question was whether that would be good or bad.
     The Rev. K. P. Nemitz said that General Church members in Scandinavia and other distant lands have little contact with the General Church. Being able to participate in General Church affairs by proxy would help such people have a sense of belonging. However, he thought the question should be thoroughly studied.
     The Bishop suggested that consideration of the subject be placed on the agenda of the Joint Council at its meeting next year. This suggestion was approved.

     9. Bishop Pendleton called for a report by the Rev. Willard L. D. Heinrichs, Superintendent of our South African Mission.
     Mr. Heinrichs reported that the Mission had some problems, but he did not regard the situation as hopeless in any way. Statistically there was not much growth and development, although there were virtually no resignations and many baptisms. The problem was that, due to social and employment patterns, when the children get to about fourteen they generally move away from centers where our missions are to seek work and, unfortunately, many are lost track of. Whether these persons are permanently lost or not is not known.
     Another problem Mr. Heinrichs spoke of was the shortage of ministers; the prospect was that due to attrition resulting from advancing years, in a very short time only three of the present complement of active ministers would be left. One man in his sixties was preparing for the ministry and there was the possibility of another younger man training. Aggravating the problem is the fact that the ministry now has less appeal to Africans of sufficient ability and education than such fields as medicine or the law.
     Mr. Heinrichs also described the difficulties that were related to the Mission buildings due to various causes in various areas, and closed his report by saying that despite problems he did not think that we should become discouraged. While he did not speak any African language, he was able to converse with the ministers and some laymen. He had just recently been visiting a number of the African homes in one of the African townships, and it was only too clear that they did have a grasp of the doctrines and many of them seemed to have a deep perception of what the doctrines involve in respect to their life. He found it very inspiring to talk to them and sense some of their love and devotion to the Church.
     Respectfully submitted,
          NORBERT H. ROGERS
               Secretary

281

SECRETARY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH 1973

SECRETARY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH NORBERT H. ROGERS 1973

     ANNUAL REPORTS
     During September 1971 through August 1972, seventy members were received into the General Church. Six were dropped from the roll. Six resigned from the Church. Thirty-nine deaths were reported. On September 1st 1972, the roll contained three thousand two hundred ninety-seven names.
     Membership, September 1, 1971                              3278
          (U.S.A.-2 143, Other Countries-1135)
     New Members (Cert. 5808-5877)                              70
           (U.S.A.-47, Other Countries-23)
     Deaths reported                              39
           (U.S.A.-25, Other Countries-14)
     Resignations                              6
           (U.S.A.-4, Other Countries-2)
     Dropped from Roll                              6
           (U.S.A.-3, Other Countries-3)
     Losses (U.S.A.-32, Other Countries-19)                    51
     Net gain during September 1971 through August 1972          19

     Membership, September 1, 1972                              3297
          (U.S.A.-2158, Other Countries-1139)

     NEW MEMBERS

     September 1, 1971, to August 31, 1972

     THE UNITED STATES

     Arizona: Phoenix
Mr. Edward Franklin Allen, Jr.
Miss Neva Carolyn Gladish

     California: San Diego
Mr. Ralph Percival Sherman

     Colorado:     Denver
Mrs. Austin O'Brien (Portia King Wille)

     Delaware:     Hockessin
Mr. Hugh Davis Hyatt

     Florida:     Homestead
Mr. Walter Cameron Childs, III

     Florida: Lake Helen
Miss Gwendolyn Cooper de Maine

     Illinois: Chicago
Mrs. Ronald Hugh Coffin (Jutta Gertrud Ding)

     Illinois:     Glenview
Miss Kay Marie Reuter
Mr. Lawrence Cole Scalbom

     Illinois:     Harwood Heights
Mr. Edward Leo Drever

     Illinois:     McComb
Mr. Larry Daniel Anderson

     Indiana:     Fremont
Mr. Olin Dygert

     Maryland:     Rockville
Mr. Robert C. Stroud

     Massachusetts:     Topsfield
Mr. Douglas Roy Peterson

     Michigan:     Holland
Miss Arnolda Willemina Derksen

     New Jersey: Princeton
Mr. Christopher Duncan Bown

282

     New York: Binghamton
Mrs. Walter J. Kuta (Frances Irene Johnson)

     New York: Larchmont
Miss Karen Junge

     Ohio:     Dayton
Mr. Malcolm Conrad Eck

     Pennsylvania:     Bryn Athyn
Mr. Edward Boyd Asplundh, Jr.
Miss Kristin Louise Asplundh
Miss Janis Cole
Mr. Stephen Dandridge Cole
Mr. Spence Walter Gruber
Miss Martha Gyllenhaal
Mr. Christopher Willoughby Lynch
Miss Polly Suzanne McQueen
Miss Lori Jane Nelson
Mr. Jeremy Odhner
Mr. Cameron Churchill Pitcairn
Miss Melissa Kate Pitcairn
Miss Merry Posey
Miss Selina Jane Posey
Miss Karin Jo Schiffer
Mr. Robert Earl Schiffer
Miss Deborah Louise Schnarr
Mr. Ted Graham Walter
Miss Donna Zeitz

     Pennsylvania:     Old Zionsville
Miss Wendy Letitia Smith

     Texas:     Daisetta
Mr. Wayne Ellis Hopper

     Texas:     Tyler
Mr. James Lloyd Cahoon

     Virginia:     Alexandria
Mr. Allison La Marr Nicholson
Mrs. Allison La Marr Nicholson (Patricia Elaine Heid)

     Wisconsin:     Madison
Mr. Warren Philip Brown

     Wisconsin:     Wansan
Mr. George Douglas Brown
Mrs. George Douglas Brown (Dorothy Diebel)

     CANADA

     Ontario:     Kitchener
Mr. William Stanley Stumpf

     Ontario:     Milgrove
Mr. Peter Robert Knechtel
Mrs. Peter Robert Knechtel (Margo Coffin)

     EUROPE

     England:     Colchester; Essex
Mr. David John Appleton
Mrs. Sean Evans (Diana Ruth Berridge)
Miss Marian Glover

     England:     Ilford; Essex
Mr. David Robert Conaron

     AUSTRALIA

     Tamworth:     N.S.W.
Mrs. Wieslaw Klauze (Ailsa May Harvey)

     Floreat Park: Perth, W.A.
Mr. Richard Graham Hart
Mrs. Richard Graham Hart (Valerie Joy Ellis)

     SOUTH AFRICA

     Durban:     Natal
Mr. Egbert Frank Bongers
Mrs. Kathleen Agnes Brink
Mr. Douglas Redelinghuys
Mrs. Douglas Redelinghuys (Cynthia Jean Flood)

     Westville:     Natal
Mr. Roger Gordon Cockerell
Mr. Dennis Pierre Gillespie
Mrs. Dennis Pierre Gillespie (Eulalie Beatrice Schuurman)

     Woodlands:     Natal
Mr. Noel Patrick Kelly
Mrs. Noel Patrick Kelly (Betha Anna Kelly)

283

     SOUTH AMERICA

     Brazil: Rio de Janeiro
Miss Nelia Borges da Silva
Mr. Gilberto Campos de Roure
Mr. Gustavo Campos de Roure
Miss Nadir Farias do Valle

     DEATHS

     Reported September 1, 1971, to August 31, 1972

Acton, Mrs. Stephen Karel (Phoebe M. Baxter), July 22, 1972, Pine Lakes, Florida (82)
Asplundh, Mrs. Oswald E. (Bess Heilman), March 1,1972, Glenview, Illinois (80)
Boggess, Mrs. Helen Whitehill (Macbeth), November 4, 1971, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania (88)
Bond, Mrs. Arthur (Jessie Loraine Iler), March 24, 1972, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada (88)
Bush, Miss Grayce, June 17, 1971, Urbana, Ohio (87)
Childs, Mrs. Randolph Willard (Hazel Damon), January 21, 1972, Feasterville, Pennsylvania (86)
Cooper, Miss Phillis, April 11, 1972, Fox Chase, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (78)
Cowley, Mr. William John, May 6, 1972, Honesdale, Pennsylvania (59)
Doering, Mr. Herbert, December 3, 1971, Stratford, Ontario, Canada (87)
Doering, Miss Iona, August 27, 1972, Meadowbrook, Pennsylvania (78)
Doering, Miss Olivia Carolina, September 14, 1971, Ocean City, New Jersey (79)
Drinkwater, Mrs. Benjamin (Anna Katrina Bergstrom), November 4, 1971, Denver, Colorado (88)
Evens, Mr. John, March 22, 1972, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada (94)
Farrington, Mr. Harvey Winfred, July 16, 1972, Miami, Florida (70)
Kendig, Mr. Robert Morrison, January 16, 1972, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (59)
King, Mr. Arthur S., May 13, 1972, Glenview, Illinois (73)
Kirsten (Kirschstein), Mrs. Alfred Herman August (Beatrice Caroline Taylor), April 21, 1972, Wahroonga, N.S.W., Australia (86)
Kohlhass, Mr. John Vincent, October 9, 1971, Delray, Florida (79)
Leonard, Mrs. William (Dorothy Price), August 10, 1972, Ashville, North Carolina (43)
Liden, Mr. Bertram Albert, January 11, 1972, Stockholm, Sweden (83)
Lima, Mr. Alvaro Brandao de Mendonca, October 9, 1971, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (43)
Lohman, Miss Edel V. S., April 12, 1972, Copenhagen, Denmark
Longstaff, Miss Grace Gertrude, October 4, 1971, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (52)
Merrell, Mr. Frederick Ehrman, May, 1971, Palo Alto, California (75)-Delayed Report.
Motum, Mrs. Kesel J. H. (Kathleen Sarah Wright), October 1, 1971, Braintree, Essex, England (65)
Northgraves, Mrs. Ivan (Mary Hannah Elizabeth Thompson), March 30, 1972, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada (83)
Posthuma, Mr. John Johannes, October 30, 1971, Stubbington, Hants., England (83)
Pryke, Mr. Frederick George Colley, December 17, 1971, Walton on the Naze, Essex, England (91)
Raymond, Mr. Robert Lade, July 4, 1972, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (73)
Schiffer, Mr. Charles Mathew, November 10, 1971, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania (56)
Schnarr, Mr. Arthur Doering, October 30, 1971, Jacksonville, Arkansas (74)

284

Smith, Mr. Edmund G., August 30, 1972, Glenview, Illinois (53)
Soneson, Mr. Carl Gustaf, August 11, 1972, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania (56)
Stunden, Mr. George John, November, 1971, Bath, England (60)
Synnestvedt, Mrs. Homer Stuart (Vera Jeannette Bergstrom), November 1, 1971, Capistrano, California (60)
Synnestvedt, Mrs. John Ralph (Katherine Patience Burnham), September 26, 1971, Glenview, Illinois (74)
Waelchli, Mrs. Victor E. (Lucy Boggess), December 20, 1971, Richboro, Pennsylvania (81)
Woolley, Mrs. George (Martha Simpson), September 20, 1971, Fox Chase, Philadelphia (65)
York, Mrs. James (Anne Lindsay), April 9, 1972, Livingston, New Jersey, (52)

     RESIGNATIONS

Facey, Mrs. Allen D. (Ruth Elaine Niall), Ontario, Canada
Field, Mr. Richard George, Tucson, Arizona
Field, Mrs. Richard George (Elizabeth Dickens Waddell), Tucson, Arizona
Iungerich, Mrs. Sandra Read, Hatboro, Pennsylvania
Mattson, Mrs. Oscar A. (Esther Mathilda Carlson), Gothenburg, Sweden
Riefstahl, Mr. Robert Louis, Des Plaines, Illinois

     DROPPED FROM ROLL

Aitken, Mr. William Frederick, Rep. of South Africa
Aitken, Mrs. William Frederick (Maureen Thelma Hurst), Rep. of South Africa
Cono, Mr. Daniel Laughlin, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Hiebert, Mrs. Jacob (Mary Funk), Canada
Schull, Mr. Frank, Lighthouse Point, Florida
Schull, Mrs. Frank (Marjorie Carolyn Wackes), Lighthouse Point, Florida

     Respectfully submitted,

          NORBERT H. ROGERS
               Secretary
TREASURER OF THE GENERAL CHURCH 1973

TREASURER OF THE GENERAL CHURCH L. E. GYLLENHAAL 1973

     REPORT FOR 1972

     1972 was a good year financially for the General Church-better than expected. Expenses continued to rise, of course, increasing about 10% over the previous year to a record of nearly million dollars. The gain in administrative expenses was twice the amount budgeted; whereas other operating costs, particularly pastoral and education support, were below our best estimate.
     Administrative expenses include the growing operations at "Cairncrest" and the relatively new adventures in data processing. The lack of any budgeting procedure in these areas has made it difficult to control costs, resulting in the unexpected increase. The cost of administration and services, however, including New Church Life, New Church Education, and the Religion Lessons, still accounts for only 35% of the budget.

285

     Last year a much greater portion of approximately $200,000 or 45% of the budget was spent to support pastoral offices and schools throughout the Church. An additional $57,000 or 13% was spent for ministers' moving and travel and the South African Mission, uses that primarily benefit local Church centers.
     The rapid increase in expenditures in this category that now accounts for nearly 60% of the budget has come in recent years. During 1972, however, this trend was reversed. While last year's salary costs for General Church ministers and teachers rose by over $41,000, the General Church cost went up by only $5,300, a substantial drop from the previous year's record increase of $31,000. This was made possible by a gratifying increase of support on the local level.
     At the same time direct General Church support continued to increase to a new record high. Following a large jump in 1971, and with the help of many more contributors in 1972, the results were as follows:

                    1970               1971               1972

Category
                    No. Amount           No. Amount           No. Amount

     $1-$99               472     $14,438     469     $11,553     572     $ 13,711
$100-$499               108     18,730     138     24,031     135     22,688
$5-$999               19     13,419     20     13,716     15     10,783
$1,000-$4,999          11     20,048     15     29,444     22     42,047
$5,000-Over               4     39,100     6     60,574     6     52,289

     Totals          614      $105,735     648     $139,318     750     $141,518

     From the above it is encouraging to note that last year 28 donors gave $1,000 each to the General Church; 7 more than the previous year, and 13 more than the year before. This is the magnitude of support we must increasingly seek if the Church is to grow.
     In addition to contributions to Income, substantial gifts to Capital were also received from the following:

Pitcairn Families                    $124,174
Estates of:
     Beatrice Ashley               16,569
     Anne Lindsay York               15,000
     Olivia Doering               1,000
     Elmer G. Stoler               1,000
Mrs. Randolph Childs.          500

     The final result of operations for 1972, as shown on the accompanying statement, was a surplus that enabled appropriations of $15,000 to the Moving Reserve, which will certainly be needed next year, and $4,451 to the Sound Recording Committee.
     Much of our time in 1972 was devoted to developing a new manual of General Church Operating and Fiscal Policies. While not yet entirely completed, these policies contain some important procedures for the Church. The concept of long-range planning is new and will be the primary function of a new Finance Committee. This Committee will regularly review the financial status of all Societies and Districts receiving aid and, where necessary or desirable, will meet from time to time with local trustees to discuss their programs and budgets in the light of over-all Church needs. The Committee then will be in a better position to advise the Board of Directors on the proper allocation of financial aid.

286

     Uniform financial reports throughout the Church will be the principal tool of the Committee. Such a form for operating income and expense has already been developed and is in use today. It is not the intention to require each Society or District to adopt the form for its own use, although we hope many will find it an improvement, but rather to ask that they submit their financial statement to the General Church on this form. The value of uniform reporting is obvious. Not only will it furnish comparative information to the Finance Committee of the General Church, but it will also give Societies and Districts the means to evaluate the efficiency and success of their own Operations and contributions programs.
     Finally, the new policies offer management and financial consulting services. This might involve anything from installing a simple bookkeeping system to organizing a major contributions program. There is a lot of expertise in the Church, and we believe it should be made available to areas that need such assistance. The General Church will assume responsibility for organizing and channeling talent for these services.
     Respectfully submitted,
          L. E. GYLLENHAAL
               Treasurer

OPERATING INCOME                                   December 31
     Where it came from               1972          1971          1970
Contributions
     General Purposes                    $141,518     $139,318     $105,735
     Religion Lessons                    3,144          4,199          2,255
     South African Mission               5,552          5,541          5,230
     TOTAL                              $150,214     $149,058     $113,220

Investment Income
     General Fund                    $ 65,618     $ 57,453     $ 55,082
     Endowment Funds                    235,927     210,992     198,404
     TOTAL                              $301,545     $268,445     $253,486

Subscription and Sales

     New Church Life                    $ 5,728     $ 6,110     $ 5,509
     New Church Education                    1,398          1,013          1,363
     Printing and Publishing               18,889     12,134     10,681
Transfer from Moving and Travel
     Funds                              19,255     11,522     9,692
Miscellaneous                         11,505     7,686          5,350
Real Estate                              5,412          4,534          -
     TOTAL INCOME                    $513,946     $460,502     $399,301

     What it was spent for

Administration
     Episcopal Office                    $ 30,740     $ 26,212     $ 27,159
     Secretary's Office               16,375     15,915     15,441

     Financial and Corporate Affairs     35,206     31,013     27,925
     TOTAL ADMINISTRATION               $ 82,321     $ 73,140     $ 70,525

287

     Services and Information          90,365     80,640     77,201

TOTAL ADMINISTRATION AND SERVICES          $172,686     $153,780     $147,726
     Education
          Support of Schools          $ 64,112     $ 56,913     $ 42,694
          Religion Lessons and Other     25,099     18,004     15,151
          TOTAL EDUCATION               $ 89,211     $ 74,917     $ 57,845
     Pastoral Support
          Societies                    $ 23,443     $ 30,790     $ 17,713
          Resident Areas                    39,355     45,081     36,367
          Nonresident Areas               30,634     26,547     24,624
          Special Services               5,624          2,607          8,042
           TOTAL PASTORAL               $ 99,056     $105,025     $ 86,746
     Clergy                         21,979     28,930     18,674
     Sculls African Mission               36,141     30,146     29,673
     Missionary                         4,958          -          2,294
     Pension Fund Contributions          49,249     34,625     32,090
     Other                              15,013     15,541     15,559
          TOTAL EXPENSE               $488,293     $442,964     $390,607
     Appropriated from Surplus
          Reserve for Moving          15,000     10,000     6,000
          Sound Recording Committee     4,451          -          -
     Unappropriated Balance               $ 6,202     $ 7,538     $ 2,694
HOLY SUPPER 1973

HOLY SUPPER 1973

     (Continued from Page 269)

who are in the good of love and of faith to the Lord from the Lord. The Holy Supper is the seal of this conjunction."*
     * AC 10,522.
     "The Holy Supper, to those who approach it worthily, is a signature and seal that they are sons of God . . . because the Lord is then present and introduces into heaven those who are born of Him. The Holy Supper effects this because the Lord is then present even as to His Human and [with] the whole of His redemption."*
     * TCR 728.

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COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL CONDITION 1973

     Assets
                                        December 31

                                   1972          1971

GENERAL FUNDS
     Cash                              $ 9,594     $ 6,364
     Accounts Receivable               60,349     52,379
     Loans Outstanding                    158,915     55,947
     Investments-N.C.I.F.               692,209     876,773
          Other Securities               135,787     153,086
          Mortgages                    37,297     -
     Buildings and Grounds               85,214     114,000
     Real Estate                         148,131     128,196
     Inventory-Publications               27,675     22,806
     Prepaid Expense                    11,332     11,797
     Due from Other Funds               2,563          3,173
          TOTAL GENERAL FUNDS          $1,369,066     $1,424,523

LOAN FUNDS
     Cash                              $ 5,473     $ 1,435
     Loans Outstanding                    122,631     72,631
Investments-N.C.I.F.                    -          45,649
     TOTAL LOAN FUNDS                    $ 128,104     $ 119,715

ENDOWMENT AND TRUST FUNDS
     Cash                              $ 281,354     $ 306,897

     Investments-N.C.I.F               6,323,670     5,991,360
     Other Securities                    381,748     287,757
     Due from Other Funds               -          120,000
     TOTAL ENDOWMENT AND TRUSTS          $6,986,772     $6, 706,014

SOUTH AFRICAN MISSION FUNDS
     Cash                              $ 2,857     $ 16,549
     Loans and Accounts Receivable          2,993          5,302
     Investments                         62,963     51,682
     Real Estate and Office               25,247     22,623
     TOTAL SOUTH AFRICAN MISSION          $ 94,060     $ 96,156
     TOTAL ALL FUNDS                    $8,578,002     $8,346,408

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Accountability

                                        December 31
                                   1972          1971
GENERAL FUNDS
     Accounts Payable                    $ 38,054     $ 27,331
     Contributions for Future Expenditures 17,450

     24,157
     Due to Other Funds               -          120,000
     Unexpended Funds:
          Restricted                    53,168     43,894
          Appropriated               7,976          8,503
          Reserved for:
               Investment Savings     149,258     113,198
               Pastoral Moving          12,127     10,000
               Other                    6,279          10,256
     Unappropriated Income Surplus          209,911     203,709
     Principal of Book Center          25,482     24,080
     Net Worth                         849,361     839,125

          TOTAL GENERAL FUNDS          $1,369,066     $1,424,523

LOAN FUNDS
     Building Revolving Fund               $ 128,104     $ 119,715
     TOTAL LOAN FUNDS                    $ 128,104     $ 119,715

ENDOWMENT AND TRUST FUNDS
     Funds Functioning as Endowment     $1,369,431     $1,187,238
     Endowment Nonexpendable
          Income Restricted               1,371,248     1,318,886
          Income Unrestricted          1 791,272     1,742,963
     Special Endowment                    2,308,800     2,305,309
     Trust Funds                         146,021     151,618
           TOTAL ENDOWMENT AND TRUSTS     $6,986 772     $6,706,014

SOUTH AFRICAN MISSION FUNDS
     Accounts Payable                    $ 777          $ 640
     Mission Reserve Fund               90,371     93,524
     Trust Funds                         572          592
     Reserve for Car                    2,340          1,400

          TOTAL SOUTH AFRICAN MISSION     $ 94,060     $ 96,156
TOTAL ALL FUNDS                         $8,578,002     $8,346,408

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GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM 1973

GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM STEPHEN PITCAIRN 1973

     (A Pennsylvania Corporation)

     REPORT OF THE SECRETARY

     FOR THE

     YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 1972

     MEMBERSHIP

     During the year 1972 the numbers of persons comprising the membership of the Corporation remained at 357. The changes in membership consisted of:

5 New Members:
Boley, Rolf
Fornander, Lennart
Mansfield, Willard R.
Roth, Howard F.
Simons, Kurt

3 Deaths of Members:
Burnham, Edwin
Farrington, H. Winfred

Soneson, Carl G.

1 Resignation of Member:

Riefstahl, Robert L.

1 Death of Member Not Reported on 12/31/71 Report:
Pryke, F. G. Colley

     DIRECTORS

     The By-Laws of the Corporation provide for election of thirty Directors, ten of whom are elected each year for terms of three years. The Board presently consists of thirty Directors. At the 1972 Annual Meeting ten Directors were elected for terms expiring in 1975.
     The present Directors, with the dates their terms expire, are as follows:

1974 Acton, Elmo C.
1975 Alden, William B.
1973 Anderson, Gordon G.
1975 Asplundh, Lester
1974 Asplundh, Robert H.
1973 Brickman, Theodore, Jr.
1975 Campbell, David H.
1973 Cooper, George M.
1973 Doering, Grant R.
1973 Elder, Bruce E.
1974 Fuller, Alan B.
1973 Gyllenhaal, Charles P.
1973 Gyllenhaal, Leonard E.
1973 Junge, James F.
1974 Junge, Ralph D.
1974 Kintner, William R.
1974 Kuhl, John E.
1975 Mansfield, Willard R.

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1975 Nelson, Lewis
1975 Pendleton, Willard D.
1975 Pitcairn, Lachlan
1974 Pitcairn, Stephen
1974 Rose, John W.
1973 Schoenberger, John J.
1975 Smith, B. Dean
1975 Synnestvedt, J. Ralph, Jr.
1973 Synnestvedt, Leo
1975 Umberger, Alfred A.
1974 Walter, Robert E.

1974 Wyncoll, John H.

     Lifetime honorary member of the Board:

deCharms, George

     OFFICERS

     The Corporation has five Officers, each of whom is elected yearly for a term of one year. Those elected at the Board Meeting of March 10, 1972 were:

President          Pendleton, Willard D.
Vice President     Acton, Elmo C.
Secretary          Pitcairn, Stephen
Treasurer          Gyllenhaal, Leonard E.
Controller          Fuller, Bruce

     CORPORATION MEETINGS

     The 1972 Annual Corporation Meeting was held at Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, on March 10, this being the only Corporation Meeting held during the year. The President, Bishop Pendleton, presided, and there were 63 members and 2 guests in attendance. Reports were received from the Nominating Committee, the Treasurer, the Secretary, and the election for Directors was held.
     Changes in the By-Laws recommended by Bishop Pendleton were discussed and approved. The principal change was to provide for automatic termination of a Corporate member when that person ceased to be a member of the General Church. Other changes were house cleaning of some of the outdated provisions on nominations.
     A question was asked on why the By-Laws required five years membership in the General Church before an individual could become eligible for membership in the Corporation. Bishop Pendleton responded briefly to the question and it was recommended that a committee be appointed to study the matter and report back at the next Annual Meeting.

     BOARD MEETINGS

     The Board of Directors held tour meetings during 1972, the President presiding at all of them. The average attendance of Directors was 21 with a maximum of 24 and a minimum of 17.
     In March a regular meeting and an organizational meeting of the Board were held. A communication from the Council of the Clergy was received nominating the Reverend Louis B. King to fill the vacant office of the Assistant Bishop of the General Church and asking the Board of Directors for their counsel and response. The communication went on to relate that if the Board of Directors was affirmative to the nomination, the Joint Council would deliberate on when and where to hold the General Assembly for the purpose of confirming the nomination. After deliberating, the Board of Directors instructed the Secretary to convey to the Council of the Clergy the Board of Directors' wholehearted support of the nomination of the Reverend Louis B. King to the office of Assistant Bishop.

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     Early in the year, the 1972 budget for the South African Mission was approved. In addition, the Board approved allocating money from funds in the Mission to complete the Clermont Church and manse and the Kent Manor Church. Financial assistance was also approved to assist in the construction of a church building in Diepkloof Township just outside of Johannesburg.
     The need for a General Church home to house visiting ministers and families and for ministers on temporary assignment in Bryn Athyn, was discussed and a committee was appointed to study- the problem with authority to make such a purchase if the need was apparent.
     On several occasions the Board studied the request for a loan to the Los Angeles Society to assist them in the purchase of a church building and property. On one occasion Mr. David Campbell made a personal presentation to the Board showing plans and photographs. A capital loan was granted in March and the property was successfully purchased.
     Mr. Garth Pitcairn, Chairman of the Pension Committee, expressed his and the administration's concern over the rapid escalation of the Medical Plan insurance premiums. During the year a specially appointed committee, with authority to act, studied the problem and reported in November that they had placed the insurance with a new carrier and were confident that the premiums would be held in line.
     A special committee considered a proposal, submitted to the Board by Dr. Andrew Doering, to establish a New Church Retirement Home in Bryn Athyn. The committee concluded, and the Board concurred, that this use properly belonged to the Bryn Athyn Church.
     The Salary Committee's recommendations for increases in starting salaries and increments for ministers and teachers in Canada and the U.S.A. were approved. An agreement was also reached with overseas Societies to compensate ministers and teachers in these Societies on a set percentage of the U.S.A. scales. The Salary Committee further recommended a policy for the General Church which would encourage ministers, whenever practical, to provide their own housing. To make this possible, the General Church would make funds available for mortgage loans at favorable rates. The policy was adopted as part of the General Church Operating Policy. Mr. Gyllenhaal added that a committee had been working on revising the Operating Policy. The revisions, which were presented in draft form, are designed to give better communication and assistance to -the Societies, Circles and Districts in controlling expenses and offer aid in management practices.
     The Board considered the problem of travel expenses of ministers and their wives to the General Assembly in 1973. Although funds are limited, the Board felt that this was an important use and authorized paying the travel costs to the 1973 General Assembly for each minister and wife expressing a desire to attend.
     The Board approved various loans from the Revolving Building Loan Fund, and authorized support of elementary school teachers in Societies requesting temporary financial assistance.
     It was reported that one-half of the Estate of Iona Doering, including her home, was left to the General Church.
     Reports from the Treasurer's Office, Budget Committee and other standing committees were discussed and the necessary action taken.
     Respectfully submitted
          STEPHEN PITCAIRN
               Secretary

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EDITOR OF "NEW CHURCH LIFE" 1973

EDITOR OF "NEW CHURCH LIFE" W. CAIRNS HENDERSON 1973

     No additional pages were required in 1972. In order of space used, the total of 576 pages was made up as follows:
                    Pages
     Articles          280
     Sermons          69.5
     Reports          60.5
     Church News          38
     Editorials          37
     Announcements     24.5
     Reviews          18.5
     Miscellaneous     18
     Communications     12.5
     Talks to Children     10
     Directories          75
                    576.0
     Distribution here is normal, and there is little on which comment could be made. Excluding editorials, news notes and reports, the contents of NEW CHURCH LIFE in 1972 came from 47 contributors, a slight decrease. Of these 33 were ministerial and 14 lay, the latter including 7 ladies. Again, new writers were welcomed, but there is still room for more, especially lay contributors.

     CIRCULATION

     Figures as of December 31, 1972, supplied by the Business Manager show that paid subscriptions increased by 58, while gratis subscriptions increased by 11, a total gain of 69. Total circulation is shown in the following tabulation

                                        1972          1971
     Paid Subscriptions
     By Subscriber                    841
     Gift                              437     1,278          1,220
     Free to Clergy, Libraries, etc          222          211
                                        1,500          1,431

     Respectfully submitted,
          W. CAIRNS HENDERSON
               Editor
EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANT TO THE BISHOP 1973

EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANT TO THE BISHOP DAVID R. SIMONS 1973

     January 1973

     When we know that the "Word is living and gives life ... [to] those who read [it] with reverence" (AC 3424), then we can see why systematic instruction in the Word is a primary use of the church.
     Our General Church Religion Lessons-pre-school to adult education-provide the opportunity for parents to bring their children into direct contact with this life-giving source of all truth.

294

By means of them, children are guided through much of the Old and New Testament and, in 9th grade, are introduced to the teachings of the Heavenly Doctrine.
     The response to the lessons we have revised has been encouraging. "Our oldest child is doing the revised lessons this year and finds them much easier to do and thus more enjoyable." We are continuing revisions along these same lines. Also our new award system, which gives two awards a year for work completed has proved successful. This system is doubly beneficial: it stimulates children to do their work and the rewards are themselves instructive: they are for the most part our own literature, i.e., The Golden Heart, The Wedding Garment, The Invisible Police, The Magic Spectacles, etc.
     We are currently working to ensure that everyone in the Church away from centers is fully aware of the materials and services provided by our office. Our goal is to make it impossible for anyone to say, "We didn't know you had a collection of family worship talks." "We didn't know you had a pre-school program starting with four year-olds." "We didn't know that all the Sound Recording materials are now available by cassette tapes." "We didn't know you had a lending library of 3,000 slides from the Word."
     When children turn four, parents are invited to enroll them in our pre-school program, under the joint leadership of Mrs. Boyd Asplundh and Mrs. Gregory Baker. They will then periodically receive church-oriented things in the mail for two years in preparation for our regular Religion Lessons program. When they turn six they begin the "A" lessons, are assigned to a teacher, and are expected to send in lessons.
     New Church Education is sent to all families enrolled in our Religion Lessons program, so that these two uses may be closely coordinated. We have replaced the EXPLORER with inserts for children. "We are pleased with the `new' New Church Education. The children love making those little projects in the center." These inserts have been developed with several uses in mind:

(1)     to stimulate the interest of children by giving them projects to do related to the Word;
(2)     to provide added materials for our regular lessons;
(3)     to build up a supply of projects for our Sunday school and regular day school teachers.

      Recently, under the direction of Rev. L. Soneson, Mrs. W. Bonillet-of Tennessee-has been sending us three-dimensional projects designed to ultimate a series of lessons on the Lord's miracles. These materials open up the opportunity for us to be a resource center for ministers, for our Sunday schools and for our regular schools, supplying project kits on a series of teachings-the miracles, the parables, etc.
     Our use of cassettes is very much alive and growing. We have several students taking courses and communicating by cassette. We just received a tape, for example, from a family which included correspondence course lessons by mother, questions related to her college work by a daughter, and a conversation with questions from father. Cassettes are in this way providing for a pastoral contact which draws our distant members close to the center of the church. The potentials for increased pastoral work of this kind are unlimited.
     We would close our report by thanking Theta Alpha and our Counsellors and better than seventy teachers who work with these children. We especially appreciate the leadership of our chairman, Mrs. W. Cairns Henderson, her assistant Mrs. Richard Goerwitz, and the committee: Mrs. Erik Sandstrom, head of Festival Lessons, Mrs. Robert Asplundh, president of Theta Alpha, Mrs. Walter Childs II, vice-president, Mrs. Boyd Asplundh and Mrs. Gregory Baker who are in charge of the pre-school program.

295

Their dedication to the uses of New Church education is an inspiration.
     Respectfully submitted,
          DAVID R. SIMONS
               Educational Assistant to the Bishop

GENERAL CHURCH RELIGION LESSONS ENROLLMENT
     Pre-School-2 years          50
     Kindergarten (A)               31
     First Grade     (B)               31
     Second Grade (C)               38
     Third Grade     (D)               33
     Fourth Grade (E)               42
     Fifth Grade     (F)               31
     Sixth Grade     (G)               22
     Seventh Grade               42     LIFE OF THE LORD-Section I
     Eighth Grade               18     LIFE OF THE LORD-Section II
     City of God                    10

     The Uses of The Moral Virtues     2
     Heaven and Hell               5
     Given by New Church Ministers and others to the isolated     50
     Festival Lessons sent from this office                    283
     Circulation-NEW CHURCH EDUCATION                         664

     The Visual Education Committee, which is under our care, sent out 1,769 slides this year.
PUBLICATION COMMITTEE 1973

PUBLICATION COMMITTEE NORBERT H. ROGERS 1973

     During 1972 the General Church Publication Committee considered several manuscripts and books for publication and/or reprinting. Of these the Committee published Essays on the Lord's Prayer by Hugo Lj. Odhner and reprinted The Wedding Garment by Louis B. Pendleton. After more than two years of effort to arrange for and expedite its reprinting, The Word according to the New Church canon finally became once again available last summer.
     A second, updated edition of A Reader's Guide to New Church collateral literature, compiled with the help of most of the priesthood of the General Church, is being seen through the press and should be available by this coming March, and an index to New Church Life for the twenty years 1951-1970 compiled by Miss Beryl Briscoe is now being prepared for the press.
     Two manuscripts by Harold C. Cranch, The Story of Samson and Meeting Difficulties in Marriage, have been given preliminary approval, but have been returned to their author for rewriting. As soon as the necessary funds have accumulated it is hoped to publish Essays on the Ten Commandments by Hugo Lj. Odhner as a companion booklet to his Essays on the Lord's Prayer.
     Respectfully submitted,

          NORBERT H. ROGERS
               Chairman

296

SOUND RECORDING COMMITTEE 1973

SOUND RECORDING COMMITTEE W. CAIRNS HENDERSON 1973

     Every third year the Committee has re-issued the Catalogue, and this is the year in which that should be done. At this time production had not been completed, but from the total number of titles now listed, 2,417, the Committee expects to retire from circulation 826 older recordings, and to add 374 new titles, for a new total of 1,965.
     In the twelve months ending September 30, 1972, the circulation again increased, from 2,077 to 2,536 tapes. These were regular reels. The Committee now possesses a high-speed copier for making cassette tapes, and their popularity is attested by the fact that 426 of these were circulated during the same period. In the past, the main use of tapes in the General Church has been to extend ministrations to those who were not reached regularly by the clergy. The low cost and ease of operating cassettes suggests that there may be ways in which pastors can make use of them to supplement their personal ministrations. The making and playing of tapes for shut-ins is only one venture that might be developed as a society use.
     While the usefulness of the Committee has increased, there has, unfortunately, been a falling off in support, and it has been necessary to appeal to the General Church for financial assistance. This was generously given, but it is hoped that further appeals will not have to be made and that we can regain some of our larger contributors and receive increased support from users of the services rendered.
     Respectfully submitted,
          W. CAIRNS HENDERSON
               Chairman
INVITATION 1973

INVITATION Daniel B. McQueen 1973

     The Bryn Athyn Boys Club is holding its summer camp July 28 to August 11, 1973. Any New Church boy who has not had an opportunity to join the Club is welcome to attend if he has completed the fifth grade; the oldest boys at camp are those who have just completed the eighth grade. Boys may attend one or two weeks of camp. The charges will he $40.00 per boy for a one-week stay, including insurance, $60.00 for two weeks.
     As you probably know, we use our own campsite, a 200-acre tract we call Camp Lamoka, near Towanda, Pa. It is a beautiful place, with woods, streams, mountains and many other attractions. We have newly completed bunkhouse buildings and a mess hall that enable us, for the first time in quite a number of years, to accommodate all boys for the full two weeks. Camp will be directed by myself, with the able assistance of other experienced counselors.
     If you are interested, please contact me, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009, for further details. (Those in the Detroit area should contact Mr. Vance Genzlinger.) Due to the amount of planning necessary, we cannot guarantee to accommodate inquiries received after July 7th.
     Daniel B. McQueen
          Director

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AS IT WERE A NEW SONG 1973

AS IT WERE A NEW SONG Editor 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.
     Published Monthly By

THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM BRYN ATHYN. PA.
Editor               Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager          Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications, should be sent to the Business Manager. Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.

     TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$5.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 50 cents.
     In one of the spiritual experiences recorded in the Apocalypse John heard harpers playing before the Lamb who stood on Mt. Zion, and they sang as it were a new song. The Writings explain that a new song means acknowledgment and confession of the Lord. Songs in the Word, they say, signify confession and glorification of God; and a new song signifies confession and glorification of the Lord. The song is called new because in the pre-advent churches Jehovah was praised in songs. Now, in the New Church, the Lord alone will be praised; but as He, too, was praised in songs after He had come into the world and showed Himself, and as it was the same Lord in the ancient churches, although praised by the name Jehovah, that is now called the Lord, the song is not new in itself and is called "as it were a new song." It is called new because it is for a new church.
     The identification of the Lord of both advents with Jehovah may remind us of another mode of identification used in Divine revelation. In the early Spiritual Diary Swedenborg used the designation, God-Messiah, a usage which was discontinued in favor of, the Lord, when he started the Arcana. It was as though he was being led to emphasize that the Lord who had revealed Himself to him was one with the Messiah who had come into the world, and that that Messiah was one with Jehovah. The Lord of the Second Advent is the same Lord. As the Lord incarnate was Jehovah in the Human, so the Lord come again is the Divine Human glorified and now revealed to the minds of men. While the song is new in the church, it is as if new, and is indeed an old song.

298

     THE SECOND ADVENT

     How the Second Advent would take place was misunderstood from the beginning of the Christian Church. The apostles at first believed that the Lord would return to the world during their lifetime, and those who followed them thought that He would at least come in person. But on the basis of certain statements made by Him and quoted in the Gospels, and other statements found in the Apocalypse, they added the idea that He would come to effect the last judgment, when history would end in catastrophe and time should cease.
     The Writings reveal, however, that what is meant is not that He would come in person to destroy the earth and the sky, but that He would come in the Word at the end of the church to judge what men had made of Christianity; revealing there that He, the Lord Jesus Christ, is Jehovah, the Lord of heaven and earth. He alone is to be worshiped in the New Church, and to this end He has now opened the internal or spiritual sense of the Word, in which sense He is everywhere treated of from beginning to end.

     It is this that is meant in the Gospels by His coming "in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." The "clouds of heaven" signify the Word in the letter, and "glory" its spiritual sense. Because the Lord is Himself the Word the revelation of Him in the Word is His coming. This is well known in the church and is generally accepted. All New Church men agree that the second coming of the Lord is "in the Word which is from Him." Where a difference in understanding arises it is as to the meaning of these words. Some have understood that the Word in which the Lord comes is the Old and New Testament, and that He appears there as He could not before because of the revelation of the internal sense in the Writings; thus that the Old and New Testament is the "clouds of heaven" in which the Lord appears, and the Writings are the "power and great glory" with which He thus appears. Others have understood that the Writings themselves are the Word in which the Lord has made His second coming; that when He is seen in them objectively He appears in the clouds of heaven, and that when He is seen subjectively He appears there with power and great glory.
     At issue here is whether the term, the Word, applies only to the Old and New Testament and the Writings are no more than the key which unlocks the Word. There are those who so believe, and their belief should be respected. But it is our belief as a church, a belief also based upon interpretations of certain teachings, that the Writings are the Word, too, and that they are the Lord in His second coming.

299

     A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH

     John recorded that in his Apocalyptic visions he saw a "new heaven and a new earth." Later, he was shown "that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God." By the new heaven and the new earth is meant the Lord's kingdom in both worlds-the New Christian Heaven and the New Church; and in agreement with the Scripture the Writings teach that the New Heaven had to be formed before the New Church could be established, since the church is from the Lord through heaven.
     Precisely the same order is followed in the establishment of the church within the individual. Man's internal mind is formed to the idea and image of heaven, but his external mind to the idea and image of the world; and the internal of the church with him is heaven, for it is in conjunction with angels and makes one with them. However, as long as man lives in this world the church with him is in his natural mind, which is his external. Yet, and this is the crucial point, the church is in man's natural mind only when the internal mind has been opened. For the church cannot exist in anyone unless he has heaven within as that from which enlightenment and influx from the Lord may flow into the natural beneath. With the individual also the church descends from heaven.
Realization of this is fundamental to an understanding of how the church develops in the individual mind. The appearance is that we enter into the church from without; the reality is that the church enters into us from within, by the descent into our minds from the Lord of the Divine and spiritual things that make the church. We enter into the organized worship, instruction, social life and other activities of the church from without; but the understanding of the Word according to which the church is, and the enlightenment and influx which produce that understanding, inflow from the Lord through the internal when it has been opened, or when the external has been opened to receive of it.
     Does this mean that we should wait for evidence of what is internal before entering into the life of the church? Certainly not! We are taught that the internal man must first be reformed, and then the external by means of it. But it is said also that man should shun evils in the external and that as he does so the Lord removes the lusts of evil from the internal.
     It is similar with the formation of the church in man's life. As man enters into the organized life of the church, his external mind is disposed to receive internal things which otherwise could not inflow, and as he receives them the church is formed in his mind from within by the Lord. Thus does the formation of the New Heaven precede the establishment of the New Church.

300

SCIENCE AND COGNITIONS 1973

SCIENCE AND COGNITIONS HORAND K. GUTFELDT 1973

Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:
     I was interested to read in your March issue an article by the Rev. Reginald Brown which has been published posthumously. Upon a close examination it appears to me that there might have been reasons why the author did not publish it during his lifetime, for it contains factual as well as doctrinal errors.
     Among the factual errors: page 113 mentions gignomai as the Greek word paralleling "cognition." This is an error, for the word means "to become," "to be born." It is obviously mistaken for gignosko, probably from the same root in Sanskrit, Janati, related to German kennen, Latin nosco, ignoro, etc.
     Another error appears on page 112, where it is stated: "Memory according to Swedenborg's definitions denotes the permanent state of the mental organism, resulting from its changes of form, called thoughts, and its internal changes of state, called affections." If we compare this with Arcana 5881, "memory-knowledges and truths are arranged into fascicular forms solely by man's loves, into infernal forms by the love of self and the world, but into heavenly forms by love towards the neighbor and love to God," it appears that changes in the structure of loves, which occur in regeneration, will have to change the order of memory-knowledges as well, thus that they are not entirely permanent. Arcana 6339 says: "another state must be induced on the natural, and the memory-knowledges there must be set in a different order, thus those which the man had previously loved must be destroyed." This also indicates changes in the arrangement of memory-knowledges. The organization is thus not static but living. Modern research has shown that in psychology changes in memory, called transformations, are quite likely to occur, especially if there is an emotional reason. It seems to be a mistake to regard memory storage in analogy to a computer as stored information that is retrievable for recall. Although this is correct in a great many memory engrams it is not universal. I am aware that Swedenborg speaks about the internal memory as being perfect, but he says also that this internal memory on earth is not fully available.

     Another error as to the essential discrimination of knowledge as to origin appears on page 111: "The general distinction . . . is . . . to that which is essentially spiritual and what is essentially natural, cognitions being derived from revelation as the sciences are derived from experience." In the Writings, however, the levels of knowledge are discriminated according to the integration of knowledge in the individual.

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Thus, Arcana 5774: 2, 3: "The things which enter by the senses are laid up in the memory, and from them the man concludes memory-knowledge, or perceives from them memory-knowledge which he learns; from the memory-knowledge he then concludes truths, or perceives from them truth which he learns. Every man so progresses as he grows up from childhood. . . this may be seen that things of sense, memory-knowledges and truths distinct, and even remain distinct-so much so that a man is sometimes in things of sense, as when he thinks only of what meets the senses sometimes in memory-knowledges, as when he elevates his mind out of things of sense and thinks interiorly; and sometimes in truths which have been concluded from memory-knowledges, as in the case where he thinks more interiorly." Further, in Arcana 5934 it is stated: "there are memory-knowledges about earthly, bodily and worldly things, which are the lowest . . . there are memory-knowledges about the things of moral life, which are more interior still. But the memory-knowledges which belong to spiritual life are more interior than all the former. These latter are truths of the church which, in so far as they are only from the doctrine with a man, are nothing but memory-knowledges; but when they are from the good of love, they then rise above memory-knowledges."
     This shows that the discrimination of levels of knowledge in the Writings is according to the level of integration in the individual, not to its origin in science or revelation in the first place. All revealed truths are still memory-knowledges until they are elevated.
     It seems to me that a careful check in the Latin original will be necessary to confirm or to refute the claims made in the article, and I hope to have called attention to this necessity.
     HORAND K. GUTFELDT
507 North Main Street
Urbana, Ohio 43078
NEW CHURCH READER'S GUIDE 1973

NEW CHURCH READER'S GUIDE 1973

A New Church Reader's Guide comprising a General Church oriented selection of all known New Church collateral literature available, plus various sections of suggestions for such things as a family's bookshelf, reference works and others, which has taken three years to compile and print, is now available at the General Church Book Center and will be on sale at the General Assembly in June. The price is $3.50 per copy.

302

SOUND RECORDING COMMITTEE 1973

Announcements

The Rev. W. Cairns Henderson has resigned as Chairman and Editor of the General Church Sound Recording Committee. He has been succeeded by the Rev. B. David Holm. Miss Elizabeth Hayes has accepted appointment as Treasurer of the Committee, replacing Mr. William B. Alden. Other changes in personnel will be announced as they are effected.

304

TWENTY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1973

     BRYN ATHYN, PA., JUNE 12-15, 1973

     Prior Events

Monday, June 11
     2:00-5:00 p.m.     Registration of Guests
     8:30 p.m.          President's Reception

Tuesday, June 12
     10:30 a.m.          Commencement Exercises
     2:00-5:00 p.m.     Registration of Guests
                    Garden Visit: Home of Mrs. Carl Hj. Asplundh

     Assembly Events

Tuesday, June 12
     8:00 p.m.          First Session of the Assembly
                    Episcopal Address: The Right Rev. Willard D. Pendleton;
                    "The Organized Church"
     10:00 p.m.          Open Houses
                    Sound and Light Show on Cathedral Grounds
                    Young People's Program

Wednesday, June 13
     10:00 a.m.          Second Session of the Assembly.
                    Election of the Assistant Bishop
                    Address: The Right Rev. Elmo C. Acton; "The Priesthood"
     2:30     p.m.           Meeting of Theta Alpha
     2:30     p.m.          Meeting of the Sons of the Academy
     8:00     p.m.          Third Session of the Assembly
                    Address: The Right Rev. Louis B. King; "Response"
     10:00     p.m.          Open Houses
                    Sound and Light Show on Cathedral Grounds
                    Young People's Program

Thursday, June 14
     10:00 a.m.          Fourth Session of the Assembly
                    Group Sessions: The Rev. Frank S. Rose;
                    "The Church in the World"
     2:30 p.m.           Fifth Session of the Assembly
                    Panel of Six Priests
                    "The Church in the World" (continued)
     4:00-5:30 p.m.     Tea at Cairnwood:
                    Home of Bishop and Mrs. Willard D. Pendleton
     7:00 p.m.           Assembly Banquet

Friday, June 15
     9:30 a.m.          Divine Worship. Sermon: The Rev. Norman H. Reuter.
                     Followed by administration of the Holy Supper
     11:30 a.m.          Divine Worship. Sermon: The Rev. Norman H. Reuter.
                     Followed by administration of the Holy Supper

305

WOMAN IN THE WILDERNESS 1973

WOMAN IN THE WILDERNESS Rev. GUDMUND BOOLSEN 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. XCIII
JULY, 1973
No. 7
     "And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent." (Revelation 12: 13, 14)

     The descent of the New Church on earth took place after the Last Judgment had been performed in the spiritual world. During that judgment everyone who had passed over into the spiritual world since the Lord's first coming, and was not already in the state of heaven or of hell, was      searched as to his interiors. Then the doctrines of the New Church, because they contain interior truth, caused the judgment when they were      confronted with the falsities of the former church; for by means of the interior things of the Word the good are separated from the evil.* The Last Judgment began after the completion of Arcana Coelestia in 1756. It commenced in the beginning of 1757, and was completed by the end of that year.**
     * See AE 624: 2.
     ** See CLJ 57.
     While every man's life on earth alone determines his eternal dwelling place, and this place or state has already been chosen when he leaves this earth, special circumstances prevailed before the Last Judgment because no permanent heaven had as yet been formed for Christians. In place of a Christian heaven there were churches in the world of spirits, some of which constituted imaginary heavens.* The Last Judgment was especially directed toward these churches, and they were judged according to their character.

306

Here, as with the individual man, two things were looked upon: whether their religion was one of life, and whether the Lord was worshiped as the God of heaven and earth. If religion is not of life the church falls into faith alone; and if the Lord is not acknowledged as God, who has all power in heaven and on earth, the church takes upon itself the power to open and close heaven to men. When, therefore, the doctrine of the New Church was revealed in the spiritual world, it was accepted by all who were in the good of life and acknowledged the Lord's Human to be Divine.** From these a new heaven was formed which consisted of all those who were in good and had died since the Lord's first coming.
     * See LJ 45.
     ** See AE 759.

     The doctrine of the New Church contains two essentials: that God is one in essence and person in whom there is a Divine Trinity, and that the Lord is that God; that charity and faith are one, like an essence and its form, and that no others have charity and faith but they who live according to the commandments of the Decalogue, which are that evils are not to be done, and as far as anyone does not do evil but shuns it as sin against God, in the same proportion he does the good of charity and believes the truths which are of faith.*
     * See AR 509.
     Against this doctrine stand the dragon and his followers with their doctrine of three gods and of faith alone.* It was this doctrine which could not be found any more in heaven after the Last Judgment. When their doctrine was not accepted they were cast down from heaven to the world of spirits, wherefore we read: "Rejoice, ye heavens . . . Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time."** The "inhabiters of the earth and of the sea" are the men of the church who are in the false doctrine of faith alone, more or less interiorly. But it must be noted that this warning is directed to those only who are in the life of evil, and not to others of the former church.
     * See AR 537.
     ** Revelation 12: 12.
     The dragon was "cast down to the earth" because nothing of its doctrine was in harmony with good and truth. We learn that this takes place first in the spiritual world and afterwards in the natural because the two worlds act as one in things pertaining to the church. Thus men in the natural world are also affected by the vile doctrine of the dragon, as no one can think otherwise about spiritual things than the spirits and angels who are with him think; for spiritual things are above man's natural thought and are therefore dependent on influx. The influx of good and truth is received by those only who think spiritually, that is, who are in affection of truth for the sake of truth and who live according to the truth.

307

By such the dragon's doctrine of faith separated from charity is not received. But if truth is not loved, and therefore not charity, influx from heaven is shut off; man becomes connected with the followers of the dragon and makes one with hell.*
     * See AE 757.

      When we consider the vastation of good and truth in the Christian Church we see how great is the need to protect and defend the doctrines of the New Church. The connection of the dragonists with men on earth necessitates Divine circumspection and protection for the New Church as long as it is among a few, and this is signified by the "two wings of a great eagle" given to the woman that she might seek safety from the dragon. But the members of the New Church must also take part in its protection. Therefore the "wings of the eagle," as regards men, signify the spiritual intelligence and circumspection given by the Lord to those who are of the New Church; and their means of combat is the spiritual truth of the Writings which alone can overcome the evils that threaten them.
     The "dragon and his angels" are the natural and sensual men who are able to reason from appearances alone, which for the most part are fallacies, and thereby lead the simple astray. Even the Word is used by them to reinforce their persuasions. This form of attack which before the judgment was used in the world of spirits, is common on earth at this day. But to the men of the New Church it is given to see the Divine truth that is the Word spiritually-to see the truths of the Word in their own spiritual light, and from that light such as they are in their own natural light. By this sight of truth they have power to overcome the dragon.*
     * See AE 759.
     While today we can observe that the power of the dragon is diminishing, it is clear that he is still fighting. It is a favorite teaching that no one in this world can know about heavenly secrets, as no one has ever come back and told us about them. Also, it is popular to preach that no human can do good that is really good. The dragon attacks, not only by maintaining its false doctrine of faith alone, but also by ridiculing the good in any religion, and this in a thousand ways with the result that evil and falsity have an ever freer hand. The fight against the dragon is therefore a fight against evil affections and thoughts.
     While the spiritual man is compared to the high flying eagle, which describes the qualities of spiritual intelligence and circumspection, the merely natural man is compared to the serpent which creeps along the ground and sees the eagles above. Therefore in the next verse the dragon is described as the serpent that "cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood."

308

To overcome this flood of false reasonings the doctrine of the New Church enlightens man's understanding, which gives him the ability to see the truth from the light of truth and thereby to see if something is true or not. It is this light alone that discloses the dogma of the dragon, and rejects it in the same manner as in the spiritual world, when the dragon was cast down from heaven.*
     * See AE 759.

     It is the acknowledgment that the Lord's Human is Divine that opens the way to the sight of truth. If the Lord is not acknowledged, the greatest truth is not seen, and therefore none that follows it. Man then sees no difference between apparent and genuine truth, and blind faith is the result, because light from truth is lacking and faith becomes a faith of persuasion. Such a faith does not open the mind to heaven, because nothing is acknowledged in heaven as true unless it is seen and understood.
     Yet it is not the dogma of justification by faith that closes man's mind to influx from heaven but the separation of charity from faith. The simple, who believe that charity is the fruit of faith, have a wish to see truths, and will see them in abundance in the other life, because their spiritual mind is capable of being opened. As we shall see, it is by these also that the New Church in the wilderness is helped.*
     * See AE 764.
     The wilderness where the woman should be nourished from the face of the serpent describes the first states of the New Church-that it will dwell among a few while provision is made through states of good and truth until it reaches its full state. As the former church is here called a wilderness because it is vastated of spiritual truths, it follows that the New Church dwells among those who have no truths. Under such conditions it will be protected and will increase until it reaches its full state.*
     * See AR 547.
     Against the doctrine of the New Church now stand the reasonings from falsity of the natural man, signified by the water the serpent cast out of his mouth to cause the woman to be carried away. The flood of water is the countless reasonings from the appearances which aim to split and destroy the New Church. The doctrine is well known, for justification by faith alone is preached with great eloquence, charity being inserted only as secondary and because it cannot be taught otherwise than that man ought to live well as the Word so often speaks about deeds. Although spiritual truth will soon detect these reasonings from falsities, they can be strong in this world because they appeal to man's natural senses and their delights. This is meant where it is said that "the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light."*
     * Luke 16: 18.

309

     It is clear, then, that there are only two sources for the instruction of the human race: the New Church and the former church, the latter coming in many shades. From these two sources all religion is taught in the western world; and both are dominant, for the sensual is of such a nature that its cunning is as predominant as the intelligence of the spiritual.* The fate of the New Church, however, is not decided by the contest between the two; this battle has been fought out as far as the church is concerned. The New Church is to grow while it is in the wilderness, and then the earth comes to the rescue of the woman from the flood of the serpent. That is, those who are not in truths help the New Church by not receiving the sensual reasonings of those who preach faith alone. For, as has been said, the "earth" is the church which is not in truths, and therefore is the earth of the "wilderness" to which the woman fled. That the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood signifies that the people who hear those reasonings from falsities being preached do not receive them.**
     * See AE 762e.
     ** See AE 764.

     We see, then, that the New Church dwells among, and is even protected by, those who are in the doctrine of faith alone while it grows until it can be among many. In the former church there are therefore "dragons" who separate faith from charity, while there are others who live the life of charity because they know no otherwise than that faith produces fruits, which are good deeds, and that the faith which justifies and saves is to believe what the Word teaches and do it. These do not comprehend the theological dogmas of the dragon, and therefore do not receive them; the falsities stay then only with the leaders of the church, and with those others who have confirmed themselves in these dogmas. It is thus that the simple in heart and mind help the New Church, and it is from them that this church will grow.*
     * Ibid.
     The people who are represented in our text by the "earth that helped the woman" do not fight against the dragon, for in their "wilderness" state they have no truths. It is the New Church alone that can fight against the dragon in the world. While the simple will not accept the dogma of faith alone, the sensual reasonings of the dragon fall to the ground only when confronted with the spiritual truths of the New Church rationally understood. These truths are the only means by which the falsities of the former church can be rooted out and the way prepared for the New Church.* Spiritual truths must be understood rationally because it goes against the dogma that the understanding must be kept under obedience to faith and teaches, on the contrary, that faith must be seen to be understood; and since the truth can be seen only by the understanding, the expression, "spiritual truth rationally understood," is used.**
     * See AR 547.
     ** See AR 564.

310

      "And the dragon was angry with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." By this is described the great endeavors of the dragon to attack the truths of the New Church by the life of evil.
     Those who "keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" are the novitiates who receive the doctrine of the Lord and the doctrine of life. The dragon's anger with the woman, and its war against the remnant of her seed, signifies its hatred of the New Church; a hatred that is enkindled, we learn, by a perception that the New Church will be favored by many, and not least because the dragon sees that the "earth" or the simple good does not accept his doctrine of faith alone.
     These, then, are the spiritual conditions under which the New Church remains among a few while provision is made for it among many.*
     * See AE 767.

     The members of the New Church are immune to the poison of the dragon in the degree that they are confirmed in the doctrine of the church. But the poison is ever around us and affects us wherever the former church exerts its influence. The "wings of an eagle" are, then, the means against the dragon's poison. They represent the affection of truth for its own sake which is given to the men of the New Church, because truth in its essence is spiritual. Only spiritual truth harmonizes with the thought and life of the angels. But it has power only when it is rationally understood, and this is the case when it is seen by the understanding, when man sees that the purpose of enlightenment is to see that evil must be shunned and good done. This is also what the simple believe, and is therefore the reason that they as the "earth" are able to swallow up the flood of the serpent. When this is seen to be the purpose, spiritual truths are able to lift the spiritual mind up over its natural affections. Then not only can the evils be seen and fought but falsities can be seen and rooted out and truths implanted. Then the dragon is powerless, and the woman, the church, will be safe from the "face of the serpent" and man, will, from a continual influx out of the New Heaven, receive the enlightenment and circumspection that alone protect the New Church in him. Amen.

     LESSONS:     Daniel 7:1-14. Revelation 12. Apocalypse Revealed 347.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 461, 460, 448.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 77, 91.

311

USE OF SENSUALS IN THE FORMATIVE YEARS 1973

USE OF SENSUALS IN THE FORMATIVE YEARS Rev. FREDERICK L. SCHNARR 1973

     (Continued from the June issue.)

     3. THE USE OF SENSUALS FROM NATURE AND SCIENCE

     In our first class we reviewed the uses and examined the quality of the sensuous degree of the mind. In our second class we considered the special uses served by the sensuals of the Word. This evening we would discuss the uses of the sensual things of nature, and the knowledges drawn from nature which we call sciences.
     Before we get into this subject, it might be helpful to warn the student investigating this area, particularly if, like myself, he is not a Latin scholar, that most of the references in English translations of the Writings are somewhat confusing and misleading. If you think you are going to go to Potts' Concordance and look up Science, forget it. You will find Scientific Truths (verum scientificum), only to discover that all the passages referred to are describing scientifics from the Word. You will then be directed to look under Knowledges, only to find that a number of Latin words are used, especially cognoscere and scire. These references cover some 65 pages. Generally speaking, though not always, you will find that when cognoscere is used, the knowledges referred to are knowledges from the Word, ranging from the lowest such sensual knowledges to the highest celestial truths.
     Te previously noted five major uses of the sensuous plane of the mind, and then discussed how the letter of the Word relates to each of these uses. When we examine the teachings concerning the sensual things of nature and science, we find further reference to these uses. Indeed, we find it difficult in places to distinguish the instruction concerning the letter of the Word from the instruction concerning the things of nature and science. Both the Word and the things of nature and science serve uses in establishing remains, in forming the planes of the mind, in providing communication, ultimation, and fixation. Even the special use of the sense of the letter in confirming spiritual truths is served in a sense by nature and science. We will note some teachings shortly as to how the things of nature and science serve these uses.

312

But first let us be clear on the essential distinction between the things of the letter of the Word and the things of nature and science.
      The Writings speak of the Word and nature as being the two foundations of truth.* We should most carefully observe the instruction that qualifies this statement, for it is in that qualification that the essential distinction in their mutual uses is seen. Nature, and the series derived therefrom, can only serve as a foundation of truth when they first serve as a foundation to the Word itself. The Word, though its clothing is in sensuous things and is taken from the sensuous things of nature and science, yet conveys to man the Divine of the Lord and the things of heavenly life. It provides for man the spiritual principles from which to think. It defines the spiritual use and quality of all things that are necessary to the Lord's purpose in forming the heavens. It establishes for man, through the forms of truth, definitions as to what is good and what is of Divine order and purpose.
     * SD 5709.

     By themselves, the sensuals of nature and science can do none of these things. Though the Divine life has formed them and is in them, they cannot be the means of conveying that life consciously to man. Why? Because by themselves they cannot convey to man any idea of spiritual things; if they could, there would be no necessity for a written revelation. For man to become truly human, he must have ideas in which and from which his freedom may operate. When man's will became perverted so that delights from heaven could no longer be consciously received and act as a perceptive guide, then there had to be developed a means whereby spiritual ideas could be implanted so that man's understanding could be a guide. The forms of truth from the Word provide the means for him to have ideas and thoughts of spiritual things. Without these, the delights of the proprial will would utterly and automatically control all knowledges from nature and science. So the Writings, in discussing how the Word and nature are both foundations of truth, insist on the all important qualification that ". . . nothing can be founded upon scientifics except it be previously founded upon the Word. This must be first: the other is only a confirmation from man's scientifics."*
     * SD 5710
     Let us now consider some of the functions that sensual things from nature and science are to serve in reference to the five major uses of the sensuous degree of the mind, and try to see how these are distinguished from and yet concordant with the uses of the letter of the Word.
     In regard to the establishment of remains, and the use of sensuals from nature and science, there is little open instruction.

313

It is clear that the first celestial remains are implanted by means of the first simple sensations from the world of nature. In this state there is no thought from knowledges stored in the memory. We learn that the ". . . celestial things of love are insinuated into man chiefly in his state of infancy up to childhood without knowledges; for they flow in from the Lord, and affect him before the man knows what love is and what affection is."* There are, however, remains formed in man throughout infancy childhood and youth that require knowledges. And it is said that these knowledges, especially in childhood, must come from the objects of the senses, especially from the sense of hearing.** What is meant by "the objects of the senses"? Can remains be established by the child hearing noises from the sounds of nature and productions of science; the song of a bird, or the tinkling of a bell? It would seem that they cannot. For we read that sensory knowledges must be from the Word.*** This is spoken of the implantation of celestial remains in childhood, but still it seems to be an instruction that refers to all remains that are implanted through knowledges.
     * AC 1450.
     ** AC 1460.
     *** AC 1461.
     The question is, therefore, can the knowledges of nature and science serve the letter of the Word in such a way as to make it possible for the Lord to establish more numerous and more complete remains? There are some teachings which might be taken to suggest that the letter of the Word is sufficient in itself to establish remains without any idea either of its literal sense, or an understanding of the natural objects and things it contains. A familiar passage in this vein says that,

     ". . . the angels understand the internal sense of the Word better and more fully when little boys and girls are reading it, than when it is read by adult persons who are not in the faith of charity. The cause has been told me, and is That little boys and girls are in a state of mutual love and innocence, and thus their most tender vessels are almost heavenly, and are simply capacities for receiving, which, therefore, can be disposed by the Lord; although this does not come to their perception, except by a certain delight suited to their genius."*
     * AC 1776.

     Now, if these and similar teachings are read carefully, it will be seen that there is no detraction here from the importance of knowledges in forming the understanding of little children. Neither knowledge nor understanding interferes with the reception of remains-indeed, the reverse is true.
     It is how the knowledges are received and then used that determines how they serve interior or spiritual things. And let us not forget, in this respect, that remains are implanted throughout life through man's understanding and use of truth-truth which at first must be with him as the understanding of knowledges.
     * HH 371.

314

     The point is that the understanding of the letter of the Word requires first a knowledge and familiarity with the many things from nature and science which form its sensual imagery. These knowledges must be acquired through experience and education in the sciences. When a child reads in the Word concerning the sound of a trumpet, how does he feel anything of delight if he knows nothing from experience or education concerning the sound, form, or use of a trumpet? And yet, is it not something of this combination that is required for the corresponding delights of the angels to flow into the pleasures and delights of the senses and, by infilling them, establishing with the child the remains relating thereto? If this is true, as we fully believe it is, the implications to New Church education then become most practicable. According to the developing capability of the mind, we must do everything we can to assure that the sensual things of the Word from nature and science are properly understood from nature and science. This is not a work of the religion department, nor indeed, is it the work of any one department. Each has a responsibility from its own field of use and enlightenment, and such is our present effort. But the responsibilities need to be co-ordinated and defined, and the inspiration and leadership in this must come from the priesthood.

     Let us now turn our attention to the use of sensuals from nature and science as they relate to the formation and opening of the degrees of the mind. We noted in a prior lecture concerning the sensuous, or lowest degree of the mind, that because it is formed largely of things from the world, it acts as a basis, or memory, from which and in which man's affections and thoughts first operate. That his affections and thoughts originate in the sensuous is a false appearance, for they originate from the influx of Divine life. Nevertheless, this is the first field or plane in which they operate.
     We noted that the primary sensuals which receive the Divine life are from the Word. But since these sensuals rest in the things of nature and the knowledges drawn from nature, these also must be properly received and ordered. So the Writings speak in some detail of the necessity of there being a proper education in natural things so that the Lords life might inflow through the goods and truths of the Word and, by being properly clothed in ultimates, go forth in the uses of life In this way, sensual knowledges from nature and science help prepare so that man may be elevated into a higher plane of thought and affection. And they continue to serve similar uses in the opening of the natural and the rational minds.
     The Writings therefore, show the need of a proper education in many fields of natural knowledge. We read that ". . . to become intelligent and wise we must learn many things, both things pertaining to heaven and things pertaining to the world-things pertaining to heaven from the Word and from the church, and things pertaining to the world from the sciences."*

315

The Writings even list examples of the sciences that are useful in this respect: philosophy, physics, geometry, mechanics, chemistry, astronomy, jurisprudence, politics, ethics, history, anatomy, psychology, literature, nature, languages, criticism, algebra, optics, art, medicine-it includes about everything.**
     * HH 351.
     ** HH 351; CL 163; 2; SD 4578, 4657.

     Obviously, it is not so much to what is taught, but to how it is taught, that the Writings direct our attention. The attitude that a New Church educator should have in instructing in any science must rest upon an acceptance and belief of the basic uses that all sensual and natural knowledges are to serve. Of primary concern in this respect is the teaching concerning use. We are taught that ". . . the universe has been so created and formed by the Divine that uses may he everywhere clothed in such a way as to be presented in act, or in effect, first in heaven and afterwards in the world, thus by degrees and successively, down to the outmost things of nature."* Uses are what conjoin natural things with spiritual things, for all things were formed from use and for use."**
     * HH 112.
     ** Ibid.
     It is, then, to use that the New Church educator is to look in all things, and his attitude should be, to look to the Lord in His Word for enlightenment and guidance as to the uses his knowledges are to serve.
     The New Church teacher prepares in what he does to lead and elevate the mind of the student out of the thoughts and affections of merely natural things. He knows that this is the Lord's endeavor and is a first and necessary step in leading to the formation of higher thoughts and abilities. In a somewhat different sense, the same thing might be said of the teacher who instructs the natural degree of the mind, and the rational. Apart from the uses served by nature and science in preparing for the opening of the degrees of the mind, we would do well to mark carefully the dangers and warnings that are given us concerning the inclinations from our heredity to misuse such knowledges and thereby keep the mind solely in natural things. There is a persuasive urge from man's perverted loves that particularly affects his sensuous, and the sensual things with him, that inclines him to test the validity and the reality of spiritual things. This is how the Most Ancient Church fell, and the attitude not only into doubt, but also into denial."*

316

In the work, Divine Providence, we are warned that ". . . the acknowledgement of nature alone is hidden in every evil."** And elsewhere we are cautioned ". . . let everyone beware of confirmations in favor of nature." "Everyone" includes the New Church teacher; and the student who is under his care. No one should feel a greater responsibility than the teacher to confirm the existence and quality of spiritual things through the knowledges in his field of study. As the Divine Love and Wisdom states, ". . . there is no lack of material."***
     * AC 127-129, 233.
     ** 206. 3.
     *** DLW 357.
     In the use of communication, the sensual knowledges from nature and science serve in many ways, far too many to be considered justly at this time. Every spiritual form of communication has its natural corresponding form of communication, which involves sensuals from nature and science. Spiritually, man communicates with the Lord, heaven, the world of spirits, hell, the church, the human race, the country, the community, the family and his partner. There is even a communication within himself between the degrees of his mind. In all these and other spiritual relationships, sensual things act as means or instruments whereby the spiritual operates and effects its purposes. We noted previously that the sensuous and natural things from the letter of the Word are the primary means of communication between the Lord, heaven and man because they have been especially arranged and ordered to receive the Divine life. When interiorly examined, it will be seen that all human relationships in spiritual things, especially in marriage, also depend upon the ultimate sensuals of the Word; for it is only through the Word that there can be a communication and conjunction of spiritual things.

     The doctrine makes it clear that spiritual and natural things are distinct and can only communicate by means of correspondences. This is true of the relationship of the spiritual and natural world outside of man, and within him. Spiritual activities and forms of uses with angels have their corresponding activities and forms of uses with man because the spiritual flows into the natural in a cause-effect relationship. But the Word, with its clothing from nature and science, must be the medium of this conjunction. Apart from the Word, such sensual knowledges do not serve as a means of communication, even though they may be in a correspondent relationship with spiritual uses. There was a most ancient time when such was the case; but were those laws of communication to operate with man now he would be destroyed."*
     * DLW 83, 295, 324, 399.

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     The function of sensual and natural things from nature and science, therefore, is not to communicate with spiritual things, but only to act as instrumental means whereby such communication is possible. This teaching may not seem of great importance at first glance; but with reflection and thought it will be seen to relate to everything of life, and particularly to qualify our development and use of sensual and worldly things. Let us illustrate by just one example. Bread and wine are used in the Holy
     Supper service as correspondential sensual forms taken from the Word. As ultimates of the Lord's love and wisdom they are a means of communicating the life of the Lord's love and wisdom to man. Yet, in themselves, bread and wine are material, sensual things taken from the world and of the world. Without reference to the Word, they serve in no way to communicate the Lord's life to man. Yet for bread and wine to be used in the Holy Supper they must be prepared and formed not only from the things of nature, but by means of the natural sciences. These serve as instruments and means, without which the spiritual use could not exist. And what is more, to conclude the example, it would not make any difference to their use in the sacrament whether the elements had been prepared by godless men or not. As we noted, the elements themselves cannot communicate, but only as to their special use, which requires spiritual thought and affection on the part of the participant.

     As we noted, there are many aspects to the use of sensuals from nature and science in communication, not the least of which is the proper use of the senses of the body in the relationship of the sexes and the formation of the conjugial.* It must also be true that there are particular ultimates of communication that especially relate to an individual science, which, in turn, ultimate, support and illustrate corresponding forms of communication in spiritual things from the Word. Each science, for example, has its own set of sight-forms and symbols whereby communication is effected. Each may even have its special forms and symbols of sound, smell, taste or touch. In one, the things of sight predominate, as in mathematics; in another, it may be the things of sound, as in music; and so forth. Each particular field of use has its ultimates of communication whereby the use can function. If we can once see the relationship between a field of natural study and its spiritual corresponding uses and laws, we will not only see how that natural study supports the Word, but we will have gained a vision of what is at the heart of New Church education. But let us speak of this aspect of communication, in considering the use of sensuals from nature and science in providing a covering for spiritual things, and ultimating them.
     * CL 396: 3.

318

     We discussed in a former lecture how the letter of the Word serves as the ultimate and covering for all goods and truths inflowing from the Lord. We noted how man is the ultimate as to his sensuous, which receives all the heavenly states of love and wisdom formed from goods and truths. The things of nature, even to the very lowest forms in the mineral kingdom, are the most extreme ultimates wherein all things of life cease, whereon they rest, and whereby they are clothed.* Because spiritual things are clothed in natural things and thus take on the means whereby spiritual things can act and perform uses in the natural world, the natural ultimate is said to have all power.** This was indeed the reason why, when all else failed, the Lord had to take to Himself power in ultimates by coming into the world; there was no other way of truth affecting man except by means of ultimates.***
     * DLW 65, 165, 304, 314.
     ** AE 726:5.
     *** AE 806: 3, 726:7; AR 798: 2.
     Sensual things from nature and science, therefore, not only provide the covering whereby spiritual things can act to perform uses; but, when properly ordered, they convey the power of the spiritual that is within and have a tremendous effect upon man's thoughts and loves, either for good or for evil. The uses of ultimation and communication, therefore, are closely related. Communication between the sexes through the senses is one thing; communication through the most ultimate of the senses, the sense of touch, is another thing~ for, in the ultimate is all power.*
     * CL 210.

     There are many educational implications of this teaching that would qualify how we use certain sensual, natural, or even rational knowledges with our students. In any field of study we must be careful that we do not reason merely from natural things, especially the mere observations of the senses. Nor should we encourage a student so to reason. The Writings warn that such thought and reasoning can only lead to fallacies and falsities; indeed, they teach that ". . . all falsities take their rise from the fallacies of the senses."* "Fallacy is an inversion of order, and the judgment of the eye and not of the mind, and is a conclusion drawn from the appearances of a thing and not from its essence."** There are countless fallacies which are harmless in that they admit Divine truths. But there are many that do not.*** For example, that life is in man and does not inflow.**** We are to remember that the perverted inclinations of heredity are in the sensuous, and they receive the means of much activity, influence and persuasion, when fallacies are introduced which tend to regard only what serves the love of self and the world.*****

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For these fallacies are in ultimates, and ultimates have power.
     * 5 Mem. 1.
     ** AE 1215: 4.
     *** AC 5213.
     **** AC 6948.
     ***** Ibid. Cf. HD 51.
     The Writings give examples of how we can open the thought to such fallacies by the nature of our instruction. The mathematician is warned about the mere study of rules without at the same time looking to uses.* The philosopher is warned not to think and reason from mere terms that stick in particulars and do not regard use.** And there are many similar warnings concerning other fields of study. The Lord does not preclude a man from entering into any field of useful knowledge, as long as in the study of that knowledge he endeavors to look to spiritual things and be guided by them. Even the most sensual knowledges are not to be rejected unless they are fallacious forms that enclose nothing but evil; as for example, is much of the knowledge that relates to pornographic literature, which is so much before us today. Other than such fallacious knowledges, knowledges from nature and science are not to be put off, but only the thought and affection that rises out of such knowledge from merely selfish and worldly concerns.
     * SD 5141.
     ** SD 767, 1602; AC 4966: 4.
      The New Church teacher should he in the endeavor to clarify his own thinking concerning the spiritual principles and uses that relate to his
particular field of study because it is only from this that he can be in the attitude and effort so to order the knowledges he presents that the mind of the student is also elevated toward higher things.
     We would speak of yet one other aspect of sensual knowledges from nature and science that relates to their use as ultimates. Every doctrine and every love relating thereto is essentially spiritual. To the natural thought and affection that is so much the life of the young mind, spiritual things are necessarily abstract. They are received in thought and delight only when they have been clothed by ultimates. We have already noted the primary function of the letter of the Word in this respect. Knowledges from science and nature are to provide a secondary means of confirmation and illustration. The teaching is that ". . . good seeks to live in truths, and truths seek to live in knowledges, and knowledges in things of sense, and things of sense in the world."* This, and many related teachings, suggest an ordering of knowledges around a particular love; an ordering that extends from the spiritual to the lowest natural in which the educational process should be intimately involved.** But let us note an example of what we understand from these teachings.
     * AC 6077 Cf. AC 5874, 6004: 4.
     ** Cf. AC 3310.

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     We learn from the Word that the love of the neighbor is one of the great spiritual loves that the regenerating man should have formed. We learn from the Word who the neighbor is, how he is to be loved, how we are to treat him, protect him, nourish him, judge him, sometimes even punish him, forgive him, and so forth. From such doctrinal knowledge we learn that there are general degrees and forms of the neighbor: the Lord Himself, heaven, the church, mankind, the country, the community, the family, the partner, and in a sense, even self. Each of these general forms of the neighbor has a distinct love associated with it, although all are, of course, closely related.

     Let us choose from these forms, the love of country as an example. The Writings stress the importance of the love of country, and show how a man who properly loves his country will also love the Lord's heavenly kingdom. They show how we are to love the civil, moral, and spiritual things in our country; how we are to honor and serve it because it stands as a parent to us-it nourishes, cares for, and protects us.* There are many teachings in the Scriptures which confirm and support the idea that man is to love his country. The question is, how does a young mind understand the love of country unless this love is also clothed in sensual ultimates from nature and science. Unless this love is seen in ultimate clothing, how can the child find delight in his country and think of ways of expressing his delight in good uses. For civil and moral things to have any basis in thought, does he not need to know things about the form of government, its powers and procedures; does he not need to know its historic development in the lives of men and women who formed it and why they formed it; does he not need to know its music art and science, its mottoes, signs and symbols, its flags, banners, places, buildings and its geographical characteristics. He will leave all of these natural things behind when he dies, but this in no way detracts from their necessary and proper place as ultimates which bring spiritual things into view, and provide the means for them to have life therein.**
     *AC 6821, 3816; TCR 305; Char. 86.
     ** Cf. AC 6115.
     Such a relationship of spiritual things to natural things, obviously, is not just the function of the religion department. It is the mutual concern of all departments to provide knowledges from nature and science suitable to each new stage of mental development.
     That each major doctrine, and the loves relating thereto, requires its ~own distinct ultimates in this manner seems beyond question. The great problem is in first identifying the spiritual concepts that need clothing at each stage of development and then so relating and organizing our human resources as to present an ordered basis of knowledge for each.

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You are all only too familiar with the difficulties encountered in the effort to do this, for much of the theory and practice of the education of the world has no such thought or goal.
     The fifth major use of sensuals from nature and science is that of providing a fixed and permanent basis for all higher things. Obviously, this use is very closely related to that of ultimation. In discussing the sensuous degree and the letter of the Word, we noted a number of teachings that also relate to the knowledges from nature and science. When higher things are clothed and ultimated in sensual things, they are made permanent and fixed in the sensuous memory. We noted how this fixity from space-time relationships is necessary as a basis for the formation of all natural and rational thought and life, and through these, of spiritual thought and life. This included the sensuals that form the letter of the Word. We examined the teaching that once sensual and natural knowledges have served their various uses, their continued presence with the regenerating man becomes a limitation and an interference with the freedom and development of spiritual life. And so, beginning with the aged years of wisdom in this world, and continuing more rapidly in the life after death, man leaves behind all sensual and natural things. Only the record of them remains as a fixed memory that is made quiescent. With the exception of certain persons after death who must be let temporarily into the thought and life of this memory, the uses of sensual things seem complete.*
     * HH 345; DLW 160, 346, 388; AE 1218: 2.

     There is a whole area of instruction, which we touched on only briefly, that shows the importance of man's having fixed sensual knowledges from the time-space relationships of worldly things. Many of these teachings have a bearing on our use of the knowledges of nature and science, but these uses cannot be seen without a considerable examination of detail that we cannot pursue at this time.
     We have not spoken of the manner in which knowledges from nature and science serve as means of confirming spiritual things, but we will include this as a consideration in our last class.
     In closing, we would note that in studying the uses of sensual knowledges from nature and science, we have been struck by how many times the term, "confirm," "mirror, ""illustrate," "ultimate," and "fix" are employed. Nature and science cannot reveal spiritual things; but they can do all of these other things just noted, and many more. In the hands of a man who looks to the Lord for guidance and enlightenment, they are said to be "spiritual riches," and a means of increased wisdom.*
     * AC 8628: 3; HH 365; SD 773; HH 356.

322

SHARING 1973

SHARING RICHARD LINQUIST 1973

     Do members of the New Church have a duty to share knowledges of spiritual truth with all other men on earth? Echoing throughout the church today are various answers to which I would add my layman's response. Enlightenment from the Word and from the experience of talking with many thousands of visitors at the Bryn Athyn Cathedral shaped the following ideas and observations.
     First, I wondered what the Lord would have us do for men who believe in different religious doctrines. The answer is simply stated in this passage: "The Lord's love is a love of sharing everything it has with all, since it wills the happiness of all. There is a like love in every one of those who love Him, because the Lord is in them."* It is clear that we are to love all men, not regardless of their false beliefs, but despite them. Eliminating certain groups of people from the scope of our affections is not to understand that "love wants to love and to be loved."** Also, it is vividly clear that we are to share everything, including, I conclude, knowledges of spiritual truth. This most precious gift depicting the Lord and the life of heaven surely would not be withheld from those whom we love.
     * HH 399.
     ** TCR 99:2.
     The love relationship between members of the New Church and all other men on earth, dwelling within the confines of the former Christian church or in non-Christian religions, is outlined in this passage: "the church, where the Word is and by means of it the Lord is known, is in relation to those who are out of the church like the heart and lungs in man, from which all the viscera and members of the body have their life, variously according to their forms, positions and conjunction."*
     * HH 328.
     Thus even the extremities of this body require spiritual nourishment and are not to be neglected. Today men exist there in a state of night, wherein semblances of the Ten Commandments preserve a basis of regeneration. Yet the Lord's reflecting of His light off the moon of man's faith in his religious traditions seems to be only a temporary holding and preserving procedure. Slowly, however, this lunar glimmer will fade in the dawn of the Lord's second coming as the light of spiritual truth reaches all parts of the Lord's universal kingdom.

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Then spiritual life will flow from the heart and lungs to all parts of the body. Along arterial channels will flow heaven's life. Received by each man and appropriated variously according to his state, it is then returned via the veiny routes of imperfect human loves for continuous purification. Along the new nerve routes of communication developing today in the church will travel the efferent flow of New Church doctrine and the afferent return of every man's response.

     "In all conjunction by love there must be action, reception and reaction."* Reactions of minimal reception or harsh rejection do not weaken the New Church man's love of sharing, but only hamper its ultimation. Indeed the use performed for those who reject knowledges of spiritual truth is that they are given the opportunity to define their relation to the heart and lungs of the New Church. They can measure their distance from the Lord and may be prompted to draw closer to Him before they die. (We note Swedenborg's desire to elicit a definition of position even from the originators or codifiers of ecclesiastical falsity. Regarding the tri-personal god fabrication, he fearlessly states: "I appeal to everyone, whether laymen or clergyman, both learned masters and doctors of divinity, consecrated bishops and arch-bishops, to purple-robed cardinals, even to the Roman Pontiff himself, whether any other trinity than a trinity of gods is at the present day understood in the Christian world. Let each one consult himself, and then declare the ideas he has formed."** Who, then, should the New Church man be fearful of contacting?)
     * CL 293: 5.
     ** TCR 172:2.
     But even if men decline to appropriate spiritual truths, they, like the concentric waves produced by that proverbial pebble dropped in a pond, are forced to react. Indeed, in aborting the birth of heaven's life in their hearts, they find their life's delight and "have their life,"* atrophied as it is, through those who know the Lord in His Word.
     * HH 328.
     A closer kinship will be established, however, between members of the
New Church and those good men who "repent of evil works"* and "have lived in mutual charity."**
     * AR 72.
     ** AC 1992: 4.
     To cultivate this affinity we suggest reflecting on three areas of relevance: first, personal motivation or "why men serve this use"; second, the principles of procedure as "how the use is served"; third, the ultimate forms expressive of the use or "what is done."
     Personal involvement, we hope, would not stem from a desire for self-glory.

324

We assume that no one would exhibit his personality before the public so that by their praise and criticism he psychotically creates a fantasy in which, he, god-like, offers to save an evil world.
     To laymen who would serve the Lord and not themselves, we propose this question: "Do you enter this use primarily from a desire to teach the truths of the Second Coming?" If so, the Writings warn that, "good can be insinuated into another by anyone in his country, but not truth, except by those who are teaching ministers; if others do this, heresies arise and the church is disturbed and rent asunder."*
     * AC 6822.

     It is essential that the layman never view himself as an authoritative representative of genuine spiritual truth. His function is to insinuate good into his neighbor, i.e., to do what is good or of use to him. In the work of extending the church, this means helping men to see and understand the news of the Second Coming. Zealously he can ultimate in word and deed the spirit of evangelization which is, "annunciation about the Lord, His coming, and the things that are from Him which belong to salvation and eternal life."*
     * AC 9925.
     Yet the sharing of his love of spiritual truth must be guided by the light of truth. For "love sees nothing without the light of the understanding and is blind."*
     * DLW 406.
     Let us therefore search for the true principles of action and learn how the sharing is done. As the object of our affections we shall study members of the former Christian Church. First, we shall endeavor to define their state; second, seek means of communicating with it; and, third, thence draw a prototype picture of the Lord's lay representative to all men in all religious cultures.
     Catholic and Protestant laymen, we observe, are in a dilemma. For their priesthood, by misrepresentations of the Scriptures, have fastened upon them the ideological confinements of the "tri-personal god" and "salvation by faith alone" falsities. Robbed of a true vision of the Lord and of the life which leads to heaven, men are lost and trapped in a dark world of falsities.
     Further, they are told that two people, Adam and Eve ate an apple, which caused the Lord to be angry and later to be appeased by the sacrifice of a second god on the cross. If men only believe this tale, they will be reinstated in the Lord's love. Some religious organizations do expect their laity to perform good works as evidence and confirmation of their faith. But the essential for salvation is the acknowledgment that Christ died on the cross for their sins.

325

Unbelievers will suffer eternal punishment in hell.
     In contrast, New Church men know the true beginning, middle and end of the story of life. Unlike other men, they see the stars of the knowledges of spiritual life and can navigate their lives according to them.
     This relationship is like having a friend imprisoned in a dark room with perhaps a little moonlight drifting in through an ancient, dusky skylight, while we know where the key to the door is located. We know that it is located in the Writings in the form of knowledges of spiritual truth.
     The naive and impatient evangelist, however, may believe that he need only take that key and open the murky room of religious falsity in another man's mind. If the door does not open, he feels challenged and pushes on it and may even try to smash it in. Why doesn't the door open and why hasn't the church spread more rapidly to mankind? Perhaps the evangelist did not realize that his knowledge of the key is not the same as a knowledge of the lock. Knowing how men should live is not synonymous with understanding how they do live.

     Simply stated, the lock does not open from the outside. No matter how flawlessly accurate men are in defining and discrediting another's false concepts, they succeed only in rejecting the believer. Reject his ideals, his mental world, and he feels unloved. For distorted and spiritually insane as his beliefs are, they do constitute his mental world and I believe that we should respect his right to live there. He should be granted the freedom to live according to his own reasons, especially in the realm of religion for, "it is a law of the Divine Providence that man should not be compelled by external means to think and will, and thus to believe and love, the things of religion."*
     * DP 128.
     The mind locked in religious falsities will never be opened to truth by external compulsion. If an arrogant pride in knowing doctrine tempts us to join battle with opposing concepts, who could win? If we convince ourselves that we are victorious in argument, then our will burns with the glory of triumph. If our adversary convinces himself that he has won, then his falsities appear strong and trustworthy. As that proverb of human experience states, "a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still," or as the Word reveals, "the external cannot compel the internal."*
     * DP 136.
     But "the internal can compel the external"* and man "should persuade and at times compel himself"** to believe and love the things of religion.

326

The lock opens from the inside. Our duty is to bend humbly from arrogance and slip the key of the knowledge of spiritual truth under the locked door of our neighbor's false beliefs. Likewise, he must humble himself by acknowledging his need of spiritual truth and bend to pick up the key. Whatever affections he has for truth will lead him to the Lord, who "does not openly teach anyone truths, but through good leads to the thinking of what is true."*** His good affections will open his internal sight to see truths in the knowledges which we have placed before him. Then the Lord grants man the power of truth to open any doors of falsity which inhibit His presence in the man's life.
     * Ibid.
     ** DP 128.
     *** A 5952.
     (This procedure sharply contrasts with some traditional forms of evangelization. Often men, learned in scriptural verities, garb themselves with angelic characteristics and regard ignorant unbelievers as satanic and hell-bound. Conversely, we, humble and conscious of hell's pull in our lives, seek good in our former church neighbors.)

     Our friends' will to do good is what we should relate to. Our job, I believe, is to search diligently for his good by exploring in a forest of falsities of ignorance for those streams which lead to his central fountain of life. "For out of love, which makes the very life of man, everything else flows like streams from their source."* Discovering good acts which seem to stem from charitable intentions shows us where spiritual nourishment is needed. We can then determine which knowledges of spiritual truth to offer and be confident that they will be eagerly accepted. For "no two things mutually love each other more than truth and good do."**
     * DLW 276.
     ** HH 375.
     To the Catholic and Protestant laity, confused about the nature of the Lord, we can point to the unity of creation which indicates one creator to the effect which mirrors a cause; to art, an artist; and to form, a designer. We can illuminate to his intellect a vast world of uses reflective of one loving Creator.
     Then, when some of the haze about the Lord's nature fades from his mind and he innocently asks who the Lord is, the Writings provide this answer: "The Divine Trinity, which is at the same time a Unity, cannot be comprehended by anyone in any other way than as being like soul, body and activity, in the case of man; consequently in no other way than that the Divine itself, called the Father, is the soul, the Human, called the Son, is the body of the soul, and the Holy Spirit is the activity proceeding."*
     * Canons 40.

327

     The light of this illustration will disintegrate the "tri-personal god" theory as it confirms that "universal influx from God into the souls of men of the truth that there is a God and that He is one."*
     * TCR 8.
     In consequence the concept that an angry god sent his son, a second god, into the world to die on the cross as a vicarious atonement for the sin of Adam, will lose its integrity. Being dethroned, these falsities will no longer be worshipped.
     Finally, that door to another man's mind has been opened to the light of those spiritual truths revealed to Swedenborg. The New Church man is delighted for he now sees that "light radiating from a center,"* where the Word is to those "all around"** who had not clearly seen the Lord. The Lord has worked through him to effect this miracle and he now understands that "knowledge of religion does not come to a man from himself, but through another, who has either learned it from the Word, or by tradition from others who have learned it."***
     * HH 308.
     ** Ibid.
     *** DP 254.

     A bond of mutual charity has tied him to a man born outside the New Church and his own vision of the Lord's kingdom has widened. Now he sees that "they who are in the truth of faith, that is, who profess faith, and call it essential, in consequence of having been taught so, and nevertheless are in the good of life, that is, are Christians in heart and not in profession only, are in the Lord's spiritual kingdom."*
     * AC 3242.
     Since the "church is an image of heaven"* and "is the kingdom of the Lord on earth"** all in it are conjoined together by a love towards the neighbor and to the Lord. "For love conjoins all; and when everyone has love for good and truth, they have a common life, which is from the Lord and thus have the Lord who conjoins all."***
     * AC 4837.
     ** Ibid.
     *** Ibid.
     From these guidelines of procedure we would elicit a prototype of the Lord's lay representative to all men on earth.
     Gentle, strong and patient, he is a skilled gardener implanting the seeds of spiritual truth. Initially he is friendly to all men to whom he represents heaven for "in the other life all are to first be received as guests,"* and treated by angels "with favor and kindness."** Yet he is most friendly to uses and would form internal friendships with all who seem affected by truth.
     * AC 1631.
     ** Ibid.
     With such he softly probes for good affections, being guided by the Lord's ways who "leads men gently, bending and not breaking them."*

328

Gentleness arises from two sources. First, the Lord is in him and consequently his "charity with faith is yielding and soft."** Second, he does not want his former church friends to receive from him a "persuasive truth admitting of no extension and also incapable of yielding."*** Such truth is hard and is "such as not to admit good into it."**** The circle of love from the Lord through him to the Lord in other men is to be kept alive, for "love, regarded in itself, is alive,"***** and kept warm for essentially "love is warm."******
     * AE 409: 2.
     ** AC 8321: 2.
     *** AC 7298.
     **** Ibid.
     ***** Infl. 10.
     ****** DLW 3.

     Yet he is not a marshmallow-man, exquisitely loveable and absolutely ineffective in helping others. He is strong and will not break under pressures because he is flexible. Appropriately he responds and bends to meet the needs of friendship. When necessary he will be steadfastly firm in supporting his former church friend as he struggles out of the darkness of falsities. Indeed a struggle for life is occurring as his friend's central love of good reaches for the spiritual sun and becomes less tolerant of those collateral allegiances, weeds, established in the darkness of former beliefs. He understands that "in all love there are fear and grief fear it should perish and grief if it does perish."* As he insinuates the seed knowledges which contradict his friend's fading but ambivalent affections towards false concepts, a combat arises. For "love is the esse of man's life, and therefore, he who assaults the love, assaults the life itself, and then a state of wrath arises against the assailant. Such passion pertains to every love, even the most peaceful."**
     * CL 371.
     ** CL 358: 2.
     Patience with the struggle of the New Church man's and former church friend's mutual regeneration is essential. Seeds sown in the spring require regular watering and warming before flowers bloom.
     But they will never bloom if the seed does not fall upon good ground.
Where the fertile soil is, I believe, cannot be pre-determined. Therefore, a call must go out to all men and we listen for a response.
     Unlike the fanatic, however, I prefer not to cast the pearly knowledges of spiritual truth before men indiscriminately. Initially, programs of general invitation, in various forms, would require men to come before they are given truth to see. Peace and happiness, the spiritual correspondences of those natural healings which the Lord performed while on earth, are to be offered to the spiritually injured and sick.

329

I suggest advertising in the personal sections of national magazines, utilizing quotations about Swedenborg by such esteemed persons as Helen Keller, ("I wish I might be able to radiate the spiritual illumination that came to me when I read with my own fingers, Heaven and Hell"),* or Elizabeth Barrett Browning ("The only light that has been cast on the other life is found in Swedenborg's philosophy").** Replies to inquiries would be in the form of personal letters with the purpose of establishing a friendship. Also, I suggest making a display of the Writings and Swedenborg's life to be placed for a few weeks in local public and school libraries. Send introductory pamphlets such as "Swedenborg's Claim" by the Rev. Frank Rose, and "Come and See" by the Rev. Donald Rose to hospitals, senior citizens' homes and other institutions. Write letters to authors and public personalities who seem to be searching for spiritual truth. Create art such as the Bryn Athyn Cathedral which draws attention to the doctrines. Establish New Church communities which indicate the life of heaven to all their social, business, and political contacts. Develop programs of volunteer service, especially for New Church youth. During summer vacations or two-year periods, let them plant the seeds of spiritual truth, which some day may grow into fresh and vibrant New Church societies.
     * Come and See by D. Rose, P. 15.
     ** Ibid.

     Through such ultimates, spheres of friendly invitation may gently touch man's inner world. Long-buried remains of infancy, which acknowledge one loving Lord, can be awakened by the promise of peace. If they do respond to the call, they can be led by laymen to the threshold of the holy city, New Jerusalem, at whose portals they will meet the Lord's priesthood.
     The light of the genuine spiritual truth which they teach with authority, will constitute an effective spiritual filtering system. Those men affected by truth will pursue its light and those not affected will drift away. If a few men disguise themselves in sheep's clothing, truth will expose them perhaps sooner than they would admit, for they see only their costume.
     But men who love uses will see that, from the light of the spiritual sun, the hypocrite casts no silhouette in the world of uses.
     Slowly but steadily the body of the Lord's universal kingdom will be purified of falsities of ignorance and the falsities of evil will be defined by truth and rejected. Some day a new civilization will exist from the crowning doctrine of the New Church.
     We conclude this layman's personal inquiry into the Word with a note of Swedenborg's feelings about sharing. "Now, since it has been granted me to be in the spiritual world and in the natural world at the same time, and thus to see each world and each sun, I am obliged by my conscience to communicate these things. For of what use is knowledge unless it be communicated?

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What is it but like collecting and storing up riches in a casket and only looking at them occasionally and counting them over without any intention of applying them to use? Spiritual avarice is nothing else."* Men who have seen in the Writings what Swedenborg saw in the spiritual world, I believe, will have a similar desire to share.
* Infl. 18.
IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1973

IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1973

     The May issue of the Missionary News Letter, sponsored by the Church Extension Committee of the General Church, and edited by Richard Lindquist, offers several examples of ways in which efforts are made toward the growth of the New Church within those who are in it or in its sphere and toward its extension among others. The lead article shows how the dedication of the church building in La Crescenta, California, provided an opportunity to make known some of the basic teachings of the New Church. Articles were published in several local newspapers. A photograph of the church, a brief statement about the dedication, the Gabriel Church and the body to which it belongs, was followed by a clear enumeration of several basic teachings of the New Church.
      There is a report on a men's "retreat" organized and presided over by the Right Rev. Elmo C. Acton, at which the theme of presenting the doctrines to inquirers was studied. Other items mention that in 1972 there were four hundred and ten visitors to services in the Bryn Athyn Cathedral; that in February five of our young people visited a local high school religion class to discuss New Church doctrine informally in three forty-minute question and answer sessions; and that two members of the Epsilon Society have placed 147 books of the Writings and Swedenborg's life in 15 local libraries. Two articles-a laywomen's guide to presenting the subject of "salvation" to inquirers, and a laywoman's exhortation to evangelical action-are ultimate examples of the enthusiasm engendered among the Epsilon Society's guides at the Cathedral, and round out an interesting issue.
     The April issue of the New-Church Messenger contains a statement of Philosophy of Education developed by Urbana College. The philosophy is based on two main assumptions: man is an active being, capable of self-direction man's search to find meaning is not futile. This statement will be of interest to those who are interested in New Church education, although differences of view will be found in it.

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HISTORY OF THE SHARON CHURCH 1973

HISTORY OF THE SHARON CHURCH Rev. ROBERT H. P. COLE AND MICHAEL A. NASH 1973

     (1903-1973)

On February 6, 1897, the General Church of the New Jerusalem was founded. The Rev. N. D. Pendleton (later Bishop Pendleton) had been pastor of the Immanuel Church in Chicago for six years prior to that time. He had succeeded the Rev. Edward C. Bostock, who left Chicago for England in 1891. It was Mr. Pendleton's idea to move the Society to Glenview. But because there were some members who preferred to remain in Chicago, this led t the formation of two societies under the joint pastorate of Mr. Pendleton. Those in Chicago adopted the name "Sharon Church," while those in Glenview retained the name "Immanuel Church."
     The name for the Chicago Society seems to have been selected carefully so that there would be somewhat of a difference between the names of the sister societies as to the meaning and intent of their respective but complementary uses. The name "Sharon" is found in Isaiah, and references to it are found in the Writings. Among the references in the Word are: "And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of My mountains; and Mine elect shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell there. And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for My people that have sought Me."* Jacob and Judah are the celestial church, external and internal. The internal good of this church is meant by the habitation of the flock; and the external good by a couch of the herd. `Sharon is the internal of the celestial church where this good is."**
     * Isaiah 65: 9, 10.
     ** AC 10,609: 6.
     "Sharon" literally refers to a very fertile and beautiful coastal plain which extends from Mount Carmel to Jaffa in Palestine on the Mediterranean Sea. The meaning of the name appears to imply a number of things. We may think of havens from the storms of the sea, or perhaps of a peaceful pastoral scene where the seeds of productive New Church lives can be sown and gently nurtured. We tend to think of closeness to the great waters and the beauty of opportunity. But most of all, we would hope to convey the idea that the glory of the Lord has been revealed anew to link the inmost truths of the Most Ancient Church with those external things which can receive Him in the hearts and minds of men in the great centers of the world today by means of a dedicated few men and women of the New Church.

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      Here we would consider the first statement of the early constitution of the Sharon Church of the New Jerusalem: "This church is constituted of men and women who acknowledge that the revelations made by the Lord through Emanuel Swedenborg, called the Writings of the New Church, are Divine, absolute and true in general and in every particular, and who are also members of the General Church of the New Jerusalem." This was later amended: "This church is constituted of men and women who believe that the Lord has made His second coming in the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, who accept these Writings as a revelation of Divine truth, the Word of the Lord for His New Church, and who are also members of the General Church of the New Jerusalem."

     Before he left for Pittsburgh, the Rev. N. D. Pendleton saw to it that Sharon Church would be a duly organized and chartered corporation of the State of Illinois. On March 8, 1903, a meeting of the Pastor's Council of Sharon Church was called to decide upon a date to meet a representative of the Council of the Immanuel Church with regard to a division of the property interests held jointly by the members of the Immanuel and Sharon churches.
     The meeting was held as planned. Those present were the Messrs. C. F. Browne, John Forrest, J. W. Marelius, L. R. Blackman, Paul Carpenter, L. V. Riefstahl and the Rev. N. D. Pendleton, as well as Mr. H. L. Burnham representing the Council of the Immanuel Church. Mr. Burnham stated his business and submitted the proposition that the Immanuel Church turn over to the Sharon Church the property at 434 Carroll Ave., subject to an encumbrance of $2,000.00 (not necessarily to assume this encumbrance), and that portion of the building fund contributed by the members of the Sharon Church.
     This proposition was thoroughly discussed and then accepted in a revised form, and it was decided that Mr. Forrest should represent the Council of the Sharon Church at a meeting of the Council of the Immanuel Church. It was subsequently resolved unanimously that Mr. Forrest be empowered to accept from the Immanuel Church a modification of the proposition of the Sharon Church "not to exceed $500.00 in the Trustees note"!
     A special meeting of the members of the Immanuel Church was held at the Club House in Glenview on March 27, 1903, for the purpose of taking action on the proposition, which was unanimously approved. So Sharon Church came into being.

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The Rev. N. D. Pendleton was succeeded by the Rev. W. B. Caldwell, who presided at his first Council Meeting on April 23, 1903. Mr. Caldwell served as an excellent and able pastor of Sharon Church until 1909, when he moved to Glenview. Born in 1879, he came from Erie, Pennsylvania. As a young man he answered a call to the priesthood, attended the Theological School of the Academy, and was graduated and ordained in 1902. Immediately after his ordination he accepted appointment to serve as assistant to Bishop William Frederic Pendleton in the pastoral work of the Bryn Athyn Society. A year later he came to Chicago, where he remained for six years as minister and pastor of Sharon Church.
     In 1908 he married Korene Pendleton, the daughter of the Bishop. A year later he was called to the pastorate in Glenview. As Sharon's first separate pastor, Mr. Caldwell saw to it that N. D. Pendleton's excellent plan of organization was carried to its fullest extent, and he met regularly with the Pastor's Council and the Board of Trustees at least once a month, apparently presiding at most of the meetings. The Society planned for Wednesday suppers and Sunday dinners in those days.
     After being called to Glenview, Mr. Caldwell continued to serve as acting pastor of Sharon Church. It was while there that he did his notable work of compiling and editing the General Church Liturgy. He resigned his Midwestern pastorate in 1918 to become editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE, a post he held as well as that of religion and theology teacher at the Academy until a few years before his death in 1959.

     Dr. Caldwell was followed at Sharon Church by the Rev. David H. Klein, who came from Middleport, Ohio. Mr. Klein served as secretary of the "Chicago District" as early as 1905, so the arrangement may have been that Dr. Caldwell had charge of the city people, while Mr. Klein visited the downstate Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan people when his health permitted. At one point Mr. Klein's illness kept him from full service during 1911 and part of 1912, but he apparently remained as a pastor in the Society from time to time from 1919 until April 1920. While Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Caldwell were more involved in internal evangelization, doctrinal study and church organization, Mr. Klein and his first successor, the Rev. Gilbert H. Smith, placed greater emphasis upon external evangelization and the building up of the Society from the material at hand. They believed in "beating the bushes," as it were, and sounding the clarion of the Lord's second coming to the fullest extent.
      The Rev. David H. Klein was also a chronicler. There has not been much written in recent years about Sharon Church except an occasional "Church News" article, and perhaps this is the rather unfortunate reason that many people classify the Sharon Church and the Immanuel Church together, even as to organization.

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But excerpts from a write-up in NEW CHURCH LIFE in 1917 by Mr. Klein serve to account as an example of Sharon's activities at that time, He writes:

      "Since our last letter the Sharon Church members have broken the bonds of a rather hard winter, and have entered more actively into social uses, which have had as their inspiration some spiritual motive for the growth and progress of the society. Four suppers were given which were well attended by the widely scattered residents. These meetings were held at the Forrest home, and at the homes of Dr. and Mrs. Farrington and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Pollock. The celebration of Swedenborg's birthday was set with appropriate toasts and speeches. Much of the discussion, formal and informal, had to do with the conservation of our forces and the gathering in of every available asset, spiritual and temporal, to make our membership into a compact and effective society of the General Church. Five of our members have moved to Glenview during the past year, and while the value of our city societies and circles as a recruiting ground for our community centers is recognized, the need for the introduction of new members is no less evident. Special meetings and advertising campaigns were discussed, and out of this one definite principle was emphasized: that we need a strong, if not large, united society, as a home to which strangers can be invited, with some assurance that they will find there a sphere of worship, unanimity and brotherly love, to bring a realization of what the New Church means to mankind. Without such a basis, any plan of advertising and follow-up campaigns could not bear much fruit. In this connection our pastor recently presented a paper `On Going to Church,' and in his annual address spoke of the importance of establishing a neighborhood and church center. The scattered membership entails much expense, loss of time and effort, and limits concerted action and general usefulness."

     It is obvious that whether or not he was active much of the time at Sharon, Mr. Klein was an excellent writer and had great missionary zeal-concepts which we are endeavoring to put into practice at Sharon Church today.
     Under the Rev. Gilbert H. Smith, who served as pastor from 1913 until 1919, Sharon Church acquired a new home in the Athenaeum Building, where the congregation had "the use of three good-sized, pleasant rooms which [were] adequate for suppers, socials and Sunday school, as well as the regular service." In addition, the Pastor's Council appointed Mr. Forrest to secure more adequate facilities to provide for future needs. Plans were made to organize a troop of Boy Scouts, who would go with the pastor on walking trips into the country. In a letter to the Society, Mr. Smith said: "If we all work together with all our strength, and follow the leadings of the Divine Providence, we may grow to be a strong little society."
     The Carroll Avenue church had long since served its usefulness as a permanent home for the Chicago Society by 1923. Under the Rev. Willis
L. Gladish's leadership, on July 9, Christie A. Driever and Charles J. Driever, her husband, agreed to sell to The Sharon Church of the New Jerusalem, an Illinois Corporation, for the principal sum of $6,000.

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Real Estate, situated in the City of Chicago, County of Cook and State of Illinois, the South Fifteen feet of Lot Fifteen, all of Lot Sixteen and the North Four and one-half feet of Lot Seventeen in Block Thirteen in Cochran's Third Addition to Edgewater, a Subdivision in Section eight Township forty North, Range Fourteen East of the Third Principal Meridian-in other words, 5220 North Wayne Avenue.
     The Rev. Willis L. Gladish, who served as the first pastor of Sharon Church at the present address, had the distinction of holding the longest pastorate-1920 to 1938-a total of 18 years! Eighty-four members signed the roll during that period. Some in the Society felt that a larger building would be a necessity. However, this condition changed as the membership decided to support the educational effort in Glenview. Recognizing the primary use of New Church education, many Sharon Church members re-located there, especially when their children reached school age.

     After his many years of dedicated service Mr. Gladish retired in 1938. A new member of Sharon, the Rev. Morley D. Rich, was unanimously received as the new minister. He was ordained into the second degree of the priesthood in 1940, and continued to serve as pastor to Sharon until he left for a pastorate in the city of Philadelphia. The Rev. Harold C. Cranch became the next pastor of Sharon Church. His pastorate saw some distinct changes in the Society. Forty-six persons signed the roll, the membership again swelling. Among other things, one of the By-Laws was amended to allow for greater representation on the various governing bodies of Sharon Church in an attempt to meet the needs of a significant increase in numbers. However, again some of the members moved to the Glenview Society.
     Mr. Cranch did much to beautify the building of Sharon Church. He designed two stained glass windows for the chancel and redesigned some of the furnishings.
     Late in 1952 he moved to Los Angeles to be pastor to the Western states. The Rev. Louis B. King (now Bishop King) became the Society's new minister. Shortly afterwards, he was ordained into the second degree of the priesthood and served as pastor until 1955. During this time eleven persons were received into membership in the Society.
     Mr. King was followed by the Rev. F. L. Schnarr. Mr. Schnarr has the distinction of being the founder of the Sharon Report, which is sent to many individuals and societies around the world. The first copy was dated September 1, 1955. Mr. Schnarr wrote that its purpose was to add to the growth and strength of the General Church and to bring a greater degree of unity and comradeship to our widespread society, also to interested persons including those who had moved from the city.

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All indications are that these purposes are being realized today. Mr. Schnarr served Sharon until the fall of 1958, when he became the pastor of the Washington, D. C., Society, which he continues to serve.
     From 1959 to 1963, the Rev. Elmo C. Acton (now Bishop Acton) in addition to his duties in Glenview, was the supervising pastor of Sharon Church. He held this position until, in 1964, the Rev. Alfred Acton II became the resident minister under the Rev. Louis B. King, the pastor in Glenview. In 1966 Mr. Acton was ordained into the second degree of the priesthood, and he continued to serve as pastor of Sharon Church until 1968.
     Before coming to Sharon Church the Rev. Robert H. P. Cole had served as assistant to the pastor in Glenview and pastor of the Midwestern District. He became Sharon Church's pastor in 1968, when Mr. Acton was called to Glenview as assistant pastor.
     Since the beginning of Mr. Cole's pastorate we have received sixteen new members and continue to have a significant number of interested visitors whom we hope may one day fully receive the Heavenly Doctrine. In addition, the Sunday school has been reactivated and now includes a number of neighborhood children. We are very thankful to the Lord for our rate of growth at Sharon Church, which once again is strongly moving forward.
     Indeed, further steps are being taken in 1973, having regard to both the past and the future, to meet the needs of our expanding growth and enhanced uses.

     Perhaps this may serve as a general outline of the history of Sharon Church. We are blessed with a rich heritage. The names of those who contributed so much to that heritage cannot all be mentioned or acknowledged in as brief an historical account as this. However, we would note that among the charter members, George A. Blackman, the fourth member to sign the roll of Sharon Church, contributed substantially to what we now know as the Christmas hymn-"Calm on the Listening Ear of Night." Ellen V. Wallenberg, another charter member and one of the most valiant of Sharon's ladies, had the distinction of supplying NEW CHURCH LIFE with most of the news accounts of Sharon Church until 1937. Some we may never know about; they are known, perhaps, only to the Lord. Yet whether we know of them or not, they have helped to make our society what it is today. We can only be thankful to the Lord for our heritage, and pray that we will be able to carry on our own uses, so that we may continue to serve the Lord in the upbuilding of His church and our society for the generations to come.

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LOVE OF KNOWING 1973

LOVE OF KNOWING Editor 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.
Published Monthly By

THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
BRYN ATHYN, PA.
Editor                Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager           Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications, should be sent to the Business Manager. Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$5.00 a year to soy address, payable in advance. Single copy, 50 cents.
     Among "Various Things Concerning the Spiritual World" published in the first volume of the Posthumous Theological Works we find a fragment entitled "The Love of Knowing" which makes several interesting and important distinctions. The love of knowing, it says, is the external of the will, the love of uses the internal. The external rules in childhood, and in process of time the internal is formed. Then there comes into being the love of knowing for the sake of use, and this happens whether the mind is good or evil.
     But the love of understanding whether a thing is true, and thence the love of being wise, is said also to be an external of the will, an external that originates in the light of heaven. However, this love can be separated from its internal, and is then the love of one's own glory and not of use. As separated from the use of life, which makes the internal of the will originating in the sun of heaven, it exists with the evil. In them it is the love of truth on account of self-glory, thus on account of the external.
     That the love of use and the love of truth can exist with the evil may at first seem strange. However, the Writings furnish evidence that the evil may perform uses most assiduously and apply themselves diligently to the study and mastery of truth, but this is done from love of rewards valued by the loves of self and the world-prestige, power, wealth or reputation for learning. It is not enough, therefore, to have the love of use and the love of truth; what is needed is that we love use for its own sake, and truth for the sake of use.

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     QUESTIONS THE LORD ASKS

      We read frequently in the Word of the Lord asking questions as though He needed information. In Eden He asked the man: "Where art thou?" When Cain had killed his brother the Lord asked him: "Where is Abel thy brother?" When Hagar fled from her mistress, the Lord asked her through His angel: "Whence comest thou, and whither goest thou?" And when Elijah fled for his life to Mount Horeb, the Lord asked him: "What doest thou here, Elijah?"
      The Lord has no need to question men because He already knows the answers. But men have great need to search for and find the answers to admit to the Lord what they have done; to confess their evils, and to put clearly into words what they think they are trying to do. They have great need to do the kind of thinking about themselves that is required if they are to see what the proper answers are. The Lord wills to give heaven to all men; but before men can receive heaven they must admit their need and just what their need is.
      There are, however, other questions the Lord asks: questions to make men think about Him. Some who came to the Lord for healing were asked what they wanted, and then whether they believed that He could do it. Once He asked His disciples: "Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" and then: "But whom do ye say that I am?" When a rich young man addressed Him as "Good Master," the Lord said: "Why callest thou Me, Good? there is but one Good, that is God." The Lord asked these questions because He wanted those who were spoken to think deeply about Him so that they might reach true answers, and seem to do so as of themselves; which is the way of thinking from the Lord.

     If we train ourselves to recognize it, we shall see that the Lord still asks questions in the Word. Where are we? What has happened to the love for others that should be in our lives? What are we running from, and where are we running? What are we doing here? What do we really think and believe about the Lord? These and other searching questions the Lord still asks in the Word, and there is another way in which He questions us-through the experiences of life. When unhappy, evil and disappointing things happen to us, or when everything seems to be going too smoothly, we may hear the Lord asking the same questions. And we should be grateful that the Lord, who knows all things, challenges us to hard thinking by His insistent questions. Nothing is more important than to know the Lord, and to know ourselves as in the light of the Word we can see ourselves to be, and to know what we need. These things we can learn through the Lord's questions in the Word.

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     PEACE THROUGH CONFLICT

     Our conception of freedom is limited if we think of it as freedom from; the full concept is found rather in the idea of freedom of, or freedom to. The same is true of peace. True peace is not the end of war, the cessation of conflict, the disappearance of intranquillity. It is a positive quality which enters into every state. Yet, spiritually, peace comes through conflict and judgment, and man's enjoyment of it is qualified by his previous experience of its opposites.
     Contrast is an essential ingredient. What has happened is forgotten, but that it did take place has an influence on the resulting state. This idea is beautifully expressed in the Apocalypse, in which it is said of those who "came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb": "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple; and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, or any heat.
     For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."
     These are the men and women who have been purified by temptation. They are in the Lord's presence and live the truths which they receive from Him; and the promise is that they shall never lack goods and truths, and shall have no lust for evil and falsity, for the Lord shall teach and lead them by the truths of the Word into conjunction with Himself. They will no longer be in combat against evil and falsity, and therefore not in sorrow, but in goods and truths and in heavenly joy.
     Spiritual peace, security, happiness and plenty can be experienced by those only who have overcome evil, who are led by the Lord, who have found in hope and trust a solvent for anxiety and unrest, who realize that

     all things inflow, and appropriate only what is of use. Before regeneration the peace of the Lord is not in man. His proprium demands its day, and the dominance of the loves of self and the world brings much tribulation and the frustration of unattained desires.
     Man can attain to peace only through conflict, to joy only through tribulation. This may be a hard lesson, but it is the lesson of the Word. Before the Lord can bless man with peace, the evils which prevent its descent must be removed; and before they can be removed, they must be seen, acknowledged, fought against and conquered. Of course, peace does not come from conflict, but it comes through it, and man's experience of peace is conditioned by the fact that he has known strife.

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Church News 1973

Church News Various 1973

     CARYNDALE, ONTARIO

     After a ten-year absence the Carmel Church has returned to Kitchener; or rather, Kitchener has come to the Carmel Church. On January first of this year the new boundaries went into effect. However, life continued pretty much as it had before. Interestingly, throughout our ten years in Waterloo Township it was customary for people to refer to the Carmel Church as the Kitchener Society, principally, one suspects, to fix us precisely on the New Church geographic grid. Now a colloquial reference has become a geographic fact. Caryndale now lies just within the south-west boundary of Kitchener. The name Caryndale, incidentally, comes from combining the "Car" in Carmel, the "yn" in Bryn Athyn, and adding "dale" to convey the beauty of the landscape.
     In the six months that it has been in force annexation has created one or two little stirs. Services, like snow removal, continue to be prompt and efficient. Early in the year a city representative called door-to-door assigning house numbers to aid the fire department in an emergency. Numbering houses and using street names seemed comical as these were not to be used as postal addresses. Caryndale dwellers continue to receive a rural delivery addressed to R.R. 3 Preston, although we are now Kitchener residents, and Preston has vanished into the new city of Cambridge. According to this schizophrenic approach, the Rev. Frank Rose lives at 58 Chapel Hill Drive, Kitchener; but do not address him there unless you are plentifully endowed with patience or do not require an answer.
     In March we were somewhat jolted to receive an unexpected tax notice from the city. Because Kitchener's annual mill rate has yet to be struck we have no idea what the total picture will be. We have been more than a little apprehensive that annexation will mean significant tax increases. Generally, though, Caryndale is reasonably confident that growth will continue in the established pattern, although circumstances may compel alterations. For the answers to many questions we must simply adopt a "wait and see" attitude, which is not to be understood as a "do nothing" posture but rather one of patiently waiting for the clouds of confusion to disperse. In the meantime Caryndale is in the forefront of a movement to form an effective neighborhood association with those contiguous communities interested in preserving the character of this semi-rural area. Even though we lost the annexation battle, the war against the erosion of our right to self-determination continues on other fronts.
     Against this background the Society carried on its uses with characteristic verve. A highlight of the year was the Second Canadian National Assembly, presided over by Bishop Pendleton and attended by Assistant Bishop-elect King and Mrs. Pendleton and Mrs. King. After a close scrutiny of the doctrines concerning masculine and feminine uses, the Assembly passed an historic motion inviting women to become full members of the General Church in Canada, Incorporated. In keeping with the spirit of this action, and because he has repeatedly stressed the feminine quality in the church itself, Mr. Rose appointed two women to his Pastor's Council this year; he reports that as a result the usefulness of the Council has increased appreciably.
     The theme was Rededication when in November we celebrated the tenth anniversary of the dedication of the church in Caryndale. On a Friday evening, eight speakers from the Society shared rededication thoughts and opinions with us, speaking freely about any aspect of the church and its development that interested them. This produced a fascinating program. The rededication service on Sunday was almost an exact copy of the 1962 original, including the sermon by the Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, as applicable to our lives today as it was then.

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This moving service was followed by a buffet luncheon and a program of slides showing the building under construction, and the dedication ten years ago when Caryndale was mostly rolling fields and trees.
     A record two hundred and sixty-six people attended the Carmel Church's magnificent and traditional Christmas Eve service-a clear indication of the sweet state of love and joy that permeates our lives during that season. Repeating last year's success, and due in large measure to the co-operative efforts of about forty splendid people, the Christmas tableaux were presented twice to full houses with many visitors included. Once again the Rev. and Mrs. Frank Rose directed a portion of their awesome and considerable talents to decorating their home for Christmas, and then sharing the results with the Society at an Open House that is the social plateau of the Christmas season.
     In reporting the activities of an active society one can only attempt to show highlights. Much, perforce, goes unmentioned, as, for example, the routine meetings and gatherings that give the Society its real flavor; the continuing activities of the Carmel Church School; and the comings and goings of visitors and members. Because for some years Rita Brueckman wrote these notes herself, she neglected to report on the introduction-to-school classes for four and five year olds she holds in her home two mornings a week during February, March and April. The little pre-schoolers love these cheerful and affectionate classes which commence with worship and continue with games, stories, and simple arts and crafts projects. Rita has been giving these personal and quite unofficial classes for five years; financing them herself, except for the cost of milk, cookies and some supplies; and spending considerable time preparing imaginative projects which the children complete and carry home with great delight. Next school year Rita will be teaching the regular kindergarten in the school. Presumably she will find a way to include future pre-schoolers in at least part of the course, thus continuing to stimulate an affection for school in our little children.
     In recent years Canadian winters have been unpredictable, to say the least; this last one can only be described as ridiculous. The boards to contain the natural out-door ice rink went up in November as usual, and the youngsters looked with confidence for an exciting season of skating and ice hockey. December and January came and went with freeze and thaw conditions alternating almost daily. The boys flooded at night in temperatures as low as minus ten degrees Fahrenheit; next day the mercury would climb sufficiently to melt away all their efforts. February rolled around, and with it our Winterfest carnival, the success of which depends entirely on good ice for hockey, and snow for tobogganing and snow sculptures. It was to be a big weekend with many visitors expected from Toronto, and with young people coming from as far away as Detroit for a weekend of classes and socials. Alas! No snow or ice; no sign of a cold front moving in from the Arctic; Mr. Rose mentally forming contingency plans. Gloom! Then joy and rapture! On Thursday the temperature took a welcome though bone- chilling plunge; the rink was flooded, snow fell in all the right places, and the whole event came off beautifully with everyone having a marvelous time. It thawed again on Tuesday, if you can believe it! Springlike weather prevailed for the rest of the month; and just as thoughts were turning to the real spring equinox, on March 17, the day of Elizabeth Pfanner's wedding to Stewart Eidse, the skies opened and poured down every form of precipitation from hailstones and freezing rain to a snowfall, the likes of which has not been seen in these parts for years. The wedding was beautiful none the less; and the sight of all those guest cars pitched into ditches and rammed into drifts added to the memorable qualities of the day.
     At this writing a massive bulldozer is at work on the area in front of the Manse piling up Everests of top soil preparatory to terracing and leveling the ground for seeding as a sports area. Hitherto the field-like quality of the ground resulted in the disappearance of baseballs and the occasional small player in a groundhog hole.

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Endless balls evaporated into the long grass, never to be seen again, and frantic fielders watched the opposing team pile up scores of unearned runs because the ball disguised itself among the stones dotting the ground.
      As said, there is always something going on in Caryndale-special things and routine things. This report can only hope to offer a tantalizing taste of what it is like to live here. For a satisfying mouthful, come and see us. In the meantime, an affectionate greeting to our friends everywhere.
     BARBARA WIEBE

     SWEDENBORG SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION

     The Seventy-sixth Annual Meeting of the Swedenborg Scientific Association was held on May 2, 1973, in Pendleton Hall, Bryn Athyn, Pa., with an attendance of 78 members and guests.
     Professor Edward F. Allen was reelected president. New members elected to the Board of Directors were Mr. William H. Clifford III and Mr. Brian Keith, students in the Academy's Theological School and College, respectively.
     The following were re-elected to the Board: Right Rev. Elmo C. Acton, Mr. Charles S. Cole, Mr. Donald C. Fitzpatrick, Jr., Rev. Daniel W. Goodenough, Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Mr. Joel Pitcairn and Mr. Tomas Spiers. At a later meeting of the Board the following officers were re-elected: vice president, Mr. Charles S. Cole; secretary, Miss Morna Hyatt; treasurer, Mr. E. Boyd Asplundh; editor, Mr. Lennart Alfelt.
     In his report the treasurer mentioned that the Association had contributed $500 toward the Arcana Computer Project being carried on by a group in England.
     The editor expressed appreciation for the steady flow of material for the New Philosophy, but he is still actively soliciting articles so that some selectivity and organizing of the material around topics will be possible. He emphasized his conviction that in the pages of our journal we have the possibility of presenting viable alternatives to the hedonistic materialism of the present day. We need the support of scholars and of the church membership at large. Mr. Alfelt urged that members try to interest their friends, and that philosophy discussion groups be organized or reactivated. The secretary read a report from one such group in Glenview.
     Dr. Horand Gutfeldt of Urbana College then addressed the meeting on the subject, "Swedenborg and Modern Parapsychology." In his interesting and thought-provoking presentation he referred to phenomena and experiments in telepathy, psychokinesis, clairvoyance, psychosomatics, etc., which give evidence of supernatural influences. While recognizing the warnings in the Writings of the dangers of magic and communication with spirits, Dr. Gutfeldt believes that the Church should re-evaluate its position. The Church has for the most part rejected efforts to contact the supernatural, but would not the motive with which one engaged in such pursuits be a decisive factor in determining whether the results would be harmful or useful? Much is being done in parapsychology today, and many universities have departments of parapsychology which are carrying on work important to the Church. We have knowledge from the Writings not held by others, and we should be developing a New Church psychology. The work of Dr. Wilson van Dusen and others in relating mental illness and spiritual obsessions as well as studies in psychosomatics should be put to positive use in promoting spiritual healing. Dr. Gutfeldt noted that interest in parapsychology today is a counterbalance to the belief that science is all-powerful. Youth is reacting against materialism. He hoped that we in the Church will be aware of our responsibility to find and communicate a new relation to the supernatural, and so to contribute to "the healing of the nations."
     Dr. Gutfeldt's address and a complete account of the meeting will be published in the July-September issue of the New Philosophy. Those interested in subscribing to this journal or in becoming members of the Swedenborg Scientific Association are invited to communicate with Mr. E. Boyd Asplundh, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009.
     MORNA HYATT
          Secretary

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CORRECTION 1973

     Announcements

     Marriage

     Harris-Harris.-At Hurstville, New South Wales, Australia, March 25, 1972, Mr. Francis George Harris (formerly Pearce) and Mrs. Hilda Annie Isabel Phyllis Harris the Rev. Douglas Taylor officiating.
     Correction of an announcement in the July 1972 issue.
BISHOP KING ELECTED 1973

BISHOP KING ELECTED 1973

At the Second Session of the Twenty-Sixth General Assembly, the Right Rev. Louis B. King was elected Assistant Bishop of the General Church. We feel confident that Bishop King will enter into this office with the support of the entire Church.
CHURCH AND RELIGION 1973

CHURCH AND RELIGION 1973

The church is one thing and religion is another. The church is called a church from doctrine, and religion is called religion from a life according to doctrine. Everything of doctrine is called truth, even its good is truth, because it only teaches it; but everything of life according to those things which doctrine teaches is called good, likewise to do the truths of doctrine is good. This is the distinction between the church and religion. But where there is no doctrine, and not life, it cannot be said that there is either church or religion, because doctrine regards life as one with itself. Where there is doctrine and not life there is no church (AR 923e).
VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

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ORGANIZED CHURCH 1973

ORGANIZED CHURCH Rev. WILLARD D. PENDLETON 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Vol. XCIII
AUG 1973
No. 8
     A Consideration of the Need for an Organized Church
     with Particular Reference to the General Church

     BISHOP OF THE GENERAL CHURCH

     (Delivered to the First Session of the Twenty-sixth General Assembly, Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 12, 1973.)

     At our last General Assembly, held in June, 1970, we celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of the Second Advent of the Lord. Due to the nature of that occasion, we addressed ourselves to the subject of the New Church. For this Assembly we have selected as our theme the subject of the General Church. There are two reasons for this: the first is that the subject of the organized church logically follows the consideration of the essential church; the second is that the time has come when there is a need for a reconsideration of the principles and practices of the General Church. Bear in mind that seventy-six years have passed since the General Church was organized, and a generation has grown up among us to whom the issues and events which led to its formation are known only to those who have studied the record. It is with this in mind that three addresses have been prepared for this Assembly, each dealing with certain basic concepts which have characterized the life and thought of the General Church since its inception.
     In taking up this subject, however, it is essential at the outset that we distinguish between the Lord's New Church and those organizations which are designed to serve it. The New Church is the Lord's and it is with every man according to his reception of the Lord as He is now revealed in the Writings. An organized body of the New Church, however, is a human institution, designed to serve as an instrument or a means whereby the Lord's New Church may be established on earth.

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To fail to make this distinction is to confuse the means with the end or the instrumental with the essential and thus to appropriate to man what belongs to the Lord alone. In no way is the General Church or any other body of the church to be confused with the New Church. It is to be carefully noted, however, that what is internal or essential cannot come forth and exist apart from that which is external or instrumental. It follows from this that the growth and development of the New Church among men is at all times dependent upon a corresponding external; that is, upon an organized body of the church consisting of men and women who mutually look to the Lord in the performance of those uses which in the Lord's Divine Providence have been entrusted to them.
     In reflecting on this basic distinction between what is essential and what is instrumental, we ask you to observe what is said in the Writings concerning this. It is said: "There are things essential and things instrumental. For an essential to work as an effect, it must have an instrumental by which it may act."* The eye, for example, is the instrument or organ of sight. In the Divine economy it is organized in such a way as to serve this purpose. The eye, however, does not see; it is the mind which sees; yet the mind is dependent for its sight upon the eye. As it is with the sense of sight or any of the other senses, so it is with the church. The church is the Lord's but if the uses of the church are to be served, an organized instrumentality must be provided by means of which these uses may be performed.
     * AC 10738:4; Infl. 11.

     In presenting the need for the organized church, I am acutely aware that we are living at a time when all organizations are suspect. It is the thesis of the prevailing intellectual establishment, which exerts such a powerful influence over the thought of the day, that, by its very nature, every organization is either corrupt or is in process of becoming corrupt. It is a familiar argument, which casts doubt upon the intentions of those who are responsible for the ordering and administration of civil, social, and ecclesiastical uses. Although, as a generalization, it is applied to all human institutions, it is directed with special emphasis to religious bodies. The reason for this is that in witnessing the decline and gradual disintegration of the first Christian Church, many have come to doubt the usefulness and efficiency of church organizations as such. We are all familiar with the prevalent opinion that one's religion is a purely personal matter and that, in the exercise of his faith, man is not to bound by the doctrinal interpretations and social requirements of the external church. There is, of course, a truth in this, for as the Lord said concerning those scribes and Pharisees who sat in Moses' seat, "They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders"*; "but do not ye after their works."** We can understand, therefore, why it is that in this age of religious freedom, many have rejected the organized church as unworthy of the true spirit of Christianity.

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     * Matthew 23: 4.
     ** Matthew 23: 3.
     In this connection it is to be noted that although the Writings repeatedly speak of the New Church which is to be established, there is no evidence that Emanuel Swedenborg took any initiative in the formation of an external body which would serve this purpose. It was this that led many of the early receivers of the Writings to the view that because the New Church is to be an internal church, there was no need for a separate and distinct organization. This accounts for a man like the Reverend John Clowes (1743-1831) who, although deeply committed to the Heavenly Doctrine, continued to serve throughout his life as a rector of the Church of England. Fortunately for the New Church, there were at that time those who clearly perceived the necessity of a separation from the former Christian Church under the leadership of an ordained priesthood. We have not the time here to review those early beginnings, both in England and the United States; but those who have studied the record cannot help but be impressed by the vision and courage of such men as Robert Hindmarsh, Samuel Noble, John Hargrove and Richard de Charms, to whose strength of purpose in the face of strong opposition we are deeply indebted today.

     Looking back upon the history of the New Church during the first fifty years of the last century, we must bear in mind that, for the most part, the membership of the church consisted of men and women who were converts from various Protestant sects. This applied not only to the laity but also to the newly-formed priesthood. We can understand, therefore, why it was that differences soon arose in regard to ecclesiastical policy and practice, particularly in regard to the nature and function of the priesthood. It was this controversy which absorbed the attention of the newly-formed church for the better part of the last century and resulted in a division within the church that led to the deeper and more critical question of the nature and authority of the Writings.
     To understand the General Church, therefore, we must go back to that earlier period which preceded the formation of the Academy. In so doing, we come upon an almost forgotten figure who was the proponent and champion of those convictions which, as members of the General Church, we share at this day.

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I refer to the Reverend Richard de Charms (1796-1864), who, prior to William Henry Benade, fearlessly advocated within the General Convention the authority of the Writings, the trinal order of the priesthood, the distinctiveness of the New Church, and the need for New Church education. While it is true that William Henry Benade was the leader of the movement which led to the formation of the Academy; and while it is true that William Frederic Pendleton was the man to whom we are primarily indebted for the formation of the General Church; it was Richard de Charms who was the prophet and precursor of both. I know of no greater tribute to the man than that which was paid to him by the Reverend C. Th. Odhner in a series of articles published in 1902 and 1903 in NEW CHURCH LIFE, entitled, "Richard de Charms: A Sketch of His Life and Work." It begins:

     "An apostolic father, a great and profound theologian, a leader of thought, and a martyr to the truth, such was Richard de Charms to the New Church of the first half of the nineteenth century. He was the first systematic exponent of the Divine authority of the Writings and the distinctiveness of the New Church, and in fighting for these principles, he became the founder of that movement which many years later assumed organic form as the Academy of the New Church. In the midst of unceasing and universal opposition and persecution, he fearlessly proclaimed these most unpopular doctrines . . . together with all the issues involved in them: The recognition of the vastated state of the Christian world, the necessity of a distinct priesthood for the New Church in an orderly and triunal form, and of marriage and education within the Church. He was the bulwark of spiritual freedom at a time when that freedom was most seriously threatened."*
     * NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1903, p. 2.

     I call your attention to Richard de Charms because it was he, more than any other man of his time, who perceived the need for an external church.
     Unlike many of his contemporaries who regarded the Writings as some kind of commentary upon the Scriptures, he insisted that the Writings are to be regarded as the supreme authority in all matters pertaining to the life and thought of the New Church. Hence his appeal that in the establishment and ordering of the priesthood of the New Church, we should be governed by the order prescribed in the Writings. What is more it was he who, when many rejected the concept of an external church on the grounds that the New Church is to be an internal church, defended the direct teaching of the Writings in regard to this matter in a work entitled, The Importance and Necessity of an External Church (New Jerusalem Press, Philadelphia, 1852). This one hundred sixty-eight page thesis is an exposition of Arcana 1083 where it is said:

     "Where there is a church, there must of necessity be what is internal and what is external; for man, who is the church, is internal and external. Before he becomes a church; that is, before he has been regenerated, man is in externals; and when he is being regenerated, he is led from externals, yea, by means of externals, to internals; and afterwards, when he has been regenerated, all things of the internal man are terminated in the externals.

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Thus, of necessity, every church must be both external and internal . . . "

     It is to be noted, however, that in a living church, the externals must correspond with the internals; that is to say, there must be in them what is holy and living or, what is the same, the essential.*
     * AC 1175.
     In reflecting on this passage, we note with particular interest that in speaking of the need for an external church, it refers to this need as a necessity; yet unless what is external contains what is internal, it has no meaning or purpose and is said to be dead. This raises the question which, when applied to an organization, such as the General Church, is a cause for much soul-searching. We are fully aware that any human institution can be caught up in externals and in process of time lose sight of the reason for its existence. In so far as the General Church is concerned, however, I am deeply convinced that, as stated in its Statement of Order and Organization, "[it] is a living body developing under the leading of Providence" (p. 2). There are two reasons for this: The first is that the General Church has never compromised its primary commitment to the Writings, which, as stated, is that, "The Writings, as given, are the supreme authority in [all] matters of faith" (Order and Organization, p. 7). But unless what is of faith takes root in life, it has no claim to meaning. This is the reason why the General Church has properly chosen the use of New Church education as its first work of charity, and on the basis of the record of our devotion to this work, we are willing to be judged.
     There is, however, another use to which we are also committed, although as yet we have had neither the manpower, the means, nor the experience to enter into it in an organized way. I refer to the work of external evangelization, that is, to the work of proclaiming the gospel of the New Church to others. There can be no reasonable doubt concerning our obligation in this regard, for as the Lord said to His disciples, "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations,"* and as He also said, "A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house."** We must bear in mind here that the work of internal evangelization, that is, of New Church education, is our first use of charity, and we must never forsake it, but the one use does not exclude the other; for although it is true that the work of New Church education "is the most fruitful field" of evangelization,*** it does not follow that it is the only field of evangelization.

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The day will come, although it is not yet here, when many fields will be ripe for the harvest, but in the meantime we cannot disregard our direct responsibility to proclaim the doctrine that, "the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns."**** While it is true that at this day the testimony of the Writings is received with indifference, yet we are assured that in the Lord's Divine Providence, provision is being made for its reception by many.***** How and in what way this will be accomplished, we do not know; but one thing is certain: it is the responsibility of the organized church to co-operate with the Lord to this end.
     * Matthew 28: 19.
     ** Matthew 5:14, 15.
     *** See NEW CHURCH LIFE, August, 1899, p. 119.
     **** TCR 791.
     ***** AE 732.
     Man does not live for himself alone; neither does the organized church. Unless, both individually and collectively, we are capable of entering into those uses which the external church is intended to perform, we will, like the barren fig tree mentioned in Scripture, wither and die."* In reflecting on this, we must bear in mind that the primary function of the organized church is to provide for those means whereby the Divine is made known among men. These means are the uses of worship and instruction. While it is true that in the support of these uses, we must of necessity establish priorities and, in so doing, not lose sight of our commitment to New Church education as our first use of charity; but as the Lord said to His disciples, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice."** The reference here is to those, few though they may be at this day, in whom the Lord has already prepared a state which is affirmative to the fundamental teachings of the Writings. Our responsibility in this Divine work is to open those avenues of communication whereby they may be led to the reception of the Divine doctrines.
     * Matthew 21: 19.
     ** John 10: 16.

     Having considered the need for an external church and the uses it is intended to serve, we come to the question of those principles which originally led to the formation of the General Church and to which we subscribe at this day. These principles are:

     1.     That the Writings are the Word;
     2.     That the New Church is to be distinct from the former Christian Church in its faith and practice, in its form and organization, and in its religious and social life~
     3.     That the priesthood is the specified means for the establishment of the New Church and that the order of the priesthood is trinal in form:

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     4.     That the primary uses of the church are worship and instruction, and that in the promotion of these two uses, New Church education constitutes our first work of charity.
     Nowhere do the Writings specifically state that they are the Word. It is this which has led many to believe that the Writings, although from the Lord, are not the Word. Yet whatever the Lord speaks is His Word, it cannot be anything else. That this is so is evident from the fact that apart from the Word there is no way in which the Lord can communicate with man; hence the teaching that the Word is the medium of conjunction between the Lord and man because the Word is from the Lord and thus is the Lord speaking to man.* So it is that although the Writings do not specifically state that they are the Word, what they do say is that they are the spiritual or internal sense of the Word.** Concerning this the Writings say; "The internal sense is the "Word itself"***; that is to say. the internal sense is the very Word****; for it is this sense which makes the Word to be Divine,***** and because it "gives life to the letter . . . it bears witness to the Divinity and holiness of the Word and can convince even the natural man if he is willing to be convinced."******
     * CL 128.
     ** SS 4; AE 594: 3,641: 3, 1065: 3.
     *** AC 1540.
     **** AC 3432: 3.
     ***** AC 1540.
     ****** SS 4.

     In reflecting on the relatively brief, but frequently troubled, history of the New Church, one is struck by the fact that in all the major controversies which have divided the church, the primary issue has been the nature and status of the Writings. To understand this, we must bear in mind that the first question which must be resolved in the establishment of any church is that of authority. This was the basic issue which led to the formation of the Academy in 1876; this was the issue which led to the formation of the General Church of the Advent* in 1891; and this was the issue which led to a division within the church in 1937. Whatever history may have to say of these events and their consequences, one thing is certain: Both the Academy and the General Church were founded upon a firm and uncompromising faith in the full authority of the Writings. In the acknowledgment that the Writings are the Word and, as such, the sole authority within the church, neither the Academy nor the General Church have left any room for doubt in regard to their full acceptance of the Writings.
     * Predecessor of the General Church of the New Jerusalem.
     In looking back over the years, however, it is apparent that what many New Church men failed to perceive is that while there are three revelations, that is to say, three separate and distinct testaments, there is only one Word.

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There cannot be three Words anymore than there can be three Gods, for God is one, and His Word is one; it cannot be divided. Yet it is true that each of these three testaments constituted a new and distinctive covenant with the church to whom it was addressed. Were this not so, the New Church would not be a new church but an extension of the former Christian Church. The doctrine of distinctiveness, therefore, is not the outcome of a defensive attitude on the part of those who fear that through association with others we will lose our identity; it is, as I see it, the inescapable logic of the testimony of the Writings concerning themselves. What else is meant where it is said that, "The New Church is the crown of all the churches that have hitherto existed on the earth because it is to worship one visible God"?* Prior to the Second Coming, this was not possible, for it is in, and as, the spiritual sense of the Word that the Divine Human is revealed to the sight of the understanding. Is this not what is meant where it is said, "Now it is permitted to enter with understanding into the mysteries of faith"?** Is this not also what is meant where it is said: "The reason why this [spiritual] sense is now for the first time disclosed is that heretofore Christianity has existed in name only, excepting some shadow of it in a few individuals. . . . But now because real Christianity is beginning to dawn and a New Church, meant by the New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse, is now being established by the Lord. . . it has pleased the Lord to reveal the spiritual sense of the Word"?***
     * TCR 787.
     ** TCR 508.
     *** TCR 700.

     The New Church, therefore, is what its name implies; that is, a church which is founded upon a new and distinctive covenant. To understand this, we must bear in mind that the nature and quality of every church is determined by its idea of God. It is in this that the New Church differs from all the pre-existing churches. Do not misunderstand me. It is true that there have been and still are those Christians who believe in the Divinity of the Lord, but note well that the Christian concept of God is confined to the thought of the Lord as a person. If the Lord is to be known; that is, if man is to enter into a true idea of God, he must be led to perceive the distinction which the Writings make between person and essence. The person is not the man; it is but the manifestation of a deeper reality which in essence is man. As applied to Him who is Divine Man, this distinction is basic. Apart from this distinction there is no way in which man can attain to a true idea of God; for although the Lord is a person, in essence He is good and truth, and unless we acknowledge this, we cannot enter with understanding into the perception of the Lord's Divine Human.

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Hence it is said in the Apocalypse Revealed: "Think of God from His essence, and from this of His Person, and not from His person, and from this of His essence; for to think of His essence from person is to think materially of His essence, but to think of His person from essence is to think spiritually of His person."* It is, then, in order that man may think spiritually concerning the Lord that the Writings have been given, and in this the Writings are distinguished from all previous revelations.
     * AC 611.

     It is the conviction of the General Church, therefore, that the New Church is to be distinct from the former Christian Church, not only as to its faith but also in its form and organization and in its religious and social life. Unless what is of faith is applied to life, it has no meaning or purpose and, like the barren fig tree already referred to, it withers and dies. Yet in the application of the doctrine of distinctiveness to the life of the church, we stand in danger of creating artificial distinctions which become, in our minds, criteria of New Churchmanship. Our only protection from this human failing is to submit, without bias, our preconceived concepts of what is distinctive to the judgment of use. By the judgment of use, we have reference to the doctrine of use. It is here, that is, in a life of use, that the distinctiveness of the New Church is to be found.
     The doctrine of use is the doctrine of charity for the New Church. It differs from the familiar teachings of the New Testament regarding the neighbor, even as the idea of God which is presented in the Writings differs from that which is derived from the New Testament. In other words, even as we are not to think of the Lord from His person, and from this of essence, neither are we to love the neighbor on account of his person but on account of the use of which he is a form. The distinctiveness of the New Church, therefore, is not, as some have implied, merely a matter of faith it enters into every human relationship and has endless applications to the life of the individual in the performance of those uses which man is created to serve. Take, for example, the institution of marriage: Here is a use that was ordained by God from the beginning and is said in the Writings to be more excellent than all the other uses of creation*; yet who at this day regards it as such? We are living at a time in which many have come to regard marriage as nothing more than a social arrangement which is no more binding upon the parties involved than their mutual desire to live together.

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In this modern attitude toward marriage, there is cause for deep concern; but unless the use, that is, the Divine purpose in marriage is seen and acknowledged, what reason is there to regard the marital relationship as anything more than a man-made institution to be contracted and broken at will? What applies to marriage also applies to all other human relationships; each in its way serves as a means whereby man may be lifted out of the life of self into the life of use. But if the use is not seen; that is, if the Divine purpose, which is implicit in all human relationships, is not acknowledged, how can we hope for the establishment of the New Church upon earth? When we speak of the distinctiveness of the New Church, we are not speaking of some contrived doctrine designed to insulate the New Church from the rest of the world but of what is involved in a commitment to use.
     * CL 143, 156.
     In order to understand the General Church, therefore, we must think of it in terms of the uses it is organized to perform. As already stated, these uses are the uses of worship and instruction. The reason for this is that by means of these uses the Divine is made known among men. The primary responsibility of the organized church is the support of the office of the priesthood, for as stated in the Writings, "the priesthood is the first of the church."* It follows from this that the second responsibility of the organized church is the support of those uses which the priesthood performs. Into this work all may enter: the priest from his office, the parent in the home, the teacher in the school, and the layman in his response to those temporal needs upon which the ecclesiastical uses of the church depend. To this work all are called, each according to such talents as he possesses; that is, each according to those gifts and abilities which have been bestowed upon him by the Lord; and, as it is said in the Book of Exodus, "None shall appear before Me empty-handed."** So it is that, like the ancient Israelite, we are to bring an offering to the Lord in recognition of our part in His work among men.
     * AE 239.
     ** Exodus 23: 15.
     Let us have no illusions, therefore, in regard to the need for the organized church. Wherever there is an internal, there must also be an external, in which what is internal may take form and exist. Were it not for the organized church, there would be no priesthood, for there would be none to support the priest in his office nor the uses which he performs. What is more, there would be no societies of the church, nor would there be any New Church schools. In all that we do, we are dependent upon our God given ability to come together in an organized way in order that the uses to which we are devoted may be performed. The real question, then, is not whether there is a need for a church organization but how and by what principles the external church is to be ordered so that it may serve as a living instrumentality of the Lord's New Church among men.

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For the answer to this, we must look to the Writings, that is, to the doctrine of use. In this, and in no other way, will we be gifted with the illustration that is essential to the establishment of the New Church upon earth. From the beginning, this has been the consistent effort of the General Church, and it is for this reason that I deeply believe that the General
     Church is, as stated in its Order and Organization, "a living body, developing under the leading of Providence."

     (Discussion of Bishop Pendleton's Address)

     The Rev. Geoffrey S. Childs said the Bishop's presentation had been a hard-hitting one that went right down to the essentials on which this church stood, defining them very honestly and forthrightly. He then invited response from the floor, especially from laymen.
     The Rev. N. Bruce Rogers noted that the Bishop had drawn a sharp distinction between the church specific and the organized church, that is, between the internal church and the external church. As far as he knew no other church had ever made such a distinction; yet the distinction is an inevitable conclusion from what the Writings teach. As to evangelization, we often hear people say the time is not yet. But when is the time? it is easy to say it is not yet; but we don't know that the time is not yet, for we have not yet made the organized effort with evangelization as we have been doing with New Church education. It was a good thing that in writing to William Benade in 1859 James Stuart did not say the time was not yet; he said the time was ready, and he was wrong: the time was not yet ready. It was not until 1876 that the Academy was founded, and not until 1877 did it first open its doors; and yet as early as 1859 they were talking about the time being ready. If there is to be a theme for the organized church, it is time we stopped asking ourselves, when is the time? But how are we going to do it? Historically New Church education has had to be the church's first use in time, for unless we can serve our own, we can't serve others; but external evangelization should be regarded as first in end.
     Mr. William B. Alden expressed appreciation of the address which did much to clarify the purpose of organization. Most here did not question the need of organization, but the talk made clear that church organization is needed, not merely because man feels the need, but also because that is the way the Lord operates.
     A question coming to mind concerned how the church is organized at the present time. It is in a sense two organizations: the General Church at large, governed externally by a smaller group of people and headed by the Bishop of the Church; there is also the Academy, which is not run by the membership of the General Church, but is internally perpetuated by a small select group of people. "What is the correspondence between these two discrete organizations? We can see that in the initial stages of organization this was necessary to protect the use of the organization in the early formative years; but I am hard pressed to understand what is the correspondence between these two discrete organizations and the Lord's New Church which has to be continuous in every way."

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     Dr. William R. Kintner expressed the thought that the Bishop had been speaking of the future when the New Church would eventually become the Lord's church on earth. In our efforts to achieve this objective, we don't have to worry about securing the food and water as did Israelites in the Sinai Desert on their journey to Canaan, nor to worry about being thrown to the lions as did the early Christians. We are worried by something far more difficult, namely, the spiritual apathy of the human race at this time. For those of us who share the belief that there is a spiritual purpose to our being, the challenge we face is far more subtle and insidious, and the armor that we wear must be more carefully designed.
     Miss Sarah Schnarr felt that the difference between the church universal and the church specific was in Providence, the Lord's birthday into the world was in Providence, and the Second Coming was providential. We have to be prepared for that, for without preparation none of these things could have taken place. The preparation through evangelization is most important, for without it the church would not grow. She thought the Lord was working very strongly with us now.

     Miss Debra Gilbert stated that especially since returning to Bryn Athyn two years ago she had gained the impression that people in the church placed greater stress on the church organization than on the internal church; as for example, in Religion classes there seemed to be more concern with what the church taught than with what the Writings had to say. Advanced as a possible reason for this was the number of ministers residing in Bryn Athyn, and the efficiency of organization. "But we need to go back to the Writings as individuals to see what they say, rather than to the organization which exists only to provide us with a better way to get to the Writings."
     Mrs. Stephanie Crampton observed that if our children haven't been given the ideal of looking to the Writings, it may well indicate that the parents need to do some work on the question of where their authority should he.
     Mr. Mark Alden regretted that no mention had been made of the use of saving souls. If what had been said at this session related mainly to the external church, the use of saving souls could well be omitted; but if internal uses were being spoken of, then he much wished that saving souls had been listed as the first use of the church.
     Mr. Garold Tennis noted that the Lord prepares us and leads us to spiritual progress only when we are trying. In regeneration our preparation by the Lord is dependent on our co-operation and efforts; and so in regard to the work of evangelization, our preparation by the Lord will depend entirely on our efforts to evangelize; to sit back passively in this field will lead us nowhere
     Mr. Donald C. Fitzpatrick, Jr., was disturbed by what be thought be detected in comments from the floor; this was that there was a sort of competition between internal evangelization and external evangelization, and the consequent danger was that we will do only one or the other. He stressed that these two uses are closely related; in fact, that we cannot have genuine internal evangelization without external evangelization following. There is opportunity for evangelization wherever there is contact with people. Many students are very keenly excited about the idea of external evangelization. This didn't happen by accident, but because their parents, pastors and teachers have provided the means by which they have found a vision of the church. The real challenge of evangelization is an individual challenge, for the Lord will evangelize only insofar as we as individuals go out and try to present these truths we have been given to the individuals with whom we come in contact in our daily life. What young people had expressed this evening, the concern they have shown, is the best promise possible for the growth of external evangelization on the part of the General Church.

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Mr. Peter Bostock said that organizations act in some manner as an individual. We, as individuals, recognize that all our life comes from the Lord, but still we function on a daily basis as if of ourselves. As with individuals, our organizations need guides as to how to act on a daily basis. The Bishop has set out the fundamentals, which are the need and the purpose of organization. Now comes the question of how do we function on a daily basis? When we are acting in smaller organizations such as societies or schools, how do we act as if of ourselves in that organization? How do these organizations examine themselves for continued change and improvement to suit their needs? This level of Operation of the organization which seems closer to the individual, is one that seems harder to define than that of the overall objectives.
Bishop Willard D. Pendleton concluded the discussion by saying that far from thinking the time was not yet ready for external evangelization, he felt the time had come, otherwise he would not have spoken as much about it in his address. Up to now the General Church had not been prepared to accept the responsibility of external evangelization in an organized way; for to be effective external evangelization will have to be approached in an organized way, just as internal evangelization had been. He said that he had been deeply touched by the young person who had spoken of preparation; for he believed the church had been passing through a period of preparation for a great undertaking, in which we will be addressing ourselves to an apathetic world characterized by spiritual indifference. It is true that there are all sorts of religious revivals, all sorts of emotional and religious activities, but, he said, he was talking about the Writings with their calm, direct, powerful and rational statements and doctrines. These have to be seen and accepted before the New Church can be seen and accepted. The missionary work of the New Church is going to be something in the future very different from anything the Christian Church ever knew or ever imagined, and it's going to need a high degree of preparation on the part of those who are going to undertake this work. The Academy schools have been the seed of this, and the desire among our young people today to reach out to others is a very significant thing. But before we can be teachers and instructors, we must be students preparing ourselves in order to undertake any worthy profession. External evangelization is a great work to be undertaken obviously by the New Church, but we must pass through our states of preparation; and he believed we were ready for some organized effort, little as that may be. We are going to have many disappointments, but through them we will learn. Conversion to the New Church is not an emotional conversion; it is a doctrinal and affectional conversion, and there is a great difference between affection and emotion-affection is living, it exists, and it abides, while emotion passes away. He added that the love of saving souls is the essential love of the priesthood, and that it is the purpose of the support of the priesthood; but we can word it in another way as do the Writings; namely, that the primary purpose of the church is that the Lord may be made known among men-the uses of worship and instruction; these were the uses that were emphasized in the address. And he pointed out that none of the uses of the church could have been done on earth without an external organization, for no internal use can exist without its corresponding external.

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TABERNACLE OF GOD IS WITH MEN 1973

TABERNACLE OF GOD IS WITH MEN Rev. NORMAN H. REUTER 1973

     (Delivered in Bryn Athyn, June 15, 1973, during the 26th General Assembly.)

     "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men." (Revelation 21: 31)

     The vision of the series of which this text is a part, on one plane represents the descent and establishment of the New Church in the world, on another the descent and reception of Divine truth in the mind of the individual, thus the building of the New Church in him. First John saw "a new heaven and a new earth, for the former heaven and the former earth were passed away." This deals with the initial stages of regeneration, when the influx of Divine truth, its reception, and man's reaction thereto, causes a separation and disposition of the chaotic mass of preconceived ideas, also a judgment on the unregenerate loves which so far have governed his life, and which now, in the light of received revealed truth, it is seen must "pass away." to be superseded by a heaven of new ideals and loves.
     The second thing seen in this series was the descent of the holy city. After one, from preliminary truths seen in revelation. makes a judgment on himself, the next step is to set about learning the truths of doctrine, so as to build his mind into a city of God, constructed of the truths of faith, that it may be inhabited by the goods of charity. By the activity of the affection of interior truth the Lord opens and perfects the spiritual degree of one's mind. Such a regenerating person, although not as yet. in celestial perception-although truths with him are quite veiled in appearances-nevertheless, if he continues striving to con join his faith with charity in act by living a life of use to the neighbor, will after death find his abode in the spiritual heaven.
     This second step will also prepare one for the possibility of entrance upon the third and last step-the opening of the celestial degree of the mind. This opening is effected by the construction of the "tabernacle of God" within him, even as the descent of the holy city signified the operations necessary for the opening of the spiritual degree of the mind. The story of this last step, then, the opening of the celestial degree, is the burden of our text. "And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men."

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     The Scripture then adds: "And He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, their God." In those who regenerate to the celestial degree the Lord is not only present in the highest estate of human wisdom, but He also dwells with them in the bosom of celestial love-the holy of holies of the tabernacle of their minds, effecting such a conjunction with them that "they are in Him and He in them."
     * AR 883.
     Then "God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither mourning nor crying, neither shall labor be any more, for the former things have passed away." Here is described the consequence of entrance into the celestial state, the results of the Lord's presence and conjunction with such people; for then the Lord takes from them "all grief of mind, fear of damnation on account of evils and falsities from hell, also fear of temptations from them"*; for the six days of labor and combat are finished, the strife with sin is o'er, and the sabbath of peace in the Lord is reached. Then, for the first time, can it be fully said that the "former things"-the evil loves of the proprium-"have passed away."
     * AR 884.

     A tabernacle stands for the Lord's abode in the celestial degree because the most ancients, who constituted a celestial church, conducted their worship in tents or tabernacles, thus in their homes in connection with their daily lives. They were of such a nature that they acted from "the flame of good from the Lord" rather than from "the light of truth."* With the most ancients the influx of the Lord's life was into their will-into their loves and affections-and was conjoined with an internal consent from their understanding, so the influx did not tarry in the intellect, passing immediately into application in life. The most ancients were in obedience to Divine love rather than to Divine wisdom. As they were in the order of life, the Divine influx flowed through unperverted even to their sensuous degree, each lower degree being subordinate and receiving its influx properly from the higher degree. For this reason their worship and their life were more acceptable to the Lord than any that have followed. For this reason also their habitations-tents or tabernacles-signified the worship and the presence of the Lord in the highest degree of the mind, while temples of stone, such as were used later, correspond to the same in the spiritual degree.
     * AC 3374.
     But the case of New Church men differs from that of the most ancients. We are of the spiritual genius. We start life with a wholly perverted voluntary.

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It is only by labor and temptation-by the "sweat of the brow"-that we can eat of the celestial manna, and come into direct touch with the Bread of Life. We ascend through the natural and spiritual degree of regeneration before we can reach the celestial, there to come into the presence of the Lord spoken of in the text. Then only can we come into full conjunction with Him, so that He will dwell with us and be our God; so that we will be in Him, and He in us.
     One often hears today a downgrading of the doctrinal approach to the good life. It is said that every one knows what good is, and how to do it. Let's have less talk and more action! Love is the big word, not doctrine.

     Love is more important than doctrine. It is motivational; doctrine is its means. But there are all kinds of love: interior and exterior, good and bad. The uninstructed easily confuse what the Writings call natural good with celestial states. Both act without much reflection, but here their similarity ceases. Natural good is only really good if it is qualified by truth-spiritual truth. This has to be diligently learned from the Lord through the Word. It is not known to every one-not necessarily even known by those reared in the church. The impulse of natural good is not the product of a regenerate state, as with the celestial, but of inherited states, many of which are basically selfish, only superficially charitable. There are those who think they can reach celestial goals simply by rejecting the discipline of truth-the system it lays down. But there is no short cut to the celestial heaven.
     Without some vision and understanding of the Divine Human, which is nothing more or less than God appearing to us in His now opened Word, we cannot be prepared for heaven; since today we cannot love and be conjoined with that which we do not know from without. In the degree that we understand and love the Lord from His Word, to that extent He is able to speak to us from it; for thus the Divine approach and presence is accommodated to our needs for reception.
     To the natural man the Lord often seems to speak in hard, complicated doctrine, apparently demanding unreasoning obedience. To the spiritual He speaks in terms of rational truth, pointing the way to all who will follow in freedom and reason. But to the celestial the Lord speaks "from love." Revelation and communication are no longer through the channel of truth to produce love, but upon the opening of the celestial degree the Divine good flows directly into the lower ordered loves and affections of the individual, because through temptation he has learned to love that which is true and just, keeping all things in proper order and subordination. Hence he is in the stream of providence, celestial loves being the immediate receptacles of the Lord's influx, and all lesser affections being subject thereto as willing servants.

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     "And I heard a great voice out of heaven." Previously, John, who represents the enlightened New Church man, "saw" the holy city. Then the essential of his life was enlightenment in the doctrines of the church; then truths led to the good of life; then the understanding built up the new will. Then the Lord's presence with him was in His Word, His temple of truth; then the lamp of doctrine shone with the "very light of truth from the Lord," leading him in the way of life. Then, in this spiritual state, the Lord was pre-eminently present in his understanding while the person labored, through the strength-giving power of that presence, to learn and to do the truths that would make possible a new will, which will might become a house of God, a tabernacle for the Lord of hosts to dwell in.
     But afterward it is said that John "heard" a great voice. The celestial man, because he has labored to love, because he has shunned evils, and has thus really come to desire what is good, no longer focuses his attention upon the learning of doctrine. When the truth is spoken it immediately arouses his love and desire to live it. To "see" means to learn and to perceive, which is the state of the spiritual man. To "hear" is to hearken and obey, the state of the celestial man. With the spiritual the Lord's presence is in a lighted temple of truth; with the celestial it is in the warmth of Divine love-that love which resides in the inmost sanctuary of the mind, the celestial degree.
     Moreover, with the celestial the veil of appearances is lifted, because he is able to view truths from good. With him the heavenly marriage has taken place; good and truth are united in life; good leading directly to use. He has passed out of the betrothal state into the fulness of the heavenly marriage, and therefore may be compared, not to a bride, but to a wife in a conjugial marriage, who after her marriage views truth in the light of her love of her husband's wisdom.
     To view truths from good means that love leads and wisdom follows in perfect acquiescence. The celestial no longer amass particular truths in order that by rationalizing they may discover what is good, but, being in direct- touch with the Divine love, they perceive truths because they harmonize with their loves. Thus they do not halt in the means of doing good; they do not question into the whys and wherefores of religious life; instead they carry truth immediately into operation, perceiving and feeling it to be true and just.
     Perception, therefore, guides where before conscience led the way. This perception is the Lord's received presence with the celestial, such a one having allowed the Lord to create by regeneration a tabernacle in which He can dwell.

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Thus, has been built up a new will receptive of the Lord's love. This love from the Lord and returning to Him, entering into and disposing the truths of the understanding, is what is called perception. It is the highest kind of human intellectual activity. It produces wisdom. It is the form-the forthstanding the operation-of a regenerate love. It is caused by influx from within through the will into the understanding. It is spontaneous, not labored and studied as thought is with those who are spiritual rational. The celestial man's actions also are unstudied. With him, once more, is restored the true order of life. He loves to do what is just and true, not because from rational truth he sees it ought to be done, but because in the doing of it he finds delight. He has become a man-angel; he truly is an image of God. "O Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacles: who shall dwell in the mountain of Thy holiness? He that walketh uprightly, and doeth justice, and speaketh the truth in his heart."* Amen.
     * Psalm 15: 1, 2.

     LESSONS:     Revelation 21: 3-7, 9-12. 21-24; 22: 3-5, 16, 17. Apocalypse Explained 701: 3.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 457, 483, 506.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy. nos. 91, 128.
REPORT OF THE ASSEMBLY 1973

REPORT OF THE ASSEMBLY 1973

Publication of the Report of the Twenty-sixth General Assembly begins in this issue with the printing of the Episcopal Address by the Right Rev. Willard D. Pendleton which was delivered at the First Session, and of the sermon by the Rev. Norman H. Reuter which was preached at both services on Friday, June 15. The Report will be continued hi the issues for September and October, possibly November, and will contain the text of the other addresses, the Journal of Proceedings, reports, and accounts of the banquet and other features of the program. A complete index of the Report will be included in the Index for 1973 under the sub-entry, "General Assembly, Twenty-sixth."

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USE OF SENSUALS IN THE FORMATIVE YEARS 1973

USE OF SENSUALS IN THE FORMATIVE YEARS Rev. FREDERICK L. SCHNARR 1973

     (Continued from the July issue.)

     4. ELEVATION ABOVE SENSUAL THINGS

     We have discussed the uses of the sensuous degree of the mind, the uses of the sensuals of the letter of the Word, and the uses of sensual things from nature and science. From the teachings we have examined, we believe we can conclude that there are three primary responsibilities of formal education which relate to all natural knowledges. First, there is the responsibility of providing natural knowledges in an ordered structure. Second, there is the responsibility of seeing that those knowledges fulfill the establishment and function of the uses for which they were given. Third, there is the responsibility to elevate the thought and affection out of and above natural knowledges once their use as means to an end has been served.*
     * AC 1487.
     We have spoken of this last use in reference to various specifics of the sensuous mind, and the uses of sensual knowledges. But we would discuss it more fully this evening in our last lecture because the Writings so emphasize its importance. This in turn, establishes its importance to us as New Church educators.

     Without reviewing again the teachings concerning the corrupt and perverted nature of the sensuous from hereditary evil, we would nevertheless note some teachings concerning the inclination and attitude of sensual thought and affection. Unless such instruction is known and acknowledged, we do not see why the Lord is so urgent that we be elevated above such sensual thought and affection, nor that we must be in the conscious effort with ourselves, and with our children, to make possible such elevation.
     What is it that works to hold man's thought in sensuous things? Primarily it is, of course, the impulses and inclinations from heredity. We spoke of this before in discussing the sons of Israel in Egypt under the cruel Pharaoh. But it is not only the influence of heredity. It is also the ignorance of spiritual things; anxieties from worldly cares and problems; and the constant bombardment of disorderly sensuals from our environment.

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In so far as some of these things are at least partially under our control they are a matter of our responsibility and effort.*
     * AC 6315; AE 559: 3.
     The attitudes that develop from a combination of such influences upon us are also worth noting so that they may be rejected. A man in merely sensuous thought inclines to believe only what he sees and apprehends.* He ". . . thinks of nothing else than what is of the body and of the world, and is not then desirous to know anything about what belongs to eternal life, and is even averse to hearing of that life."** Such a man thinks that spiritual things are unreal and mere hallucinations whereby the learned fool the simple.*** He can ". . . reason skillfully and eagerly [and] . . . can dexterously and craftily confirm falsities . . ." because the thought is so near the speech as to be almost in it.**** He is, in fact, often very persuasive from a conceited self-confidence. "His speech fascinates and infatuates the minds of others."***** We might coin a new word and call this "scorpacious" thought.
     * AC 6997: 7.
     ** AC 6201.
     *** TCR 381.
     **** TCR 565: 2.
     ***** AE 556.
     The sensuous mind that is in something of such thought and attitude is said to be filled with fantasies from falsities which so influence and affect any truths that inflow that they also are twisted and deformed. The Writings state that the truths which inflow into the sensuous ". . . are received there according to the form that is induced upon them."* This is a teaching of major importance in understanding the need to have the sensuous prepared and ordered by sensual knowledges, which can receive spiritual things and be enlightened and elevated by them.
     * AC 7442: 2 f. AC 7343. [Italics added.]

     Now, hopefully, this description of the thought and attitude of a merely sensuous man does not fit any New Church teacher, nor ever shall. Like everyone else, however, the New Church teacher must do his spiritual homework; and there may be some who do more and some who do less. Certainly, there are some older teachers who are well into the life of regeneration who have long since departed from any inclinations to sponsor or support attitudes from what is merely sensuous. But there are younger teachers who must still be wrestling with many thoughts an years of adult life; and those in such years need to heed the instruction and warnings that are given by the Lord concerning the dangers of such sensual thought and the possible effect they may have upon others.

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There are, too, busy, middle-aged pastors and teachers, like myself, who must take up a great variety of uses associated with their profession, many of which uses require a constant involvement in purely worldly and sensual thought. Such natural uses often cannot, nor should be, avoided for they are the foundation and support of spiritual uses. But, my friends, because they are sensual, it is easy for the serpent of sensual persuasion to have them take the place of spiritual things by flooding and overwhelming the thought of spiritual things.
     We come back, therefore, to the emphasis the Writings place on elevating the thought out of sensual things. Notice that the teachings concerning this are primarily as to the things of thought, for the affections cannot be elevated until the thought is first elevated. We read in the True Christian Religion that;

     "Unless thought is elevated above natural things man has but little wisdom. The wise man thinks above sensual things; and when thought is elevated above what is sensual it enters into clearer light, and finally into the light of heaven; from this man has perception of truth which is properly intelligence      hen sensual things are in the last place, by means of them a way is opened for the understanding, and truths are disengaged by a kind of extraction."*
     * TCR 402: 16, 18.

     In another passage we read;

     "This withdrawing and elevation [out of the sensual] are effected by the Lord alone, as far as man suffers himself, of the Lord, to be led to the Lord, and thus to heaven, by the laws of order which are the truths and goods of the church. When this takes place, as often as man is in a spiritual state, he withdraws from this ultimate sensual and is kept elevated above it."*
     ** AE 563.

     We noted before that this elevation from the sensuous is a process that must take place in adult life. Yet it is clear in the many teachings concerning this that preparation for such elevation is to take place in all ages.
     The knowledge of spiritual truths is only gradually established. The understanding must be opened and prepared by spiritual knowledges and thought concerning them, and this certainly is the primary responsibility of education in a New Church sense. We would inquire further, therefore, into teachings that shed light on how this is to be done.
     To think above sensual things, be they sensuous, natural or rational, requires a knowledge of spiritual things. We previously gave a list of the knowledges which are of special importance to the forming mind. In general, there must be knowledge of the Lord, of the spiritual world, and the laws of civil, moral and spiritual life. All of these must, of course, be learned from the Word. It is interesting to note the special emphasis that is given to the importance of the knowledges about eternal life-the nature of heaven and hell.

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Is this because those in a sensual state can readily grasp knowledges about heaven and hell that are often in the form of a sensual description or picture, such as are so many of the Memorable Relations? And does this indicate that we should provide more of a sensual picture of heaven and hell as part of the instruction of a given age-a picture that grows in an ordered yet organic and living way? Certainly, it is true that a child in the sensuals of thought cannot think of God as good in the abstract. For the quality of good to have any thought with the child, good must be in the form of sensual images. Supremely, there must be the image of the Lord as Man doing good things, such as giving rewards to those who obey; curing the sick, the lame and the blind; and so forth. We would believe, however, that with a child~ his vision of the Lord as good requires the more sensual impressions of the goods of heaven. Heaven is a good place. The angels who live in it are good. The things the angels do are good. Their bodies are good, healthy and free of sickness. The things of nature in heaven are good. The houses are good, the clothing is good, the food is good. In fact, there is not anything about heaven that is not good. The beautiful and lovely things of heaven are what is good to a child, for these are the things in which his thoughts and affections find delight; and, what is more, they are orderly sensuals. The Divine can be in them, and the Lord seen as good for having created and provided them.
     We speak of children in this reference; but actually is not the same thing true of all of those, of whatever age, who are in process of forming the first ideas and delights of spiritual things. Indeed there is a sense in which it is true with all, wise and simple. So, in the state of resurrection, all men receive a vision not of the Divine but of the heavens that image the qualities of the Divine. With one it is an introduction to the goodness of the Lord, with the other it is a confirmation.
     When we examine as to how we can educate our children and young people so that they can best be prepared to elevate the thought out of merely sensual things, we come upon a teaching that would seem to stand as one of the foremost directives of all educational thought. It reads as follows:

     "As regards sensuous truth, it is the first truth that insinuates itself; for in childhood the judgment does not go higher. Sensuous truth consists in seeing all earthly and worldly things as being created by God, and each and everything for a purpose, and in all things whatsoever a certain image of God's kingdom."*
     * AC 1434. (Italics added)

     That the Lord created everything, that there is purpose in everything, and that everything mirrors spiritual things, are teachings that are repeated many times in the Writings in many different ways.

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Together they provide the means whereby the sensuous can be so prepared and ordered as to its knowledges as to lift up and elevate the thought. How can there be a field of useful natural knowledge and study that would not fall under the directive of this teaching? Even the highest immaterial and intellectual abstractions of natural rational knowledge have their sensuals to which this instruction applies. It would seem that the primary question we would have concerning it is not as to whether it applies, but as to how it applies.
In this, of course, we come immediately to a variety of different states and abilities among teachers. We come, perhaps, also to a number of different ideas as to the means of relating spiritual and natural things. Some would do this through open instruction to the student, others would do it more subtly. One thing in this is clear as crystal, that is that the teacher can have no idea whatever of relating spiritual and natural things unless he has a sufficient knowledge of both and has made a consistent and reflective effort to relate them as to particulars. It is in this that we get to the very heart of what New Church education is all about. Our New Church schools do not exist merely to provide a means of teaching the organized knowledges of religion. If they did, we would probably only have a theological school, with other religious instruction being provided in special out-of-school classes. But this is not the important point; the important point is that while religious instruction is the heart and lungs of all education, religious thought, affection, and its entire activity and usefulness, must rest in, be illustrated in, he clothed in and operate in all the useful fields of natural knowledge down to the verimost sensual. This is our understanding of the doctrine that has been given in the Lord's second coming. It is a new vision, and it is from this vision that sincere New Church men have sought to found a new concept and form of educational philosophy.

Now, let us return to the teaching we previously quoted and examine it more closely. The first concept mentioned, that all earthly and worldly things were and are created by God, would seem a relatively easy concept to introduce, especially in the primary years of education when the sensual things of nature have such a dominant place. Animals, vegetables and minerals have a prominent place in every subject; even in arithmetic the child is often adding two and two apples, or two and two cows. In literature he reads about them. He spells about them. He sings about them. He paints about them. He performs some experiments about them. He may even try to bribe the teacher with them-the apples, not the cows! In all of this he very easily accepts the fact that the Lord created all of these things.

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     As the child gets older, he has to think of the Lord not only creating the things that stand forth obviously to the senses, but the laws whereby these things are formed and sustained. These are also the creations of God, but they cannot be acknowledged without the ability of the mind to think and form conclusions from the sensual things of the world and nature, thus with the aid of science. In later childhood and early youth the student must be led to see the creations of God in still higher and, seemingly, more abstract and remote laws-the laws that form what is civil and moral. To acknowledge that God created these laws requires the beginning of rational thought from the Word and the beginning of the ability to see what is from God and what is from man in what is civil and moral.
     In youth the student must see and acknowledge even higher laws as being the creations of God-spiritual laws. He must begin to have doctrine wherefrom to think; but he must also have from the knowledge of the spiritual world the understanding of how those laws operate and how they relate to natural things. In this understanding all advanced sciences take a part.

     An acknowledgment of the Lord and the things created by Him requires that there be some understanding of the object or form being considered. And since such understanding rests upon a consideration of use and the reflection of the Lord's qualities in that use, these are the other two essentials that must accompany the effort to acknowledge that God created something. They become increasingly important as the child matures into youth.
     The concept of the uses of things begins with the most simple and obvious natural uses, such as that the horse is used to carry man; all the way to the most complex and hidden correspondential uses that relate to the horse in the kingdom of heaven. And so it is with all things.
     There is an ascending and extending development of the uses of all things in creation in an ordered series. There are concepts of use provided for the understanding of each age, and it is the responsibility of educators to see and employ them. There are also different forms of use that are to be stressed, depending on the knowledges being considered. The purpose of one group of knowledges may be for the sake of human society, another group may be for the sake of the Lord's church on earth, or for the sake of the heavens, or even for the sake of the Lord Himself.*
     * AC 1472.
     We have spoken before of the importance of emphasizing use, and emphasizing it through the effort to relate spiritual and natural things.

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There is a most interesting passage that stresses the importance of use in educating the mind. It is speaking of the use of knowledge in developing the Ishmael or first rational. This rational cannot be formed without knowledges, but

     ". . . the knowledges must have use as their end, and when they have use, they have life as their end, for all life belongs to uses, because it belongs to ends, and therefore unless knowledges are learned for the sake of a life of uses, they are of no moment, because of no use. From these knowledges alone, without a life of use, the rational becomes as here described, resembling a wild-ass, morose, pugnacious, and characterized by a parched and dry life . . ."*
     * AC 1964. [Italics added.]

     Every parent and educator is only too familiar with many of the wild-ass states of the Ishmael rational. It is easy also to become discouraged when an array of such states suddenly heaves into view, and for a time, seems to obliterate some of the finer things of life or, more seriously, to trespass against the principles formed from the Word. Yet, however discouraging such times may be, they should not affect the educator's sight and acknowledgment of the truth that we are to educate our children from use, for use, and to use. Any judgment from experience and observation alone is a judgment from the senses; and as we noted before, this judgment from appearances is mostly fallacious.
     Besides the emphasis concerning the Lord and use, our directive teaching also stated that all sensual knowledge should serve as an image of the Lord's heavenly kingdom. This is perhaps the hardest concept of the three to bring into the specifics of education. We have spoken at some length in previous lectures of the importance of man seeing spiritual things reflected in natural things. We noted that such a reflective image is the letter of the Word itself, and that this must be the primary means whereby spiritual things are confirmed. But we also noted, that all sensual knowledges serve as secondary means of reflecting, illustrating and confirming spiritual things.* How often do we read in the Writings that, ". . . universal nature is a theater representative of the Lord's kingdom."** Yet it is not so representative to everyone. It requires that man look to the Lord, learn the knowledges of spiritual things, and do proper uses from them, which are the exercises of the life of charity with him. From natural things alone, man does not learn spiritual things, nor can he even see a reflection of spiritual things in natural things.
     * AC 5201; TCR 11: 3,508; DLW 21; HH 56; SS 54.
     ** AC 3518: 3. Cf. 3648, 3942, 4318, 5116: 2.
     When we strive to examine the relationship of spiritual forms and uses to natural forms and uses so that we may see the one reflected and confirmed in the other, what we are really studying is the science of correspondences.

370

We are taught that there is nothing in the natural world that does not have something in the spiritual world that it corresponds to and represents, or re-presents, shows, reflects, and displays as in a theater.* This is not only true of the forms in the kingdoms of nature, but of the things that are fashioned and prepared from nature by science and industry.**
     * AC 2992. Cf. AC 9272: 2, 9280: 2.
     ** HH 104.
     Now, we cannot enter into a discussion at this time of the nature, use and importance of correspondences: this is a detailed study in itself. We know that there are various and different ideas in the church concerning the use of correspondences in education, and whether this should again become with us the science of sciences, as it was with the ancients. We do not understand, however, how the sensual knowledges of nature and science can be seen as a theater representative of spiritual and heavenly things until this science is more fully developed with us, and takes a more active part in all our fields of study. It is the primary concern of angelic intelligence to know and understand how the universal heaven corresponds to the Divine Human of the Lord, and how in turn angels, spirits and men correspond to the goods and truths of heaven.* Is this not also to be the primary concern of the regenerating man, and that to which we direct the thought of our children? The New Church man is to be guided from the Heavenly Doctrine in his study and use of correspondences, especially those revealed in the Word. But to the man who acquires a knowledge of correspondences in this manner, the teaching is clear that as to the thoughts of his mind, the can] . . . be associated with the angels . . ." and conjoined with them.** And it is in this that he is uplifted and elevated above merely sensual and natural thought.
     * AC 4318.
     ** HH 114.

     It may be a long time before we have a sufficient knowledge and understanding of correspondences to employ them in an ordered and organized manner in all areas of education. But we believe that day should and will come, and it will bring with it new and powerful means of seeing and confirming the reality and life of spiritual things; that it will serve together with the acknowledgment of the Lord, and the belief that all things were created by Him for use, as the foremost means of elevating and raising up the mind to the things of heaven.
     Before we conclude the consideration of this subject, we would make a few observations as to the importance of the spheres and attitudes of the parents, teachers and other adults who especially influence the minds of our children and students.

371

For, obviously, it is not knowledge alone whereby the mind is elevated out of merely sensual thought and life. It is also the living states of the environment which surrounds the child and student that affect and influence the affirmative or negative attitude as to how the knowledges learned and considered are either received or rejected.
     An infant receives its first sensual knowledges through simple sensations in which the character of the environment has very little part. We noted before how the first remains are provided for all men as a necessary means of receiving anything of the life of heaven. All receive such remains, therefore, whatever the environment or circumstances of early life.

     With a child, there are such simple sensual sensations also; but with a child, they are affected by the spheres of his environment as well, especially the spheres and states of his mother and father, other members of the family, close relatives and friends. He no longer receives states purely from heaven. Now he also receives a complexity of states from the spheres, attitudes and actions of others. Except for special times set aside for special uses such as worship discussing a problem of mutual concern to the family instructing as to duties or disciplines, or even preparing for the visit of guests, the home is a place where we are generally not conscious of the spheres that surround us. So a father and mother do not, as a rule, kiss each other to establish a given sphere with the infant or child. Nevertheless, when they do kiss each other, the child who sees this act, immediately responds with delight. A sphere is established by the thoughts and affections of the parents coming into ultimates, and by means of these ultimates being received through the child's senses. Once received as a part of his sensory memory, heaven immediately inflows, causing him to sense delight. In a very real way, what is of heaven with the parents meets what is of heaven with the child, not just through sensual knowledge, but through the spheres that are together with that knowledge.
     Because spheres also accompany disorderly thoughts and affections as they come forth in sensuals, parents in the home must make every effort to prevent the things of hell that are with them from descending into ultimates. When the father strikes the mother, for example, the hellish spheres communicated to the child are repellent to the things of heaven that are in him and he becomes terrified and confused and then wants to run away and hide.
     When the child begins school, he comes into yet another sphere from his environment, a sphere that is increasingly important the closer he comes to adult life. This is the sphere that accompanies formal education-the learning of ordered and organized knowledges.

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It is a different sphere from the home because the knowledges he receives in school are prepared and presented to serve specific uses seen by the mind of the teacher. Knowledges are planned to bring forth a certain result or reaction. Since spheres always accompany everything that comes forth into ultimates, obviously, the sphere and attitude of the teacher come to the student through the teacher's instruction. We cannot say that such spheres are "planned spheres," but we can see that they are different from all informal spheres in that they rest upon and are communicated by means of planned knowledges; and because of this, they have a distinct and great power and influence.
     When we reflect upon some of the attitudes of our time, let us as teachers be careful that the attitudes and spheres we inspire and encourage through our instruction are in accord with the heavenly doctrines we would serve. Our spheres are part of the knowledges we present to our students, and they can and should be a means of elevating their thoughts and affections to the Lord and the things of heavenly life. No teacher in any subject-area stands apart from this purpose. Our personal or professional problems, our states of doubt or confusion as to the belief in spiritual things, and all the variety of disorderly and hellish states that are with all of us from time to time, have no place in the knowledges we are conveying to our students in the class room. They confuse the very purposes of education, which are the learning of truths and the understanding of their uses. When the teacher, therefore, is in states of trouble, confusion or disorder, it is eminently a matter of charity to his students that he cover himself in orderly externals. If this brings a feeling of hypocrisy with himself, or even with others, so be it. It is more important for a man to act in accord with the instruction of the Word, than it is for him to worry about how he feels or appears to others at any given time. And what is more, those who honor the truth for the sake of the truth, including his students, will honor him for doing that which is right.
     It has been our endeavor in these talks to bring before you something of the general doctrine concerning the uses of sensual things. While there are many particular uses we have not considered, we would hope that this study will, nevertheless, act as something of a means for your review and your reflection concerning the subject. We hope, too, that it will serve some use in suggesting possible applications of the doctrine to your various fields of study.
     Many of the teachings we have noted concerning the relationship of spiritual and natural things, and some of the ideas we have drawn therefrom, stem from an effort to see the nature of the Word with man at any age, as a living body in human form.

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The Word not only defines man's formative states from infancy onward, but its goods and truths, ultimated in sensual knowledges of the letter, grow with him year by year. But let us not forget that the Word is in the human form as the Gorand Man of heaven is in the human form, and supremely, as the Lord is in His Divine Human. And because all of these rest in nature, even nature is in the human form when interiorly considered.* The Word and, indeed, all knowledge with man at any age of his development is in the human form. There is the heart and lungs of love and wisdom even with a child, and all the other organs and parts representing both spiritual and natural things, even to the skin and the soles of the feet-the lowest sensual things-are together in a connected, organic, living form. We believe it is something of this vision of the Word that must be the means of relating and ordering all knowledges at any age, so that each field of knowledge contributes its uses, not as things unto themselves, but as connected, functioning parts of the whole from which it draws its life and purpose.**
* AC 9555, 10005.
** HH 460: Lord 32; AE 1119: 2, 1208: 3.
CALLED, CHOSEN AND FAITHFUL 1973

CALLED, CHOSEN AND FAITHFUL 1973

Those who approach and worship the Lord alone are those who go to heaven, as well those who are in the externals of the church as those who are in its internal and inmost things . . . Because they are in the Lord they go to heaven. The called, indeed, mean all men, for all are called, but the called who are with the Lord mean all who are in heaven with the Lord. The chosen do not mean any elected by predestination, but those who are with the Lord are so named. The faithful mean such as have faith in the Lord. The reason it means those who are in the external, internal and inmost things of the church is that the Lord's church, like heaven, is distinguished into three degrees. In the ultimate degree are those who are in its external things, in the second degree are those who are in its internal things, and in the third degree those who are in its inmost things. Those who are in the external things of the church with the Lord are named the called; those who are in its internal things, the chosen; and those who are in its inmost things, the faithful. They are so named in the Word, where Jacob is said to be called and Israel chosen, because Jacob there means such as are in the externals of the church and Israel such as are in its internals (Apocalypse Revealed, 744).

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COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 1973

COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS Rev. GEORGE DE CHARMS 1973

     (Delivered at the Commencement Exercises of the Academy schools, June 12, 1973.)

     Our first thought is to congratulate you because you have completed another year of sound scholastic achievement. The strain of the final examinations is over, the papers have all been corrected and the grades recorded. Although the returns may not be equally satisfactory, either to the students or to the teachers, the period of nagging doubt is past, and whatever the outcome, a future of hope and promise lies ahead. With a deep sense of relief everyone looks forward to a period of relative rest and recreation during the coming summer months.
     The only purpose in the end of anything is that there may be a new beginning. If this were not so, the end would leave one with a deep sense of frustration and hopelessness. What is the use of apparent success if it leads nowhere? This is why the end of a year, when diplomas and degrees are conferred in token of past achievement, is called a commencement. The joy in the celebration lies in the prospect of a new beginning, the opening of new opportunities for progress that would not otherwise be possible. But let us note that genuine progress is not something that man can achieve by himself, or from himself. It is a gift of life. It must come from the Source of life. It is always a miracle of Divine love and mercy.
     Because of this, all progress in Divine creation takes place by means of successive generations. The life-story of every plant is that from a seed planted in the earth there shall come forth roots, stems, leaves and flowers, and finally fruit within which are new seeds in great abundance. Thus the whole end and purpose of plant life is to produce a vessel capable of receiving new life from God. The plant does not produce this new life; it merely provides the clothing or embodiment through which life may act, the life itself being a gift from the Divine Creator. An annual plant, having fulfilled its purpose, will die. Even a perennial plant such as a tree which may renew its life year after year, still has a lifespan, be it long or short, beyond which it cannot survive, So also every animal, bird or insect lives only for a time, and the end of its life is to perpetuate its kind by means of a new generation, that is to provide a vessel receptive of new life from God.

375

     So also with human beings, progress in the development of the race takes place by means of successive generations. As the Psalmist says: "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off and we fly away."* Yet man, unlike the plants and animals, does not die. He merely passes from the natural world into the spiritual world, where he continues to live forever. During their life on earth parents and teachers are entrusted by the Lord with the care of children and young people. They are faced with responsibilities toward them that cannot be avoided. How these responsibilities are fulfilled cannot fail to have a profound effect upon the life of the next generation. For this reason, education is of necessity a co-operative undertaking in which two or more generations are engaged. If there were no parents there would be no children to be educated; and unless there were both students and teachers there could be no schools. Teaching is effective only when there are students who are willing and eager to learn. On the other hand, learning is possible only if there are teachers who love children and young people, and who are skilled in the art of transmitting knowledge in terms the students can understand.
     * Psalm 90: 10.
     The deepest incentive to learning is a longing to be free. Young people instinctively seek to escape from the control of others in order that they may assert their own will, and achieve their own ambitions. Indeed it is the supreme end of the Lord in His Divine Providence that they should be free. To this end it is vitally important that as young people gradually acquire the ability to judge and to act on their own responsibility, the external bonds of home and school should be progressively relaxed, and that when adult age is reached, they should be removed altogether. That this release might be complete it is ordained that each older generation, having fulfilled its earthly function, shall pass away from this life, leaving the field wide open for the next generation to develop as it may see fit. To provide for freedom, therefore, it is of order that there should be a gap, or a distinct separation between generations. No one should wish it to be otherwise.
     Let us note, however, that the goal of all education is that children and young people may be prepared to receive new life from the Lord. Only thus can a child truly become a man. Concerning this the Writings teach that

     "The order into which every man was created by God is, that after infancy he may become a man. For when he is born he is only the external form or image of a man, and at that time he is less a man than a new-born beast is a beast.

376

But so far as he is inwardly perfected . . . as to his mind or spirit in wisdom and love, he becomes a man. A man is like a tree which first grows up from the seed into a shoot, and when it increases in height puts forth branches, and from these stems, and clothes itself with leaves; and when it comes to maturity, which takes place in its middle age, it puts forth flowers and produces fruits. In each one it places seeds which, being cast into the earth as into a womb, grow up into similar trees, and thus into a garden."*
     * Coro. 7.

     Note that what is here described is not a tree, but the mind of man, and how it grows from infancy to adult age, and how in it there is produced a garden of affections and thoughts. The quotation continues:

      "If you are willing to believe it, that same garden remains with man after death. He dwells in it, and is delighted daily with the sight of it, and with the use of its fruits. It is such a man who is described in David by these words: 'He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of waters, which shall bring forth his fruit in its season; his leaf also shall not wither, and all that he doeth shall prosper.'"*
     * Psalm 1: 3; Coro. 7.

     This garden of the mind is the ultimate goal of all education. Such a garden is a vessel capable of receiving new life, that is, new love and wisdom from the Lord. That this new love and wisdom may he received in freedom, there must be a break between generations. But if there is to be genuine progress from one generation to the next, there must also be a bond between them. There must be a bond of mutual confidence, respect and affection. This is essential because in every generation there are things that are from man; things that are temporary, and of only passing value. There are habits of life and modes of thought which are the product of the day and appropriate to the age, but that lose their importance and their relevance with changing times. Such things as these should not be perpetuated merely from habit, or for the sake of tradition after they have lost their meaning and their usefulness. But in every generation there are also things which are not from man, but from the Lord. Because God is eternal, these things are of permanent value. There are qualities of love revealed in the Word that are essential to man's true happiness in every generation. There are truths that are eternal and unchanging, laws inherent in creation itself that remain constant from generation to generation. These are revealed in the Word, and as they are received by man in love and faith, they provide vessels capable of receiving new life from the Lord in every generation. Such things as these are essential to progress. They may not be discarded without serious loss, because without them new life cannot be given. Whatever belongs to the Lord, therefore, must be remembered. It must be guarded, and treasured by each rising generation.

377

Qualities of love and mercy, justice and honor, and above all, innocence, that is, willingness to be taught and led by the Lord through His Word-these are things that constitute a bond between one generation and the next; this because they constitute a bond between man and the Lord in every generation. Of this the Lord spoke when He said to Moses at the burning bush; "Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: This is My name forever, and this is My memorial unto all generations."*
     * Exodus 3: 15.

     We are told in the Writings that "the things which are begotten from the internal," that is, from the Lord and the Word, produce in the next generation things higher and more interior, because "the internal elevates the natural to itself by degrees."* This is illustrated by the fact that as one advances from infancy to childhood, and thence to youth and adult age, he acquires a better understanding, a deeper insight, and a greater skill and ability to do things that give him a sense of greater freedom and the joy of accomplishment. This is the Divinely ordained order of growth, that what is learned and done at one stage of development, shall provide the material and open the way for the reception of things more interior, more valuable, and of greater worth in the next stage. In this way the Lord from within, lifts man's mind nearer to Himself, that He may bless him by degrees with new life and ever greater happiness. "Such progressions and derivations with the man who is being regenerated, are perpetual," we are taught, "from his infancy even to the last hour of his life in the world, and also afterward even to eternity."** And it is provided that this progression shall take place from one generation to the next, the things of permanent value in one generation laying the foundation, and opening the way, for the reception of things more interior and more valuable by the next generation. The progress is designed to extend in two directions, namely to what is more interior, and at the same time toward what is more exterior. That is, it extends toward a deeper love to the Lord and charity, on the one hand, and toward broader knowledge, toward new discoveries of natural truth, and toward a greater skill in applying this truth to life, that all things of external life may be brought more perfectly into harmony with the order of heaven.
     * AC 6239.
     ** AC 5122.
     Thus it is provided that from generation to generation the Lord's kingdom may be established more widely, more deeply, and more truly by successive degrees.

378

This is the primary purpose, and the ultimate goal of Academy education. The Academy was founded to lay the groundwork, in the minds and hearts of the young people who are entrusted to its care, for the establishment of the New Church. Its education is designed, above all else, to cultivate, protect and nourish with its students those things that come from the Lord through the Word, knowing that only by means of these things can the Lord impart new life to men, in ever greater fullness from age to age. The wish of the faculty is that every rising generation should be free at adult age to modify, or even to reject completely, things that are from man, things that are temporary and expendable. But its deepest hope is that they may freely choose to retain the things they have received from the Lord; that they may cling to these with love and deep devotion, that the Lord Himself may be with them, to bless them, and to guide their steps in paths of genuine peace and happiness. Our prayer is that the Lord may come to them with all the power of His Divine redemption, even as He came to the children of Israel in the bondage of Egypt, saying: "The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: This is My name forever, and this is My memorial unto all generations."
POTENTIALITY WITHIN KNOWLEDGE 1973

POTENTIALITY WITHIN KNOWLEDGE 1973

A man who knows all goods and all truths, as many as can be known, but does not shun evils, knows nothing. His goods and truths are swallowed up or cast out by the evils, so that he becomes foolish, not in the world, but afterwards; while the man who knows few goods and few truths, but shuns evils, knows those goods and truths, and learns many more and becomes wise, if not in the world yet afterwards (Apocalypse Explained, 1180: 2).
VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

Visitors to Bryn Athyn on any occasion who need assistance in finding accommodation please communicate with the Guest Committee c/o Mrs. Leo Synnestvedt, 611 Waverly Lane, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009. Phone: (215) WIlson 7-3725.

379

ORDINATIONS 1973

     DECLARATIONS OF FAITH AND PURPOSE

     I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one God of heaven and earth, in whom is the Divine Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I believe
     that the Lord came into the world to glorify His Human, to subdue the hells, and to open the way for the reception of Divine truth in the hearts and minds of men.
     I believe in the threefold Word of God, the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Writings, and that these three revelations together constitute the one Word of the Lord for the New Church.
     I believe that the purpose of Divine revelation is that men may be conjoined with the Lord through the heavens, by means of a life of genuine charity according to the truths of faith. In this way is the Lord's New Church established on earth.
     I believe that all men live after death, each according to the quality of the loves he has acquired in the world, and that after death each man's essential love, and hence his essential use, cannot be chanced to eternity.
     In presenting myself for inauguration into the priesthood of the New Church, I declare my intention to carry out sincerely and faithfully those uses which the Lord has prescribed for the ministry of His New Church. It is my prayer that the Lord may enlighten me to teach only what is genuinely from His Word, and nothing from myself.
     MARK ROBERT CARLSON

     I believe in Jehovah God, Jesus Christ, as He is revealed in His Word: Creator and Savior, almighty and ready to forgive. In Him is the Trinity of Love, Wisdom and Use, according to the reception of which man becomes truly man, and lives to eternity.
     The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came into the world that He might subdue the hells and glorify His Human, and without this no man could have been saved. They are saved who have trust in Him.
     The second coming of the Lord is not a coming in person, but in the Word. It is the revelation of the spiritual sense of the Word, which lies within it as the soul within the body, giving life to it.

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     The Word is the Lord, because it is Divine wisdom from Divine love. Enlightenment is from the Lord alone and exists with those only who love truths because they are truths, and make them of use for life.
     All religion is of life and the life of religion is to do what is good. But genuine good-the hope and peace of all nations-is only possible through a knowledge of genuine truth; wherefore the Lord has ordained that the spirit of truth may be passed from Him through men to other men. This is the special use of the priesthood. In presenting myself for inauguration into this use, I confess that I can contribute nothing to it from myself. Therefore I ask the Lord's aid in putting aside what comes from myself in this office, and I seek His blessing.
     MICHAEL DAVID GLADISH

     I believe that the Lord, as Divine Man, has successively revealed Himself to mankind by means of the Word. The whole of the Word looks to the revelation of the Lord's Divine Human, and this revelation has been completed and fulfilled in the theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, which are the Lord's second coming. I believe that this concept of the Divine Human is the essence of the New Church, a church distinct from all former dispensations.
     I believe that the Divine truth of the Word is to be the sole authority in man's life. Man, because of his evil nature, has nothing of good and truth, except that which he receives from the Lord by means of the Word. I believe that the Word, in every particular, directs man's life to the path that leads to heaven, and that the essence of this truth is the acknowledgment of the Lord Jesus Christ and the life of shunning evils as sins against the Lord. These are the means whereby the mind is opened to the Divine life.
     I believe that the Lord's church on earth is the presence of the Lord with men, and that the Lord's sole love is that all men may partake of His presence. I believe that the Lord works toward this end by means of men ordained into the use of the priesthood. I stand before the Lord with the prayer that my life may be directed toward this use, and that I may be withheld from those selfish loves which are opposed to this purpose. It is in this way that I dedicate my life to the use of the priesthood for the establishment of the Lord's church with men.
     THOMAS LEROY KLINE

381

ON BEING PERFECT 1973

ON BEING PERFECT Editor 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.
Published Monthly By

THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM BRYN ATHYN, PA.

Editor                Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager          Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
All literary contributions should he sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications, should he sent to the Business Manager. Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$5.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 50 cents.
     In the absolute meaning of the term, no man is or can be perfect; and no one can ever be so fully regenerated that he may be called perfect in any final sense. Even the angels, forever being perfected by the Lord, cannot to eternity reach such perfection that their love and wisdom can be compared to His, for there is no ratio between the infinite and the finite. Because they are continually growing in good and truth and use the angels can never attain to absolute perfection. No matter how highly they have been perfected, infinite things still lie beyond.
     Yet the Lord does not demand the impossible. When He called on His disciples to be perfect, He was asking what lay within their grasp. He was telling them to be complete and comprehensive in their love, not one-sided or selective. What this meant had to be rightly understood, but they were to will well to all, not just those whom they liked. They were to have no false standards, but were to be all-embracing in their love, as is their heavenly Father.
     The Lord alone is perfect, but there is a finite image of His perfection, and it is to this that He calls men. The perfection of the Lord is that in His Human all is Divine, and the finite image of the unity and trinity in Him is what makes man perfect. The perfect man is he who is in truth from good from the Lord, the man who does good from a conscience of truth-the man who lives entirely in accordance with the Divine precepts when the will and understanding have been so united that from them proceeds only what is of use. Man is then in the Lord, and the Lord in him, and this union makes the mind perfect.

382

     ANGER AND ZEAL

     Classified by Christians as one of the seven deadly sins, anger is said in the Writings to be an affection aroused by and directed against whatever opposes self-love and its cupidities. So anger is a sin. It has evil in it, and it intends evil-intends to return evil for evil in a spirit of revenge. Yet it is one of the most common sins, and one of the most dangerous and destructive. Because an angry man turns his mind away from the one against whom he is angry, anger alienates husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, parents and children, friends and associates it disrupts society, and it incites to crime and violence.
     However, there is such a thing as righteous anger. In the widest sense, the Writings define anger as the mind's response to anything that threatens to injure or destroy the delight of any love-which includes good loves as well as evil. But righteous anger-a good love resisting, reproving or removing evil, and tinged with grief-is more properly called zeal. In outward form anger and zeal appear almost alike, for each is love kindled and fired up to protect itself against violation and to remove the violator. But internally they are as different as hell is from heaven. They differ in their sources and thence in their motivation.
     Zeal is from charity. It has good in it, is for what is good and intends good to those against whom it is felt. Our anger is rooted in self-love, for in anger there is evil. No matter how we may try to conceal it by assuming noble sentiments, anger is aroused by proprial injury or slights; and the angry man intends evil against the one who has angered him. For the essence of anger is the will to destroy! But zeal is not animated by proprial motives or inspired by proprial hurt, and it is properly directed. Its purpose is to protect, and it is implemented constructively. Whatever the appearance, it looks to the welfare of others, whereas anger looks to their destruction.
     When these distinctions are understood, we may see that there are many things about which we should be zealous! While anger is all too common, many have forgotten to be zealous; not because they are good and filled with kindness, but because they have become morally soft, complacent, permissive or cynical, or have lost all urgent sense of the need to have standards and to defend them. When they see evil and injustice, they may be pained; but they do not feel an internal aversion that would cause them to fly to the defense of good and justice. Yet we cannot have zeal for good and truth unless we are zealous against what is evil and false, zealous to defend against them.

383

     "THE LORD SHALL FIGHT FOR YOU"

     Dismayed at sight of the pursuing Egyptians, Israel was assured by Moses: "The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." Forty years later, when the conquest of Canaan was faced, the assurance was repeated. The people were not to fear the nations of Canaan; when they went into battle they were not to be afraid: "for the Lord your God shall fight for you against your enemies to save you."
     Israel was not equipped militarily to conquer the land without the Lord's help. The people did not have the armor to withstand the chariots of Canaan or the experience and techniques necessary for besieging successfully fortified cities. They were assured that the Lord would give them victory. Yet they had to face the enemy, had to go into battle; and the record shows that when they failed to do so, disaster struck.
     What was called for was a realistic facing of the situation and a humble looking to the Lord for leading, and then co-operation.

     It would be naive to think that the New Church has been left comparatively unmolested until now and that only in this day are enemies beginning to appear. From the time of the Gothenburg Trial the Heavenly Doctrine and those who receive it have been attacked. However, there are enemies, formidable enemies, to be faced. Many evils and falsities threaten the church; many injustices, inequities, possible harassments. The existence of God is doubted by many and denied by some, and all of these are active in spreading their ideas. Belief in an authoritative Divine revelation is widely rejected, a rejection that carries with it a denial of the Divinity of the Lord. Existentialism challenges any belief in God or hope for man's future. The sanctity of marriage is denigrated; the need for ethical and moral standards, except for those inherent in life- situations, is being questioned. A society which has no confidence in a life after death sees the future of man increasingly as lying in this world only.
     Love of dominion and the power structures through which it works, some of which pose serious threats, are evident in society, as is the love of the world; injustices are all too evident; and greed, corruption and selfishness are to be found in abundance. If we simply shrug these off, saying, "What else can we expect from unregenerate human nature? what else can be looked for from a dead church?," we are courting disaster. We cannot seek peaceful co-existence with these enemies of the church, any more than Israel could co-exist peacefully with the nations of Canaan. On the other hand, there is no safety either in meeting these foes from proprial states. We must face conflict, must prepare for battle; but we should do so without fear because in the Lord's name.

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If we truly believe that the church is the Lord's we will be certain that He will not allow it to be destroyed. Everything that attacks the church is a permission of Providence, and if it is met from the Lord it will be controlled. Two things are needed. We must realize the dangers that threaten, neither ignoring nor minimizing them; and we must meet them from the Lord, not from ourselves. "The Lord will fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace."
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL EVANGELIZATION 1973

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL EVANGELIZATION Editor 1973

     Several times recently we have heard missionary work and New Church education distinguished as external and internal evangelization, respectively. Presumably the distinction is based on the fact that missionary work is concerned with those outside the church whereas education focuses on those within the sphere of the church. But we are disposed to think that this use of the terms, internal and external, is not correct.
     A distinction is made in the Writings between man's introduction into the church and the introduction of the church into man, and it is said that the church enters into man when he is being regenerated; that repentance, the first of regeneration, is what causes the church to be in him. Also, it is said that man is external until he is being regenerated. Man is introduced into the church from without, by external means; the church enters into him from within, by internal means.
     On the basis of this distinction we would suggest that missionary work and New Church education are both forms of external evangelization. Each seeks to provide for the approach and entrance into the church of those who are well disposed toward it: missionary work of adults; New Church education of our own children and young people who are not born into the church because their parents are members of the organized church and who, although they are the most fruitful field of evangelization, will still be natural when they have been educated.
     Internal evangelization, we suggest, is all the forms of priestly ministration by which those adults who are in the church are so taught and led that the church may enter into them. Its purpose is the spiritual education of the flock, the opening of the way to the kingdom of heaven. It may be said to be the pastoral office: keeping open the way to heaven and teaching and leading in that way. This, we suggest, is the real distinction between external and internal evangelization, one which does not take away from New Church education, but sets it in its rightful place. However, we would be glad to hear other views.

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Church News 1973

Church News Various 1973

     GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS

     Greetings from Glenview to the readers of NEW CHURCH LIFE!
     The changes provided and prepared for by Bishop Pendleton will affect our Society and the educational work here. Our pastor, the Right Rev. Louis B. King, is going on to other uses, and the Rev. Alfred Acton, who has been the assistant pastor here for some time, will become pastor. The Rev. David R. Simons will be principal of the Midwestern Academy. There are to be two new teachers: Miss Mary Jane Bruser and Miss Janna King.
     When the Academy representatives came this year the Rev. Dandridge Pendleton spoke on the problem of drugs and how it is being met in the Academy schools. Mr. and Mrs. Bradley Smith encouraged us with their account of bow a housemaster and his wife can supply a home-like atmosphere for young people away from home. We were also told of the "Youth Assembly," where young speakers addressed their peers. These things all help our students of the ninth and tenth grades for campus life in Bryn Athyn.
     Studies in support of New Church education are made by the Sons of the Academy and Theta Alpha. The Sons have been comparing the students' viewpoint in early Academy days with the viewpoint today. Theta Alpha has given a whole number of its Journal (Spring 1973) to views of "Women's Liberation." Thanks to Dr. Robert Gladish and the Rev. Ragnar Boyesen for their courteous and serious consideration of the subject.
     In News From the Academy (November 1972) was an interesting description of the evaluation visit to the four schools of the Academy by teams from the Middle States Association, Elsewhere we were reminded to look at the Museum when we come to the Assembly. The church publications have a supply of information for many states.
     The guest speaker at the Theta Alpha banquet here was the Rev. Donald Rose. He recounted with zeal and good humor his work as a minister in various parts of the world. His address was followed by a maypole dance, daintily done by girls of the ninth and tenth grades.
     We see some of the results of class work in charts and models; hear the oratorical contest and plays; and enjoy the dancing exhibition and the art and science fairs, as well as sports events. The results show interest and imagination.
     Bake sales, rummage sales, arts and crafts fairs, have been held to provide equipment for tennis court, stage and kitchen, besides work parties for cleaning inside and landscaping outside the buildings. And we should not forget the faithful Contributions Committee, or the many useful and needed things done by invisible hands.
     We were visited by Glenbrook South High School last week, when 550 visitors came by buses. Robert Adams of the Social Studies Department said: "We hope this brief exposure to diverse religious beliefs will prompt students to reflect upon their own values ... to ask important questions: 'What do I think, feel, believe, and why?'" The classes in history and sociology were scheduled to visit five religious centers that day. Mr. King met each group of eighty or a hundred visitors, leading them on a twenty-minute tour of the church and giving each visitor a printed sheet with information about the church. A worthwhile contact
     We are in the process of replacing one of the large stained glass windows in the church.
     Many weddings and engagements among the young people of this society this year gave us occasion to wish them much happiness.

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     Five of those who have been staunch members here were taken by death this year: Herbert Croll, Edwin Burnham, Vivian Wille, Carl Fuller and Olive Lee.
     SUSAN S. HOLM

     THE ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH

     Joint Meeting

     The Annual Joint Meeting of the Corporation and Faculty of the Academy of the New Church was held in the Assembly Hall, Bryn Athyn, Pa., on the evening of May 18, 1973. In attendance were 285 persons, including a number of adult visitors and students.
     President Willard D. Pendleton opened the meeting with a short service of worship. Following acceptance of the Minutes of last year's meeting, the Rev. Martin Pryke then presented his annual report as Executive Vice President. Included were announcements of the resignation of Mr. Donald C. Fitzpatrick, Jr., as Assistant to the Executive Vice President in order to return to full-time teaching; of Miss Margaret Wilde's retirement from full-time teaching after many years of service (though she will be retained next year in a part-time capacity); and of the departure of the Rev. David R. Simons from part-time teaching in the College to take up his new duties in Glenview. Appreciation was expressed by applause for all their services to the Academy.
     Received also was the annual report of the Secretary of the Corporation, Mr. Lachlan Pitcairn, reviewing the activities of the Corporation and the Board of Directors for the past year. This report and the one preceding it, together with other administrative reports for the year and the Minutes of this meeting, will be published in the Annual Number of The Academy Journal for the year 1972-1973. Following the reports, President Pendleton read a letter which he had submitted to the Board of Directors questioning the wisdom of having the Bishop of the General Church continue as President of the Academy, its chief administrative officer, since the Bishop cannot give full time to this office. He proposed instead a revival of the office of Chancellor, to be filled by the Bishop, with the office of President to be filled by another who can give full time to the duties of that office. He then outlined what he would see the distinct offices and duties of the Chancellor and the President to be.
     In the brief discussion following, Bishop Pendleton emphasized that the President as well as the Chancellor would he responsible to the Board and the Corporation for carrying out the charter purposes of the Academy and he noted that the Bishop, as Chancellor, would hold the power of nominating the President who, if the proposal were accepted, would be serving a limited term. He did not anticipate any real change in the operation of the Academy, as the Bishop's already not doing much more than the chancellor would do. He also stressed that nothing had yet been decided, that the subject was still under discussion by the Board of Directors.
     Following the reports Mr. Sanfred (Aubrey Cole) Odhner delivered an address on the Academy Museum. It was a most interesting account of the history of the Museum and its contents, and of the work of the Academy Museum Committee of which Mrs. Odhner is the head. Her address, which is not summarized here as it will be found published in the Annual Number of The Academy Journal, was received with the most enthusiastic and prolonged applause. Mrs. Odhner then followed her address with a slide presentation (photography by Mr. Michael Pitcairn) and commentary, showing some of the objects held by the Museum and indicating how the Museum is organized. This, too, was received with real interest and enthusiasm, and it closed the meeting on an historical and colorful note.
     N. BRUCE ROGERS

     Commencement

     The ninety-sixth Commencement of The Academy of the New Church was held in the Asplundh Field House on the morning of June 12, 1973.

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The weather was, as usual, hot and muggy, coming in the middle of what was being locally described as a "heat wave"; but it was not so hot and muggy as to dampen the spirits of the one hundred and ten graduates present (a record number, we believe) and the number of relatives and friends who had come to attend the ceremonies. The Field House, in fact, appeared filled to capacity. After the entrance in procession of the students of the various schools, followed by the Faculty and Corporation, Bishop Willard D. Pendleton opened the exercises with a service of worship. This included the traditional singing of the anthems Shema Yisrael in Hebrew and Hagios, Hagios, Hagios in Greek.
     The Rev. Martin Pryke, Executive Vice President of the Academy, then introduced the speaker, the Right Rev. George de Charms. Bishop de Charms' address is published in this issue (p. 374), so we note only his theme: external forms can he and must be accommodated and changed with every generation, but the essentials are eternal.
     The address was followed by the presentation of Diplomas, Certificates and Degrees. There were forty-two graduates receiving diplomas or certificates from the Girls School (one, in absentia), twelve with honors. The valedictorian was Miss Gabrielle Cranch of Islington, Ontario, Canada. There were forty-three graduates receiving diplomas or certificates from the Boys School, nine with honors.
     The valedictorian was Mr. Neil Genzlinger of Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
     In the College, twenty-one Junior College diplomas were presented, representing successful completion of the first two years' work. One of these had actually been presented on September 11, at the beginning of the school year, and two were received in absentia. Six of the graduates received their diplomas with distinction. The valedictorian was Mr. William Bergen Junge of Glenview, Illinois.
     There were seven graduates of the Senior College receiving the degree of Bachelor of Science (two in absentia). The valedictorian was Miss Mary Jane Bruser of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
     The degree of Bachelor of Theology was conferred upon four graduates of the Theological School (one in absentia). The three graduates present had already been inaugurated into the priesthood two days earlier and were wearing their white stoles in signification of their ordination. The Rev. Mark R. Carlson delivered the valedictory address in behalf of himself and his fellow graduates.
     Awards were announced as their recipients came forward. (See the listing which follows.)
     In his response to the valedictories, as President of the Academy, Bishop Pendleton noted that over three generations have now served the Academy in carrying on its work, and that as we approach its centennial in 1976 a fourth generation will he needed to enter that service. Bishop Pendleton therefore extended a welcome to the fourth generation, to enter the service of the Academy and the Church. But he reminded us that though generations of men have served, the work is still essentially the Lord's work and men but His instruments.
     The exercises ended with the traditional singing of Vivat Nova Ecclesia and the formal recession of the Faculty and Corporation followed by the students of the various schools. Despite the heat and humidity, many remained outside afterwards to congratulate the graduates and to offer them best wishes for their future success, in recognition that "Commencement" represents not so much an ending as a beginning.
     N. BRUCE ROGERS

     ACADEMY SCHOOLS

     Awards, 1973

     At the Commencement Exercises on June 12, the graduates received their diplomas and the honors were announced as follows:

     Theological School

     BACHELOR or THEOLOGY: Mark Robert Carlson, Michael David Gladish, Thomas Leroy Kline, Dennis John Reddekopp (in absentia).

     Senior College

     BACHELOR OF SCIENCE: Wadad Khalll Abed, Claudia Eileen Bostock, Mary Jane Bruser, Brian Walter Keith (in absentia), Robert David McMaster, Selina Jane Posey, Barbara Blackman Synnestvedt (in absentia).

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     Junior College

     DIPLOMA: With Distinction: Mark Edward Alden, Kristin Louise Asplundh, William Bergen Junge, Melissa Kate Pitcairn, Kay Marie Reuter, Donna Zeitz.
     DIPLOMA: Michael James Calhoun, Eric Hugh Carswell, Steven Daniel Clymer, Kathleen Glenn, Brian Lindsay Horner, Robert Gordon Johns, Kim Junge, Peter Jay Lermitte, Elsa Beth Lockhart, Robert David McMaster (received, September 1972), Hans Ulrich Schoenberger, Jeremy Frederick Simons, Martha Gretchen Smith (in absentia), Ruth Synnestvedt (in absentia), Mildred Ann Zollman.

     Girls School

     DIPLOMA: With Honors: Janice Dawn Alan, Nadine Ellen Arrimour, Kim Margaret Campbell, Heather Childs, Gabrielle Holly Cranch, Aileen King, Laurie Ann Lindsay, Debra Anne Morey, Diane Marie Moray, Lynn Pitcairn, Kim Umberger, Jodi Zeitz.
     DIPLOMA OR CERTIFICATE: Emiline Carswell Acton, Sarah Millicent Acton, Denise Alden, Jacqueline Asplundh, Deborah Beth Black, Kathleen Brannon, Gail Elizabeth Childs, Janna Lee Childs, Martha Aubrey Cole (in absentia), Cynthia Coy, Elizabeth Cross, Patricia Ann Field, Edith Sue Fuller, Debra Ann Gilbert, Frea Gladish, Janet Louise Griffeth, Kimberly Gunther, Jacqueline Hazel Heinrichs, Laura Hill, Terry Horigan, Aurelle Jean Knechtel, Kathleen Leonard, Caroline Mitchell, Nancy Elizabeth Mitzen, Susan Pamela Olson, Victoria Rhodes, Karen Julie Schnarr, Carlyn Leigh Smith, Sylvia Ellen Smith, Judith Diane Wyland.

     Boys School

     DIPLOMA: With Honors: Kenneth James Alden, Neil Genzlinger, Nathan Donald Gladish, Corbett Steven Klein, Donald Lowell McQueen, Grant Hugo Odhner, John Llewellyn Odhner, Scot Pitcairn, Louis Daniel Synnestvedt.
     DIPLOMA: James Raymond Bevan, Wayne Mitchell Birchman, Blane Bostock,
Howard Carey Brewer, Craig Vincent Caldwell, Quentin Pitcairn Cole, Ronald Scott Daum, Frederick Scott Dunlap, Benjamin Scott Echols, Gary Owen Edmonds, Alvin David Friesen, Randy Alvin Friesen, Glenn Genzlinger, Bryce Reade Genzlinger, Kurt Pendleton Gyllenhaal, Karl Daniel Hedstrom, Glenn Harold Heilman, Steven David Hendricks, Mark Alan Hugo, Mark Andrew Junge, Craig Alan McCardell, Michael David Norman, Norman Alan Norton, Gregory Odhner, William Alton Posey, Steven Earle Reynolds, Harold Michael Rosner, Donald Spencer Schnarr, Jonathan Samuel Simons, Scott Alan Smith, Kenneth Karl Soneson, Justin Gregory Stroh, David Kenneth Synnestvedt, Eric Hoard Synnestvedt.

     Theta Alpha Award

     The Theta Alpha "Alice Henderson Glenn Award" was given by the Faculty of the College to Kay Marie Reuter.

     Sons of the Academy Awards

     The Sons of the Academy Gold Medal was awarded by unanimous vote at the Boys School Faculty to Kenneth James Alden, Scot Pitcairn and Louis Daniel Synnestvedt.
     The Sons of the Academy Silver Medal was awarded to Howard Carey Brewer.
     These medals are awarded for scholarship, leadership and responsibility.

     THE SWEDENBORG SOCIETY

     The 163rd Annual Meeting on May 9, 1973, was attended by 35 members, the numbers being rather small owing to several meetings of London New Church societies being held in the same week. The president, Mr. Roy H. Griffith was in the chair and the meeting was opened with the Lords Prayer, led by the Rev. C. H. Presland.
     Apologies for absence were received from a number of members. The president then called on the honorary secretary to read the formal notice of the meeting and the Minutes of the 162nd Annual Meeting which were confirmed and signed.
     In presenting the Council's Report for 1972, the honorary secretary spoke chiefly of the work of the Advisory and Revision Board.

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1973 should see the culmination of 30 years work in the publication of the final volume of the Third Latin Edition of Arcana Coelestia. There was apparently some feeling among New Church people that the Society was wasting its money on this scholarly work, but such criticism had never been voiced by members of the Society either in the Annual Meeting or in correspondence. There can be no argument about what the Society exists for; its main purpose is the preservation, editing, translating and distributing of the works of Swedenborg, and good translations depend on authentic Latin texts.
     Mrs. Griffith said that the revision of the "Code," now called Translator's Guide, had been tackled with energy this year and was nearing completion. There would be some definite rulings and precise instructions on many points, but it would not repeat a rule in the 1917 edition of the Advisory and Revision Board regulations which stated that "phantasy" was to be spelled with "ph" and not "f."
     The care of the premises continued to occupy a good deal of time and money. Major redecorating plans were in hand after the re-wiring and fire precaution work of the last two years, but on the other side rents received were increasing.
     Finally, Mrs. Griffith stressed the need for increasing membership among the younger New Church people.
     The honorary treasurer, Mr. F. B. Nicholls, then read the Auditor's Report and presented the Accounts and Balance Sheet. He said that for the third consecutive year there was a substantial deficit and the Council was considering an increase in the minimum annual subscription. The official estimate of the fall in the value of money was that L1 in 1950 was now worth 39 pence only. Subscriptions and donations for last year were up, but only by one-sixth. Property maintenance had been heavy. The Balance Sheet showed no great change from last year. It was pointed out that the property is worth substantially more than the value shown in the accounts.
     Mr. Norman Turner, chairman of the Council, then moved the adoption of the Report and Accounts and referred to the impending retirement of the honorary secretary who would be in office only a few more months. Miss Waters and Mr. Campbell were already taking more of the responsibility, and Mrs. Geoffrey Dawson was being initiated into the Library work which had been done by Mr. A. S. Wainscot for so many years.
     The motion for adoption was seconded by Mrs. Burt who also asked whether the Society's publications were sold at an economic price. Miss Acton congratulated the Council on its work but pointed out an error in the Report; the Spiritual Diary, vol. 1, was translated by the Rev. W. H. Acton and the Rev. A. Wvnne Acton and revised by the Rev. F. F. Coolson, not translated by Mr. Coulson. Mr. John Cunningham asked about income tax recovered on Deeds of Covenant and the treasurer said there were very few. Mr. Quelch asked what the amount of the subscription was likely to be, sod Mr. Nicholls said this would be for members to decide on the Council's recommendation. Mr. Owen Pryke pointed out that many annual members already paid more than the minimum subscription.
     The Rev. H. G. Mongredien said that the Society is one of the great institutions of the world and its work of supreme importance. Had the Council ever considered that it might sell the present site and move to less expensive premises? The secretary said that approaches had been made by developers but the Council felt that the site was the most valuable asset of the Society, not only financially but because it is the right place in London. Its central position made it a convenient meeting place for New Church people from overseas and from all parts of London and the home counties, and its proximity to the British Museum, the University of London and eventually the National Library made it ideally situated. The president added that generous donors of the past, Augustus Clissold and David Wynter, had placed this unique Society in the center of what was then the biggest city in the world, and we should keep it there.
     The Rev. C. H. Presland hoped that we would not stress too much the financial side.

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He was impressed with the work of the Advisory and Revision Board and was amazed at how much it had accomplished. He, too, referred to the loss the Society would sustain when Mrs. Griffith retires, but was sure that Miss Waters and Mr. Campbell would carry on efficiently.
     After the Report and Accounts had been formally and unanimously adopted, the president moved the Council's nomination of Mr. David Mann, M.Sc., as president for the ensuing year. He said that all who knew Mr. Mann knew that he would bring to the office the dignity, graciousness and efficiency with which he had carried the chairmanship of the 1970 World Assembly. Miss H. G. Stacey seconded the nomination which was carried with acclamation. Mr. Mann responded briefly, saying that he was honored and delighted by his election to the office; he had always been impressed with the professionalism of the Society, which he felt was due to Mrs. Griffith in her work as honorary secretary, and looked forward to his closer association with the Council.
     Mr. Turner then moved the election of Mr. Roy Griffith as vice president, commenting on his distinguished service as president for four years and on previous occasions, and this was carried with acclamation. Mr. G. P. Dawson moved the election of Mr. F. B. Nicholls as honorary treasurer, paying tribute to his competence, and this was seconded by Mr. Dan Chapman and carried unanimously.
     The three members of the Council retiring by rote were Mr. Dan Chapman. Mr. John Cunningham and Mrs. F. G. Griffith. In addition, there was one nomination, the Rev. E. E. Sandstrom, and as there was already a vacancy these four were declared elected. The honorary secretary moved a special resolution in regard to Mr. Chapman, that in accordance with Section 185 (5) of the Companies Act 1948, Mr. Dan Chapman, O. B. E., aged 75, who is over the normal age limit for retirement laid down in Section 185 (1) of the Companies Act 1948, shall serve on the Council. She said that Mr. Chapman had been on the Council continuously for more than forty years and the resolution was carried with warm applause.
     The president then gave his address entitled "President's Pie." Mr. Owen Pryke moved a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Griffith for his presidency, his address and his services over the years, and this was carried with applause.
     The meeting was closed with the Benediction, pronounced by the Rev. H. G. Mongredien.
     FREDA G. GRIFFITH
          Honorary Secretary
SOURCE OF LIGHT IN THE WORD 1973

SOURCE OF LIGHT IN THE WORD 1973

If it be received as doctrine and acknowledged that the Lord is one with the Father, and that His Human is Divine from the Divine in Him, light will be seen in the least particulars of the Word, for what is received as doctrine and acknowledged as doctrine, is in the light when the Word is read; even the Lord, from whom is all light and who has all power, will illuminate them. But, on the other hand, if it be received and acknowledged as doctrine that the Divine of the Father is another, separate from
the Divine of the Lord, nothing in the Word will be seen in the light, since the man who is in that doctrine turns himself from one Divine to another, and from the Divine of the Lord, which he may see, which is done in thought and faith, to a Divine which he cannot see (Apocalypse Explained, 200).

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ORDINATIONS 1973

     Announcements
     Boyesen.-At Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, June 17, 1973, the Rev. Ragnar Boyesen into the second degree of the priesthood, the Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton officiating.
     Carlson.-At Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, June 10, 1973, Candidate Mark Robert Carlson into the first degree of the priesthood, the Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton officiating.
     Gladish.-At Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, June 10, 1973 Candidate Michael David Gladish into the first degree of the priesthood, the Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton officiating.
     Kline.-At Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, June 10, 1973, Candidate Thomas Leroy Kline, into the first degree of the priesthood, the Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton officiating.
WORSHIP 1973

WORSHIP Rev. ALFRED ACTON 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. XCIII
SEPTEMBER, 1973
No. 9
     "The Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth be silent before Him." (Habakkuk 2: 20)

     To be silent spiritually is to acquiesce or to comply quietly with the will of another. So to be silent before the Lord is to comply with Him, to acknowledge His omnipotent love humbly as the source of all life, to look in awe at the wonders of His creation, and to bow in adoration of His wisdom. In other words, to be silent before the Lord is to worship Him. From the New Word we learn that all worship has its origin in the silence that is spiritual, or humility. We read: "Divine worship consists in the exaltation of the Lord relatively to oneself, which is done according to the degree of self-humiliation before the Lord. Humiliation is the essential of Divine worship. When man is in this essential he is thence in a state of receiving from the Lord the truth which is of faith and the good which is of charity, consequently in a state of worshiping Him."*
     * AC 8271.
     We should not make the mistake, however, of believing that the Lord desires humility on the part of man for any selfish reason. Such thought is impossible to God. On the contrary, the sole reason for the Lord's desiring our humility is His infinite knowledge of the good it will do for us. "It is said that the Lord alone is to be worshiped. He who does not know how the case is with the worship of the Lord may believe that the Lord loves to be worshiped, and desires glory from man, just like a man who, in order to be honored himself, gives others what they ask for. He who so believes has no knowledge of what love is, and still less of what love Divine is.

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Love Divine consists in desiring worship and glory, not for the sake of itself, but for the sake of man and his salvation; for he who worships the Lord and gives glory to the Lord is in humiliation, and what is his own departs from the man who is in humiliation; and in so far as this departs, so far the Divine is received; for what is man's own, because it is evil and false, is that which alone obstructs the Divine. This is the glory of the Lord, and the worship of Him is for the sake of this end. Glory for the sake of self is from the love of self, and heavenly love differs from the love of self as heaven differs from hell, and infinitely more does the Divine love differ from it."*
     * AC 10,646: 3.
     Humility allows influx from the Lord by means of the heavens to inflow into the hearts of men. Such influx in turn allows for conjunction of God with man, while this conjunction in its turn is effected by reception of love and truth inflowing from the Lord. Therefore to worship the Lord is to receive His inflowing love and truth. This basic definition of worship is fundamental to all proper thought about it. Unless the acts of worship aid us in such reception they are not worship, but mere sham. In other words, to worship the Lord one must endeavor to look to Him, seeking to receive from Him the love and wisdom which He stands ready to give. Humility is the means by which such gifts are received.

     But what causes humility? Humility comes from recognition of the fact that man of himself is nothing. We read: "Let it be known that all true worship consists in adoration of the Lord, adoration of the Lord in humiliation, and humiliation in one's acknowledgment that in himself there is nothing living and nothing good, but that all within him is dead, yea, cadaverous; and in the acknowledgment that everything living and everything good is from the Lord. The more a man acknowledges these things, not with the mouth but with the heart, the more he is in humiliation; and consequently the more is he in adoration, that is, in true worship, and the more is he in love and charity, and the more in happiness. The one is in the other, so conjoined as to be inseparable."*
     * AC 1153: 2.
     How do we acknowledge with the heart that all good, yea, all life, is from God? How is it possible for a man who begins with the selfish belief that life is his own to turn his back on the appearances of his senses and accept the plain teachings of Divine revelation that life is not his own? Is man perhaps to seek God by denying his life? Is he to stand with his hands at his sides, awaiting the moving of the spirit of God within him? Is he to seek loss of individuality in humble submission to Divine direction?

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Or is he to acknowledge simply that his present life is God's and from this acknowledgment, in freedom and according to his prudent reason, try to do what God teaches? The last possibility is the correct path for man to follow. He should realize the marvelous realities of life, even as he realizes that life is a free gift from God. To acknowledge in life that good is from the Lord man must do good, that is, he must perform uses.
     So we find another definition of worship: "To 'serve the Lord' denotes to perform uses . . . because true worship consists in the performance of uses, thus in the exercise of charity. He who believes that serving the Lord consists solely in frequenting a place of worship, in hearing preaching there and in praying, and that this is sufficient, is much mistaken. The very worship of the Lord consists in performing uses; and during man's life in the world uses consist in everyone's discharging aright his duty in his station, thus from the heart being of service to his country, to societies, and to the neighbor, in dealing sincerely with his fellow, and in performing kind offices with prudence in accordance with each person's character. These uses are chiefly the works of charity, and are those whereby the Lord is chiefly worshiped. Frequenting a place of worship, hearing sermons and saying prayers are also necessary; but without the above uses they avail nothing because they are not of the life, but teach what the life must be."*
     * AC 7038.

     We have described both the internal of worship and its external manifestations. Essentially worship is love, and its external is the expression of love in life or use. The formal expression of this internal is the acts of worship which are listed as prayers, frequenting temples, and the like. These acts are then the most external of the externals of worship.
     We know from revelation that an external has life from its internal and lives from its soul. So, too, with the externals of worship. They live from internals. If the internals are corrupt all the externals are also corrupt, whereas if the internal is sound it will seek out proper expression in externals. If we love the Lord and so worship Him internally, we will do the acts of charity which we in turn will seek to learn and confirm by the formal aspects of external worship. So the internal of worship is essential to our life, but here on earth it must express itself in externals. In this connection note the following. "By worship in the internal sense is meant all conjunction through love and charity. When a man is in love and charity he is continually in worship, external worship being merely the effect. The angels are in such worship; with them, therefore, there is a perpetual sabbath; and from this the sabbath, in the internal sense, signifies the Lord's kingdom.

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But man while in the world ought not to be otherwise than in external worship also; for by external worship internal things are excited, and by means of external worship external things are kept in holiness, so that internal things can flow in. And besides, man is thus imbued with knowledges, and is prepared for receiving celestial things, and is also gifted with states of holiness, although he is unaware of this; which states of holiness are preserved to him by the Lord for the use of eternal life, for in the other life all the states of his life return."*
     * AC 1618.

     Now although humility is the origin of all worship, and the life of use its proper containant, still our worship does not begin in these. Worship begins in fear of God. Man first acknowledges the power of God-the power which He has to deprive us of our selfish loves and to condemn us to the pain of hell. From this acknowledgment comes fear. The fear forces man to worship God, to do what God commands in order to avoid punishment. It causes him to take his first steps on the path of life, the life of good, which is essentially the life of external worship.
     In itself this fear is not evil, for coupled with the appeal to self is a dictate from God causing man to follow the truth. Such fear is the means whereby man is bent from his selfishness to good. We read: "Everyone who beholds the universe and still more who considers the order of the universe, acknowledges some supreme being or entity, and as he desires his own prosperity, he pays adoration to that entity. Moreover there is something within which dictates this, for such a dictate flows in from the Lord through the angels who are with every man."*
     * AC 1308.
     Worship that comes from such fear is compulsory worship. Of this worship Divine Providence says: "Compelled worship is corporeal, lifeless, darkened and sad; corporeal because it is of the body and not of the mind, lifeless because there is no life in it, darkened because there is no understanding in it, and sad because there is no enjoyment of heaven in it. But worship not compelled, when it is genuine, is spiritual, living, clear and joyful; spiritual because there is spirit from the Lord in it, living because there is life from the Lord in it, clear because there is wisdom from the Lord in it, and joyful because there is heaven from the Lord in it."* So the quality of our worship will indicate the quality of our soul.
     * DP 137.
     Yet, lest we make the mistake of rejecting compelled worship, let us recall the teaching that self-compulsion is essential to regeneration, and then add the further assurances of revelation concerning the value of dead worship in the beginning of regeneration.

397

Of this value we read: "Dead, or solely external, worship effects the presence of the Lord, but not conjunction; whereas external worship in which the interiors are living effects both presence and conjunction." Again: "There is something of good in dead worship, because [men in it] are thinking about God and eternal life."*
     * AR 160, 164.
     Still we must not rest in such compelled or dead worship. If we do we will never find eternal happiness. We must come into worship from freedom, which is pleasing to the Lord, even as we reject the evils of our lives as sins against Him. Indeed one of the signs that we are approaching Him is when we find delight in worship. We read: "The signs that sins have been forgiven are the following. Delight is felt in worshiping God for the sake of God; in being of service to the neighbor for the sake of the neighbor; thus in doing good for the sake of good, and in believing truth for the sake of truth."*
     * AC 9449.

     We see, then, that worship is love in act. But for love to act it needs guidance. Truth dictates the proper manner by which love is to be expressed So we read: "All worship that is truly worship is from truths . . . It is the Divine truths revealed in the Word which cause worship to be internal, provided that men know them and live according to them. For if a man could worship God in a holy manner without them, there would be no need of any doctrine of the church, nor of any preaching"* "Worship is prescribed in doctrine, and is performed according to it."** "Thus, such as is a man's understanding of the Word, such is the church in him, and such is his worship."*** "For all the truth that is of faith and the good that is of love, which make the church and also worship, must be from the Word."****
     * AC 10,570: 2.
     ** Lord 64.
     *** AC 10,707e.
     **** AC 10,603.
     Now the Divine Human of the Lord and the doctrine revealed in His Word are one. It is the Divine Human that gives form to Divine good. It is the Divine Human which makes God visible by means of the Word.
     So it is the Divine Human which presents the means whereby we can love the Lord, or worship Him. It is also the Divine Human which we see in the truths of the Word. Spiritually the holy temple wherein is the Lord is the Word in which we see the Divine Human, that is, the truth which makes God visible.
     We can now comprehend the full import of our text. The Lord is in His holy temple.

398

That is, the doctrine of genuine truth which is one with the Divine Human of the Lord, and which prescribes the nature of true internal worship, is now visible in the open Word of His second advent, and it is this Divine Humanity of God that all are to worship, and before which they are to be silent.
     Let us heed the words of our text. Let us look to the Word, there to behold the majesty of the Lord's Divine Human, the truth of doctrine which in turn will lead us to genuine adoration or worship of Him. Let us bow down before the Lord our God in humility, in silence: acknowledging our own nothingness, even as we act in Him. Let us learn to rejoice in our worship, sure in the knowledge that joy in worship is the sign of spiritual progress toward the bliss of heaven. "The Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth be silent before Him." Amen.

     LESSONS:     Habakkuk 2: 9-20. Luke 11: 1-13. Charity 173-175.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 491, 494, 432.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 26, 83.
WHY THE LORD WILLS TO BE WORSHIPED 1973

WHY THE LORD WILLS TO BE WORSHIPED 1973

Because the Lord is to be adored, worshiped and glorified, it is believed that He loves adoration, worship and glory for His own sake; but He loves them for man's sake, because by means of them man comes into such a state that the Divine can flow into him and be perceived; for by means of them man removes his proprium which prevents the influx and reception; for what is his own, which is the love of himself, hardens and closes the heart. This is removed by the acknowledgment that nothing but evil comes from himself, and nothing but good from the Lord, hence conies a softening of the heart and humiliation, from which flow forth adoration and worship (Divine Love and Wisdom 335).
VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

Visitors to Bryn Athyn for Charter Day or any other occasion who need assistance in finding accommodation please communicate with the Guest Committee, do Mrs. Leo Synnestvedt, 611 Waverly Lane, Bryn Athyn, Pa., 19009. Phone: (215) WIlson 7-3725.

399

PRIESTHOOD 1973

PRIESTHOOD Rev. ELMO C. ACTON 1973

     (Delivered to the Second Session of the Twenty-sixth General Assembly, Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 13, 1973.)

     In the New Church there is to be no external without its corresponding internal. This means that every external of the church is to be an effect from a spiritual cause. In the New Church no external representative act has any power unless it re-presents the spiritual loves of those performing it, for the correspondential cause must be in the internal of the men of the church. It cannot be an abstract philosophical entity.
     Correspondence is defined as the "appearing of the internal in the external and its representation therein"*; i.e., kneeling represents humility; it becomes a correspondential act, or a living representative, when the one kneeling is in a genuine state of humility. So is it with all external acts and representative order.
     * AC 5423.
     From this law of correspondence comes the necessity of continually reviewing the external acts and practices of the church organization; for if correspondence is the "appearing of the internal in the external, and its representation therein," the internal must be present and living now. It must be an internal of the persons performing the external representative act. With this in mind we take up the doctrine of the priesthood as developed and practiced in the General Church of the New Jerusalem. The practice of this doctrine in the organized church is, of necessity, representative, and the internal corresponding to it must be in the minds and hearts of those living under and according to it. The external forms can be passed from one generation to another; but the internal, which makes the representative order and practice correspondential, must be provided by each generation anew. In this war errors and mis-applications can be corrected, and new and truer representative forms can be introduced. The church, in order, is in the human form, and as such must be dynamic, growing and developing continually into greater correspondence with its soul, the Divine Human form of God Man.
     Although it is self evident, it seems necessary to call attention to the distinction between the church as an external, organized body for the performance of the uses of the church in the world, and the universal church which exists in the internal states of individual men who can be collected together and organized into the human form by the Lord alone.

400

The church organized from the Word through the instrumentality of man exists for the performance of natural and spiritual uses in the world and can exist and perform its uses under many different forms of organization, among which there should be harmony and friendship if true charity prevails among them. However, the more perfectly the form of the organization corresponds to the form of the church which is the Lord's alone, the more interiorly and perfectly can it enter into the spiritual and natural uses of the church in this world.

     The History

     Our subject properly begins with the first New Church ordination or inauguration, which took place in London. England, in 1788. A group of men who met regularly, beginning in 1783, for the purpose of reading and studying the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, gradually came to see that those Writings revealed the consummation of the former church and the beginning of a new dispensation of the church. For the uses of this new church to exist in the world, they saw that it would be necessary to form a distinct organization, and they began by introducing a new and separate worship, with baptism and administration of the Holy Supper. This shortly led them to see that for the orderly performance of worship and the sacraments a new priesthood was necessary. At first they considered requesting ordination from one of the existing churches, but gradually they came to see that as the New Jerusalem was the beginning of a new dispensation of the church, it must derive its authority immediately from the Lord in His second coming. They were enlightened to observe the following order. The names of the sixteen men constituting the group were placed in a receptacle, and of them twelve were chosen. On one of the lots, which were prepared by Robert Hindmarsh, he wrote the word "Ordain." This lot was drawn by himself. Then, without the other eleven men knowing this fact, Hindmarsh was chosen by them to read the service. The twelve then placed their right hands upon the heads of James Hindmarsh and Samuel Smith, Robert Hindmarsh reading the service, and ordained them as priests in the Lord's New Church. Thus began the priesthood of the New Church.
     The church only gradually came to see fully that Robert Hindmarsh by this procedure was the first ordained priest of the New Church. It was not until the Conference of 1818, thirty years later, that the following resolution was passed:

" . . . in consequence of Mr. R. Hindmarsh having been called by lot to ordain the first minister in the New Church, this Conference consider it as the most orderly method which could then be adopted and that Mr. R. Hindmarsh was virtually ordained by the Divine auspices of heaven; in consequence of which this Conference consider Mr. Hindmarsh as one of the regular ordaining ministers."

401

     The priesthood in England has descended in a continuous line from this ordination of Hindmarsh "by the Divine auspices of heaven."
     The priesthood in America did not stem immediately from this origin. It had its own beginning in Baltimore in July, 1798. The following account is given by Richard de Charms, Sr., in The Ministerial Trine.

     "After Mr. Mather had opened the meeting with prayer, the following question was proposed for resolution by the members. Question: Is a reappointment and reordination necessary in the case of Mr. Mather who (although licensed by the magistracy of England and also by the members of the New Church there) had not as yet been formally appointed or ordained in these United States? Answer: unanimously in the affirmative. Mr. Mather was therefore ordained according to the form of the New Church, viz, by prayer and the laying on of hands of the elders or representatives of the said church in Baltimore, being ten in number exclusive of himself. Immediately after this, three adult males were baptized into the faith of the New Church, viz, Mr. John Calef, Dr. Joseph Brevett, and Mr. John Hargrove. Mr. Mather then proposed Mr. John Hargrove (late a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church) for ordination in the New Jerusalem Church as an assistant to Mr. Mather, which proposal was accepted by the members unanimously. Upon which the elders and representatives present, being ten in number (exclusive of Mr. Hargrove), proceeded to ordain him according to the mode or ceremony aforesaid as assistant minister of the said church. The Meeting then concluded with prayer and broke up."*
     * Page 82.

     From this origin all the inaugurations in America have descended, and from the two origins in England and the United States, all inaugurations into the priesthood in the New Church throughout the world have originated.
     These steps having been taken, the church in both countries was soon confronted with the order of ordination and the organization and place of the priesthood in the church. This subject became the prime consideration of the general meetings of the Conference in England and in the General Convention in the United States for many years. With it arose the first dissension in the church. Hindmarsh notes the harmony and good will that prevailed in their general meetings until this subject was considered. The subject was discussed year after year without any conclusion being arrived at, and the church in England gradually drifted into a presbyterian and congregational form of government. This was due in part to the fact that the majority of the men and women who formed the first receivers of the doctrines were from the dissenting sects and had a prejudice against the episcopal form of government.

402

On the other hand, those who studied the Writings for an answer to the true order of the priesthood in the New Church unanimously came to the conclusion that it should be of three degrees and episcopal in form in the sense that the government of the church should be by the priesthood.
     In 1830, Samuel Noble was appointed head of a committee to make recommendations for the order of the priesthood in the General Conference and the form of its government. In his report, which was given to a later Conference in 1833, he and his committee brought forth the teachings of the Writings that bore upon the subject, and from them recommended three degrees in the ministry and the government of the church by the priesthood. They further presented a detailed order and organization of the function of the degrees and qualifications necessary for introduction into them. First degree, Baptism; second degree Holy Supper; third degree, ordination. These have remained constant. In presenting this report, Noble and his committee were conscious of the general state of the church and were unwilling to split the church over its external form, believing that the church could continue to perform its use under the existing order. However, he hoped in time the clouds would disappear, "so that the clear light of heaven will again ere long burst forth and will lead the church to do what is most agreeable to genuine order and what will most tend to keep her under the Lord's auspices and in unreserved obedience to Him forever." But Noble's wishes were never realized, for the English Conference remains to this day with only two degrees in the priesthood and a form of government in which priests and laymen have joint responsibilities.

     The history of the order of the priesthood and the government of the church in this country parallels that of England. Richard de Charms, Sr., was the courageous and persistent advocate of the trinal form of the priesthood. He was ably supported by Cabell, Weeks, Powell and others. Time and again the subject was presented to the General Convention, and although favorably received for the most part, it was never acted upon. This to a great extent was due to the strong opposition of those in the Western Convention who were influenced by the democratic spirit. Concerning this delay in England and America, Bishop N. D. Pendleton observes:

     "It seems in Providence that a formative idea must be advanced many times, and perhaps through many years, before it receives ultimate embodiment and becomes permanently established as a recognized part of the body, civil or ecclesiastical."*
     * Selected Papers and Addresses, p. 181.

403

     In the study of the history of the doctrine of the priesthood in the New Church, a most significant distinction emerges from which this generalization may be drawn. All those who regarded the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg as constituting, along with the last judgment in the spiritual world, the Second Coming concluded that they taught clearly the trinal form of the priesthood and the priesthood as the rightful governors of the church; while those who doubted the full Divinity of the Writings, or who regarded them only as the first evidence of the Second Coming, failed to see the necessity of searching them to discover the true order of the priesthood in the church and therefore drew their conclusions from personal opinion apart from the teaching of the Writings.
     In 1873, at a meeting of the General Convention held in Cincinnati, the Rev. William H. Benade was appointed to draw up a report on the priesthood. He presented the report to the General Convention in New York in 1875. It was received and filed, but nothing was ever done about it.
     This report contains nothing essentially new concerning the doctrine; it is rather a synthesis of the work of many students from the beginning of the church, notable among whom were Hindmarsh, Noble and De Charms. Since this report contains the leading doctrines and principles upon which our present order is founded, I will present a short summary of it. It contains all the significant teachings of the Writings upon the subject and should be read in full by anyone who sincerely questions our present order and who wishes to examine it in the light of the Writings.
     No one should seriously consider a change in the form of our order or government without first closely studying this report and a later paper by W F. Pendleton, entitled "Notes on Government."*
     * This paper may be read in NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1917, 1918.
     The report opens with a comparison of the representative priesthood in the Israelitish Church with the priesthood in the New Church and comes to the conclusion that the order of the priesthood in the New Church is the internal of the external order in the Israelitish Church, which, in turn, was derived from the genuine representatives of the Ancient Church. This conclusion is drawn from a close consideration of the nature of the representatives of the Jewish Church. The report shows that all representative forms were not abolished following the Advent, but only those which had no genuine internal within them (noncorresponding representatives). It divides the representatives of the Israelitish Church into two classes: representatives from correspondence and representatives from adoption.

404

Representatives by adoption are those which do not exist by virtue of their correspondence to Divine goods and truths, but by a Divine act of accommodation to the state of the people to the end that they might be kept in holy external bonds and that through them some communication with heaven might be retained. All such representatives were abolished with the Advent.
     On the other hand, representatives from correspondence exist by virtue of influx from the Lord and are as permanent as the Divine from which they proceed. They are the representative and correspondential forms of the Divine which is their origin and which they present to view. "Correspondence is the appearance of the internal in the external, and its representation therein."* Such representatives were not abolished, and never can be. Those from the Israelitish priesthood are carried over into the New Church, for they correspond to spiritual states and present them to view. Thus the three degrees in the priesthood of the New Church are derived from the threefold order of the Israelitish Church represented by Aaron, the sons of Aaron and the Levites.
     * AC 5423.

     The report next draws a distinction between the priestly state and the priestly office and shows that the priestly state is of the Lord alone and that from it exist heaven and the church. It is with every man according to his reception of the Lord in heart and life.
     But the priestly office represents all the means by which the Lord as Priest provides for man's salvation. It is called the "Lord in His work of saving souls." This exists only in the priesthood as an office. It is not common to all men of the church, any more than the offices of the rulers of the state are common to all the people of the state. The office of the priest is not salvation, but it represents the Lord's work of salvation and is Divinely appointed as the means by which the Lord provides for and operates salvation with those who are of the church. The church therefore cannot exist and accomplish its Divinely appointed uses on earth without it, any more than the body can exist without the head.
     The priesthood therefore cannot be common to all members of the church but must be regarded as one and distinct in all the offices and uses of the church and not as one and distinct amongst them. While it is true that the priestly state is common because it is the presence of the Lord as Priest, that is, as Divine good operating for man's salvation; yet it is also true that the office of priest cannot be common, for it also is the Lord's Divinely appointed means of operating and providing for the state of the priest in every individual of the church.

405

     The report also stresses the distinction between the office and the person filling the office. An evil priest can represent as fully as a good priest, for the office is apart from the person. Teaching, worship, governing, and the sacraments of baptism and the Holy Supper are the Lord's and are not dependent upon the state of the priest performing them nor upon the degree of his ordination. While a priest through evil of life can destroy the priesthood with himself, yet he does not destroy his representative quality unless the evils of his life become an open scandal. If the office of the priest is not acknowledged as belonging to individual men set apart for that office, but as being common to all members of the church, then also it is denied as being the Lord's, whose presence in the organized church is thereby destroyed.
     The priestly office is therefore an employment, that is, is adjoined to, not conjoined with, the one filling it. And because this employment differs as distinctly from all other employments as the function of the brain differs from that of the other organs and members of the human body, it is self evident that the claim to the office of the priesthood, as existing in all men, by obliterating the essential and radical distinctions upon which all order depends, is totally destructive of all order both Divine and Human.
     The report then proceeds to the consideration of the three different functions of the priesthood: first, that of government. Here it lets the Writings speak for themselves.

     "Priests are appointed to administer those things which belong to the Divine law."*
     * AC 10,799.

     "There must be governors to keep the assemblies of men in order who are skilled in the law, wise, and who fear God. Among the governors there must be order, lest anyone from caprice or ignorance should permit evils which are contrary to order and thereby destroy it; which is guarded against when there are superior and inferior governors, among whom there is subordination."*
     * 10,792.

     "Governors over those things among men that relate to heaven are called priests, and their office is called the priesthood."*
     * AC 10,793.

     This is the ministry of government, and its office is the third degree of the priesthood.

     The Use of Worship

     The use of ordering and leading in the forms of external worship is brought out by equating the functions which Aaron represents with those which the priest of the New Church performs, for we are told that in the other world in place of Aaron they read "the priestly office."

406

The order and forms of worship are under the priesthood in recognition that man cannot worship the Lord from anything of himself. His worship of the Lord must be from the Lord. The Lord through the priesthood forms the worship, and the men of the church are then invited to come. This is the ministry of worship, and its office is the second degree of the priesthood.

     The Use of Instruction

     The Divine which is understood by the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Lord through the clergy to the laity by preachings according to the reception of the truth of doctrine.
     As regards priests, their duty is to teach men the truth of the Word and to lead thereby to good, for good may be insinuated into another by anyone in the land, but not truth except by those who are teaching ministers. If others teach truth, it gives birth to heresies, and the church is disturbed and rent asunder.* This is the ministry of instruction, and it is the office of the first degree of the priesthood.
     * See AC 6822.
     Thus there are three distinct functions performed by the priesthood: government, worship and instruction. To exist among men these must be embodied in the ministry of government, the ministry of worship and the ministry of instruction. This is the threefold ministry formed in the three degrees of the priesthood, and from it are derived the functions assigned to each degree: to the first, instruction; and the sacrament of baptism; to the second, government of a society, the sacrament of the Holy Supper and the consecration of marriages; to the third, government of a general body of the church, and inauguration into the priesthood.
     Next a distinction is made between the names, priesthood and ministry. The priesthood is an office and therefore an order. The ministry is a service, a performance of the uses and duties of an office, or the administration of the functions belonging to an order. A priest, then, is a servant of his office, and in carrying out his office he is a minister. The further point is made that the priest is the servant of his office, not the servant of the people. He is to teach and lead according to the truth of the Word, not according to the wants and desires of the people. While he must accommodate his teaching to their states, he must not compromise it by shaping it to their wants.
     Priests are to be inaugurated into their office by the promise of the Holy Spirit and the sign of its transfer, namely, the laying on of hands.

407

By this they are set apart in heaven and on earth and endowed with power to represent the Lord's work of salvation with His people.
     Mr. Benade concludes his report with the teaching that the priesthood does not exist from the organization of the church, nor is it created by it: it exists from the Lord alone. It is the Lord's priesthood, and it is instituted by Him as that office of His work of salvation by which the church is formed both internally and externally. The Lord does not provide for the existence of things Divine among the priests, or in the priesthood by the people; but He provides by the priesthood for the existence of things Divine among the people.

     Further Developments

     This report on the priesthood was received and filed by the General Convention of 1875. When it became apparent that the General Convention was not interested in further considering the reorganization of the priesthood in the light of the teachings of the Writings, Mr. Benade and those who agreed with him began to plan the formation of a particular church according to the order proposed in the report. In March, 1883, they reorganized the Pennsylvania Association according to the proposed order and named it "The General Church of Pennsylvania." They drew up an instrument of organization in which the general order and organization of the new body were clearly formulated. This body was an organic part of the General Convention: a body within a body, and the first body formed according to the order seen by many to be that which the Writings clearly taught.
     With the formation of this organization within the General Convention, it soon became evident that two bodies formed according to such divergent rules and regulations could not dwell together in peace. There was increasing contention until in 1890 it became clear that they must part company; and the members of the General Church of Pennsylvania resigned from the General Convention.
     During 1890 and 1891 they held meetings on Knight's Hill, the ground on which Cairnwood now stands, and formed the General Church of the Advent of the Lord. The priesthood of this body was organized according to the order recommended in the report of 1875. It differed from the General Church of Pennsylvania in that it was not an organic part of the General Convention, and in that it had no constitution or instrument of organization. At these meetings Bishop Benade said:

     "I would call attention to the disturbances that have arisen in the past history of the church in enforcing formulated and written constitutions. Hours and days and even weeks have been wasted in discussing the manner of the constitution and its application.

408

Let us get rid of these wretched formalities which are only hindrances to the doing of what is right."*
     * Journal of the General Assembly of the Church of the Advent, 1891, page 56.

     He said further:

     "You have accepted the idea that the ordination into the priesthood carries with it that authority and places the priest in that relation to the Divine so that he can do the uses of his office without being directed by bodies of men and without any human constitution or organization. We do not need that. Our law is written by the Lord [in His Word]. All we have to do is to inquire of Him, and we are content to inquire of Him, and to apply what we receive from Him in the performance of our duty. I think our ministers will sustain this work, and I am sure that our laymen will. Let us make this trial. We have tried new things before. Let us try this new thing, taking up, and carrying or the work of a church without a written constitution. Let us have the constitution within us, in our minds, from the Lord."*
     * Ibid. page 55.

     But the glorious promise of this "new thing" did not last long. After a few short years he who had been their leader and father for more than twenty years began to usurp the authority of his office. Dispensing with council and assembly, he ruled from external authority and restricted the freedom of the church. In late 1896 and the beginning of 1897, it became necessary for those who had been his followers to leave him. They resigned from the General Church of the Advent of the Lord and asked Bishop W. F. Pendleton to lead them in forming a new body of the church.

     The Priesthood in the General Church

     For this purpose a General Assembly was called for in June, 1897, in what was then Huntingdon Valley, now Bryn Athyn. I wish that all members of the General Church could read the Journal of that Assembly. (A fairly full report of it is contained in NEW CHURCH LIFE for that year, and a full report in the "Journal of the Assembly" available in the Academy Library.) As the meetings opened, there was a feeling of uncertainty and deep concern for the good of the church. How could they devise an order that would prevent the catastrophe of the immediate past? One after another spoke and presented his solution. While there was great diversity of opinion, a general spirit of charity prevailed; and as the meetings progressed, a spirit of freedom came forth that the church had not enjoyed for many years. Each presented his views without fear of ridicule or censure. As the meetings drew to a close, Bishop W. F. Pendleton announced that he had prepared a paper which he called "Notes on Government." He said that he would read it if called upon by the Assembly. His paper was called for on the next to last day of the Assembly.

409

The clearness of the thought, the simple beauty of expression, and its evident loyalty to the teachings of the Writings united the thoughts and affections of all. He saw that the essential order of government in the General Church of Pennsylvania and in the General Church of the Advent of the Lord was from the Writings and should not be changed. The only change he proposed was in the administration of that order. He assured the people that Council and Assembly would be restored and that it would be understood that as the people of the church invited the Bishop to be the governor of the church, so they could withdraw that invitation. He stressed the truth that men by their ingenuity could not protect the church. It was the Lord's church, and He would protect His own. I quote from that address:

     "Is it the rational conclusion of a calm and reflecting mind that a humanly devised contrivance can protect and save the church? A calm and reflecting mind will consider that the ingenuity of man can avail nothing against the cunning of evil spirits and that the church is protected and saved in the degree of its trust and confidence in the Lord; not according to the degree of its confidence in the ingenuity and perfection of human contrivance. If any movement in the church is of the Lord, He will protect and save that which is His own, nor does He need the help of man. . . . It is better to run the hazard, yea, to suffer many evils, rather than to establish and confirm so great an evil as the voluntary suppression of the freedom of the church by introducing the principle and practice of external compulsion into its workings, whether this proceed from one man or from a number of men together.
     "The members of the church do not impart to the priest perception, illustration, ability to govern, or endow him with any priestly gift whatsoever; hence they do not ordain him or appoint him to govern in the church. The Lord gives them to see that the priest has these gifts from Him and moves them to give expression to their consent that he should govern . . . thus to recognize him in his function to which he has been appointed by the Lord; which function be may exercise over them on their invitation to do so. Since the members have not imparted these gifts, they cannot take them away; He only can take away who gives. But their internal consent to his government may recede in the presence of incompetency or disorder, which may eventually lead to an open withdrawal of their invitation to exercise his functions over them. They can withdraw or take away that which they have given and no more."*
     * Page 134.

     But W. F. Pendleton warned against any attempt to provide machinery for carrying out such removal, and says: "Let us trust, with a firm faith, that the Lord will not forsake His church, and that for every occasion He will provide men and endow them with wisdom to do that which is for the welfare of the church." For: "all the ills of the church from the most ancient times have arisen from the conceit or persuasion that man can care for the church. Let us beware."

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     Of the results of these meetings, Bishop N. D. Pendleton said in 1923: "While the new organization marked a distinct change of state, there was no alteration in the doctrinal stand, nor any essential change in the governmental system."* This is remarkable in light of the trials and deep disturbance that immediately preceded these meetings in 1897. The General Church has entered into the fruits and enjoyed the blessings of the submission of these wise men to the truth of the Word and their trust in the Lord that He will guide and protect His church. May we pass on the same to our children.
     * New Church Life, 1923, p. 396.

     (Discussion of Bishop Acton's Address)

     The Rev. Erik Sandstrom said that in the development of the order of the priesthood in the General Church there had been an increasing recognition that the order must be derived from revelation, as the address this morning plainly showed and as is set forth in the Statement of the Order and Organization of the General Church. That pamphlet is a remarkable document which all members of the General Church should read with care and understanding. Asserting that representations have not ceased, but rather have been restored to their full right, he noted that there is a distinction between a real representation and a mere one; a mere representation having no relation to man's state, while a real one does represent it. The love of saving souls should be common to all men; but in addition, a priest should he in the love of studying the means of salvation, that is, the Word. A priest motivated by both these loves will he interiorly in a priestly state, and this will be truly represented in his teaching and leading.
     Mr. Robert L. Heinrichs, citing Bishop Benade's statement that a priest is a servant of his office and not of the people, said he felt that a priest is a servant of the Lord rather than of his office.
     Mrs. Lucile S. Blair, referring to passages in the Word indicating that the people would be kings and priests unto God (aide Exodus 19: 6, Revelation 1: 6, 5: 10), asked what being kings and priests meant with respect to laymen?

     Mr. Herald Sandstrom had questions about the ministry of instruction. As he understood it, it is said that if laymen teach truths, disturbance results and the church is rent asunder; but, he asked, how would there he a problem if a layman taught truths from the Word, as the truth is unchanging? He could see that hymen should not teach more formally through sermons and the like. He also asked how the ministry of instruction was to be applied in the case of laymen who were trying to apply the teachings of the Word in their particular fields.
     Miss Debra Gilbert mentioned the question of women in the priesthood which is frequently discussed in our times. While she did not feel that women should be priests, neither did she feel that woman's affection should be ignored in the priesthood. Both man's understanding and woman's affection should be involved in any given use, for, properly, man and woman together in a conjugial marriage make one human being. She suggested that means he provided for the preparation of girls who dearly want to share in the use of spreading truth and want to use it to help others.
     Bishop Acton pointed out that he had presented the doctrine of the priesthood in historical form, and he advocated the writing of another paper on the subject, based entirely on passages from the Writings.

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In response to the discussion from the floor he said that "servant of a use" meant the same thing as "servant of the Lord" as use is the Lord's; by a "priest" is meant good and by a "king" truth, and it is the will of the Lord that all should become good and truth in form. Although there is a priestly state in everyone, that is, a state of good, no layman should set himself up as a public teacher of truth; there is no ban, however, on a layman's speaking about truth and doctrine. The function of priests is not to set out doctrine, but to preserve order in the church that the Divine of the Lord may be received; that is to say, the priestly office is that of teaching doctrine, not of being an arbiter of doctrine.
ASSEMBLY IMPRESSIONS 1973

ASSEMBLY IMPRESSIONS E. BRUCE GLENN 1973

     "This has been a happy Assembly." Thus did Bishop Pendleton, in concluding remarks at the banquet, characterize the mood of the past three days. The sentiment was one with which everyone present evidently concurred.
     Why the emphasis? Is not every Assembly of the General Church a happy occasion? One hopes so. Yet some in the past have occurred during periods of concern and unrest, if not crisis, in the affairs of the church. To cite one instance, the 1970 Assembly, gathered to rejoice in the two hundredth anniversary of the Lord's New Church, felt the strain of the generation gap in the voiced dissatisfaction of younger members over established patterns.
This year's Assembly took place in a quieter sphere; and this appears significant to its use and effect, since the theme which predominated was that of the organized church-"the Establishment." Through happy chance or the foresight of wisdom, Bishop De Charms sounded the true note of accord even before the Assembly began, in his address to the Academy's Commencement. In pointing out that there must be both a gap and a bond between generations, he challenged his hearers (and not only the graduates) to distinguish in the work of the church between that which is of God and that which is of man, and to hold fast to the former while developing the latter in its light.
     The three main addresses of the Assembly-entitled "The Organized Church," "The Priesthood," and "Response"-together developed in specific detail the nature of this challenge. Bishop Pendleton noted the need for an external church as an instrumentality to serve internal and essential uses.

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The strength of the General Church in seeking to fulfill this use rests in its fidelity to the Writings as an authoritative revelation from the Lord, its recognition of the need for distinct separation from former churches, and its acceptance of education as a use of charity. Only in commitment to use, he reminded us, is distinctiveness to be found.
     It is interesting that both Bishop Pendleton and Bishop Acton in his address on the priesthood, gave their subjects strong historical emphasis, invoking the names of Hindmarsh, Noble, Richard de Charms, Benade, and W. F. Pendleton. Not only established organizations, but history and tradition themselves, are suspect in today's world. But, as Bishop Acton pointed out, in a church where externals are to correspond with internals-i.e., the works of man are to reflect the will of God-each generation must renew the internal in its acceptance and development of its heritage from those who went before. His tracing of the priesthood of the New Church from single beginnings in England and in America provided a compelling argument for the importance of continuity and perseverance in the maintenance of a true vision through the uses of worship and the sacraments.
     Bishop King's address, "Response," was clearly awaited with much anticipation by the Assembly, for it was his first formal utterance since having been elected Assistant Bishop ten hours before. Taking his text from the beautifully simple account of Samuel's reply, "Speak, for Thy servant heareth," he spoke movingly of the acknowledgment and obedience, as of one's self, that constitute man's conjunction with the Lord-an active and re-active relationship which is the responsibility of every individual in the Church Specific if that body is to perform its function to the whole of mankind.
     Bishop King's ease and warmth of utterance were even more evident in his brief acknowledgment of his election as Assistant Bishop, the most signal event of the Assembly. In united humility and confidence, he expressed his belief that the General Church is a vital part of the Church Specific, and that it will remain so to the extent that it remains true to its principles and in a state of order. He spoke of the episcopal responsibilities into which he now enters as those of sustaining distinctiveness, order and freedom of response. These were the keynotes of the week's thought and discussion.

     Nor was opportunity for lay response lacking in the Assembly itself. The last two sessions, organized by the Rev. Frank Rose, were (as was to to be expected) quite informal, the first consisting of some thirty-four discussion groups scattered around the buildings of the Academy and the Elementary School, the second a panel of six priests responding to issues raised by the discussions.

413

Mr. Rose must have spent a busy lunch hour reviewing reports from the discussions in order to moderate the panel. The subject, "The Church in the World," had already been prepared for by discussion in the preceding sessions on the topic of external evangelization. Speakers from the floor, including some articulate young people from the Academy schools, had questioned whether the church should not be moving more formally and forcefully into this work as a prime use. Bishop Pendleton noted that he had established a new Extension Committee of the General Church in place of one from the Council of the Clergy; and the chairman of this committee, the Rev. David Holm, declared his intention to include priests and laymen in its work. The panel of priests, in their turn, declared their conviction that the time is ripe, the fields indeed "white to the harvest," and that growth and variety in the church are not to be feared but welcomed as positive forces. In his banquet speech, reflecting on the uses of internal and external evangelization, the Rev. Dan Goodenough succinctly enunciated the principle of harmony in the church: "Anything of genuine good furthers all other good; and when different goods appear to be in conflict, the failure is in our own judgment of what is good. All good is one because the Lord is one."
It was a happy Assembly-happy in the external aspects of the week's activities: the cooling of the weather after a start in the high nineties, the open houses in different groups of society homes, garden gatherings and teas, the ease of transportation by the steady rolling from point to point of three Academy buses, the cheerful service of many young people under the guidance of several veterans of Assembly administration in Bryn Athyn, the beauty of the place and season focused on the Cathedral where we were offered at night a reverent "sound and light" program using the edifice both as symbol and pictorial screen for the story of the Lord's churches on earth. But it was a happy time chiefly because of the internal sphere for which these externals served as matrix; a sphere of confidence and challenge, of tradition confirmed and renewed in the vision of expanding uses, of a church which looks to the Lord as its Father, and to all men of good endeavor, in the church specific and universal, as its brothers.
E. BRUCE GLENN

414

ASSEMBLY BANQUET 1973

ASSEMBLY BANQUET RICHARD R. GLADISH 1973

     The banquet on Thursday evening provided a fitting social and intellectual climax to an unusually short but happy Assembly. The theme, "Evangelization," also continued the motif which had sounded increasingly from the first meeting until it mounted to a crescendo in the morning and afternoon sessions on Thursday with their topic: "The Church in the World."
     After the blessing led by Bishop Louis B. King, and Bishop Pendleton's publicly thanking those who had done "a tremendous job" for the host society (chairman Robert Asplundh; Adele Gladish, housing; Dan McQueen, catering, and his "hundred charming girls and willing boys"; and Mike Norman, overseer of student work and many other things; these were named but many others helped), the Rev. Peter Buss of Durban, having been introduced by Toastmaster Martin Pryke, proposed a toast to the Church. Mr. Buss lifted our minds to contemplation of the living spiritual church rather than the organization which serves the everlasting church. How wonderful, he said, that the church is the Lord's, and what we need is the Lord's to give-the holy city, the love of doctrine, the warmth inflowing into our hearts. Introducing the topic of the evening, Mr. Pryke spoke of the recent inspiring meetings occupied with the growth of the church and the spread of the new gospel. We are concerned with establishing the church in our own lives and passing on the torch of truth to our own children, a flame fed by the oil of love, and also bearing the glad tidings to a world that needs them. Hence internal and external evangelization.
     Speaking on external evangelization, the Rev. Geoffrey H. Howard of Los Angeles briefly reviewed the church's emphasis on internal evangelization, noting that the Lord's sending out of the Twelve, on June 19, 1770, had freed the spirit of man from involuntary slavery. Any man who so willed could now approach and worship the Lord and associate with the new Christian societies of heaven. The existence of the Church Specific is vital to the existence of the human race on earth, and the General Church has at least set the stage for it with its development of centers in which New Church education was able to survive and flourish. Now the time for our church's emergence from the wilderness is fast approaching. Genuine truth can free the mind, but we need to develop a philosophy that can bring people to the New Church. The means to this include:

415

1) reading the Writings ourselves; 2) trying to live faithfully what we believe-a fulfilling way of life is more convincing than doctrine; 3) correct techniques of communication; 4) respecting the freedom of others; 5) finding a common point of agreement and building on that; 6) producing or making available practical books on how to live-bringing credibility to the New Church through the work of New Church scholars.
     After a choral interlude by a Mark Bostock-coached College choir, the Rev. Daniel W. Goodenough spoke on internal evangelization. He felt that the real motive behind the General Church's emphasis on education lay in its love of doctrine and a natural desire to share precious things with its children. As strong centers grew up there came a dilemma-were individuals thus too sheltered from a necessary confrontation with the world? Some former students of the schools seemed to know almost nothing of the church which once surrounded them, having battened on the spheres of those about them. But in Tuesday's Academy Commencement one of the valedictorians had said of his classmates, "not a jelly-fish among them." And yet this has been generally true of our graduates from the beginning. Intellectual ferment is good and strengthening and must be kept up. Internal and external evangelization are both needed, and support each other. "`Who does not want to do what he can to fill the vast spiritual wasteland of this age?" The real strength of a center is not the center, but the Lord; our real problems and their solutions are not outside, but within us-repentance, looking to the Lord and shunning evils will bring the real advance. We rejoice in the recent formation of the General Church Extension Committee: instead of the members asking, what is the General Church waiting for, the General Church now asks its members, "What are you waiting for?"
     The Rev. N. Bruce Rogers then proposed a toast to the Academy. The Academy has remained essentially what it was at its founding, an idea: to convey the Writings and understanding of them, their relation to all knowledge and life, by instruction of the young, each other, and eventually the whole world. While this goal remains less than fulfilled, yet it remains. As the lungs serve the body, so must the Academy serve and continue to serve the church: faculty, students, staff and supporters, all serving under the one idea.

     The toastmaster then introduced Bishop Pendleton, whose closing remarks preceded the Benediction. Man is not to live for himself alone, nor is the organized church. That church must begin to look outward. As the sons of Israel had to come out of the wilderness, so, too, must the New Church. Many difficulties, frustrations and disappointments lie ahead. The state of the Christian world is one of indifference to spiritual things.

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The Writings say that judgment came because not one spiritual truth remained. A spiritual truth is one which opens the mind to a knowledge and perception of the Lord. This is the challenge which faces the church. When we go out to convert the world there is only one way, to present doctrine. Yet in presenting the Divine doctrine, which is for all nations, we must present an affection for truth as well as truth itself. If we can do that, we may bring many into the church. But a new will must be built on the understanding of truth before man can be led to good. It has been a beautiful and happy Assembly. With its pursuit of new directions it has been a delightful and encouraging Assembly. When we reflect that we have been given the greatest responsibility of any people, how can we be discouraged? Let us reflect on the Divine Providence, forget self, and co-operate with the Lord in the building of His church.
RICHARD R. GLADISH
IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1973

IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1973

The April-June issue of the NEW PHILOSOPHY offers an interesting variety of subject-matter. In "Discoveries in Egyptology from a New Church Viewpoint" Dr. Horand K. Gutfeldt argues that many findings of modern research have substantiated Swedenborg's scattered allusions to Egypt, though at times in a different way from what had been anticipated. There is much more work to be done, he says, in various areas of investigation. A number of Protestant theologians have made Greek thinkers responsible for certain corruptions of Christian doctrine, but it appears that we have to look further back. "Christianity owes to Egyptian religion and civilization a valuable legacy, but increasingly we are enabled through Swedenborg's contributions to separate the corrupted elements from those of lasting value."
This article is followed by an address, "The Nature of Swedenborg's Preparation" by the Right Rev. Elmo C. Acton, delivered at the celebration of Swedenborg's birthday in Bryn Athyn in 1972. Bishop Acton's thesis is that it is important to understand the means by which Swedenborg was prepared to become the revelator of the Heavenly Doctrine; and one of the purposes of this address is to arouse a renewed interest in the works by which Swedenborg was prepared. The address itself is a review of some of the ways in which Swedenborg approached his studies. A review and Philosophical Notes complete an interesting issue.

417

ASSEMBLY NOTES 1973

ASSEMBLY NOTES Various 1973

     Art Exhibit. The New Church man who is actively involved in the arts has, in the Writings, an unlimited stream from which he can draw to bring order and meaning to the ideas of his imagination. He has the unique opportunity to found his esthetic philosophy on the revealed truth. This is an exciting and awesome challenge.
     A number of people in the Church have taken up this challenge, though the opportunities to see a sequential development of their labors are few. With this in mind, four painters-Asbjorn Boyesen, Martha Gyllenhaal, Erica Rosenquist and Nishan Yardumian-began to think about the possibility of working toward a common exhibit, where each could put forth a sizeable amount of work which would show the growth of their ideas over a period and the products of their distinct minds would be displayed.
     Though there was correspondence, each worked on his own. Yet when the paintings were brought together for the Assembly they were quite harmonious, although greatly varied in technique and ideas.
     Three of Erica Rosenquist's works-"Recollections of the Race," "Fragments of Eden," and "Akhanaten and I"-were typical of her own personal way of combining images and symbols to make up a collaged vision.
     Among his portraits and other works Nishan Yardumian had a series of 11th and 12th century French churches plus a drawing of the Ezekiel Tower and a view of the chapel of the Lord's New Church.
     Asbjorn Boyesen had an impressive array of lithographs covering a wide range of subjects including religious and mythological themes, as indicated by some of his titles: "Abram and Lot," "And the Son of Man Spake," "Let the Little Children Come unto Me," and "Metamorphosis, Or Towards Regeneration."
     A chapel talk by the Rev. Donald Rose inspired two drawings by Martha Gyllenhaal entitled, "The Just Open Door," and "Doors and Gates."
     It was the intention of the four exhibitors to delight those attending the Assembly, to show them what is being done by some of the New Church painters, and to inspire them to develop their interest in and love of painting, drawing and prints. They hoped the exhibit would bring people to pause and realize the potential integrity and grandeur of a developed New Church culture. (Note that the Christian culture struggled for several hundred years before it began to blossom.)

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The growth of the arts in the New Church depends essentially on the development of a New Church audience, since the development of the artist depends ultimately on this.
     MARTHA GYLLENHAAL, NISHAN YARDUMIAN, SERI ODHNER YARDUMIAN

     Garden Visit. One of the bright social events of the Assembly was the Garden Party held on Tuesday afternoon at the home of Mrs. Carl Hj. Asplundh. Wandering through this lovely home, we noted especially the beautiful flower arrangements in each room, and eventually we met the hostess who gave us a personal tour of her fabulous greenhouse. Here there were many really rare plants and the scent was enchanting.
     Punch and cookies were being served on the porch. Here many old friends were seen partaking, including Mr. Arthur Wells, the famous cactus expert.
     The rose garden seemed to be in its glory as we strolled through it, heading for a glimpse of cool water ahead in the swimming pool. To our delight a brave swimmer appeared-Mrs. John Acton-and this cooling bit of action completed the happy event for us.
     DOROTHY ECHOLS WADE

     Sons of the Academy Meeting. The international meeting of the Sons of the Academy was held in Pendleton Hall on Wednesday afternoon, June 13th, with a good attendance. President Gareth Acton called the meeting to order. The first order of business was the installation of new members, four of whom were present at the meeting. Interestingly, three of the four new young members had won Sons' Gold Medals. A resounding chorus of "Who are they?" filled the room as the four were warmly welcomed.
     President Acton introduced the speaker, the Rev. Dandridge Pendleton. Principal of the Boys School, who began by explaining how the paper to be presented came into existence. The paper focused on problems faced by the Boys School which, Mr. Pendleton pointed out, are quite different than those of even ten years ago. In approaching them, he cautioned, "As soon as we try to isolate out one of the elements in this pattern [of problems], we lose something of our view of the other elements which bear on the picture. Drugs are one significant element of life for young people today; but they are not the only significant element, nor do I believe they are the most significant element."
     The focus of the paper was the development of a boy and how he must relate to 1) drugs, 2) routine, 3) requirements, 4) responsibility, 5) contribution.
     1) Drugs (marijuana). The picture is fragmentary and incomplete.

419

The availability of the drug and the quality and expectation of the user are related in trying to determine whether an accurate test can be run. The situation is complicated by apparent differences of opinion in the Church as to how serious the use of marijuana is. The dimension of the problem is increasing.
     2)     Routine. There has been conflict between the need for routine and the need for an expanded curriculum. The day is fragmented, leaving large blocks of time unaccounted for.
     3)     Requirements. There must be requirements, but in today's anti-authoritarian environment there are so many theories of what requirements are appropriate. Young people need and want requirements, and adults must provide those that are appropriate.
     4)     Responsibility. Mr. Pendleton was thinking of responsibility to make a genuine effort to do one's assigned job adequately, and responsibility to contribute something worthwhile to others: those institutions which contribute to their upbringing and welfare. We insult young people if we suggest that we don't expect them to assume responsibility, either because we don't care or don't think they are capable of it.
     5)     Contribution. In a time of increased passivity, spectatorship instead of participation, and so on, the youngsters need our active leadership to get going in a healthy direction. "We must give them the kind of adrenalin boost that I think must come from the adult world." This idea was followed by a series of examples of how this might apply to the life of a student in the Academy.
     The paper was followed by a lively discussion focusing on discipline and Academy policy; the "rotten apple in the barrel" concept; the need for adults to set an example; the need for more opportunity for adults and young people to socialize; the school as an extension of the home.
     At the close of the discussion the chairman of the nominating committee, Leonard Hill, presented a slate of officers for the International Executive Committee which will operate from Caryndale, Ontario. A unanimous ballot was cast for the following officers: president, Fred Hasen; vice president, Walter Bellinger; secretary, Denis Kuhl; treasurer, Stanley Hill; Bulletin editor, John Hargrove Hotson.
     ROBERT L. HEINRICHS

     Tea at Cairnwood. After the Thursday afternoon session we traveled from the meeting in the All-Purpose Building to Cairnwood in one of the Academy buses. Others took the scenic route and strolled up through the lawn. On entering we were asked to sign the roll book, after which we stood in line to shake hands with Bishop and Mrs. Pendleton, our host and hostess.

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     As we walked through the rooms to the porch there was a definite feeling of nostalgia: memories of being in this house as youngsters, of playing charades in the living room, of hearing lessons in the music room, of the sound of the peacocks kept in pens out by the terrace.
     Many visitors were seen enjoying conversation and refreshments. We found-though we hoped that nobody noticed-that it was possible to have wine and sandwiches on the porch, punch and cookies at the other end of the porch, coffee and cakes in the library, and tea and confections in the dining room.
     This was really an elegant, lovely tea party, with a "lady of the urn" at each end of the long dining room table and other ladies constantly refilling the refreshment trays. It seemed that "everybody" was there and we left reluctantly, aware that there were still people we hadn't met and refreshments we hadn't sampled. The afternoon was sunny and warm and the event likewise.
     BARBARA LEONARD POSEY

     Theta Alpha Meeting. The Theta Alpha International Assembly meeting held at Cairncrest, the center for the uses of the Religion Lessons, began with a beautiful service of worship conducted by Bishop George de Charms. The subject of the reading and the talk was "The Lord We Worship: How We Should Think of Him."
     President Marilyn Parker Asplundh welcomed the meeting, particularly all members and guests from other centers and round the world. Then, after a brief item of business, she introduced the program panel from the Glenview Chapter: Annabel Teets Junge, Joyce McQueen Caldwell, Diane Holmes, Janelle Schuurman Cranch and Henrietta Gourdin Acton.
     These women presented six questions under the heading: "Do You Feel the Church and School Are Fulfilling the Needs of the Feminine States?" The panel members took turns giving suggestions and opinions; they did not intend to give definite answers, but hoped to stimulate our further thought. Lively discussion followed with refreshments served on the terrace. It was a useful and delightful occasion, part of a useful and delightful Assembly.
     VERA POWELL GLENN

     (To be continued.)

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WHAT MAKES THE CHURCH 1973

WHAT MAKES THE CHURCH Editor 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.
     Published Monthly By

THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
      BRYN ATHYN. PA.
Editor                Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager          Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     All literary contributions should he sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications, should be sent to the Business Manager. Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.

     TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$5.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 50 cents.
     It is a familiar teaching that the church is from the Word, yet it is not the Word that makes the church but the understanding of it, and the church is such as is the understanding of the Word among those who are in the church. If it is not understood the Word is still the Word, but it is not the Word with man' if it is falsified it is certainly not the Word with man The Word is spirit and life according to the understanding of it, for the letter without understanding of it is dead.
     By the understanding of the Word, however, is not meant merely the intellectual comprehension of its teachings, though that is involved. The Word is Divine truth, and before we can claim to understand it we must comprehend the meaning of the Divine truth. But to understand the truth is more than understanding what it means; it is to understand what it is. The Divine truth is the form of the Divine good; and to understand the Word is to see its truth as the form of good, to see the goods of which its truths are the forms, and to be affected by them. This is implicit in the teaching that the Lord is conjoined with man according to his understanding of the Word, for it is affection that conjoins.
     As we enter into another season of church activities may we see, in this context, as the center and goal of these activities the seeking of a deeper understanding of the Word? By this we do not mean that every member of the church should be trying to become an amateur theologian and feel that if he does not he is a failure. Rather do we mean that he should seek to see the truths of religion as the very forms of good. That is what makes the church in man.

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     PARENTS, BEWARE!

     In a key passage, Heaven and Hell 344, the Writings say that child education in heaven is a leading by means of an understanding of truth and the wisdom of good into angelic life, into love and mutual love within which is innocence. Swedenborg was shown how different in many instances is the education of children here. He saw little boys fighting in the street, adults looking on with pleasure; and he was told that the children were incited to this by their parents.
     Good spirits and angels who saw this through Swedenborg's eyes were horrified, especially that parents should incite their children to such things. They said that in this way parents extinguish in their children all the mutual love and innocence which they have from the Lord, and initiate them into the spirit of hatred and revenge. Thus by their own endeavors they shut their children out of heaven, where there is nothing but mutual love. Therefore, they said, let parents who wish well to their children beware of such things.
     Such parents, however, should and will understand that there are other things besides physical violence incitement to which can extinguish mutual love and innocence in their children and initiate them into the spirit of hatred and revenge. Anger against others, contempt for or intolerance for them, because of color, race, religion class or nationality, or political affiliation, equally initiate them into the spirit of hatred and revenge and shut out from heaven, where there is nothing but mutual love. Parents should therefore beware of them also, and try to instill in their children a true tolerance; not sufferance, but an openness which is discriminating but is grounded in conviction that people can differ and still be good. Good will is the essence of heavenly living, and intolerance is the enemy of such living.

     Parents cannot, of course, shut their children out of heaven in the sense of preventing their ever becoming angels! Such permanent exclusion is, in Providence, impossible. But they can counter the influx of mutual love and innocence from heaven by influx of the sphere of hatred and revenge which emanates from hell; thus shutting them out for the time being and making it more difficult for them to regenerate in adult life. So parents should indeed beware of initiating their children into spheres from which they have not as yet themselves been delivered.
     However, they may take heart from the knowledge that they cannot bar their children from heaven; and that while children who are introduced into infernal spheres will carry the scars, they may emerge stronger from having known and overcome certain evils.

423

     THE CONCEPT OF PROVIDENCE

     Providence can be a perplexing idea, made more so by the common supposition, which not all New Church people have been able to remove from their thinking entirely, that the "providential" implies Divine interference in the course of events. This looks like favoritism, if not miracle. Yet there is an appearance in the letter of the Word that the Lord calls and chooses, protects and favors, some as He does not others.
     Because of this appearance it has been customary in Christian thinking to distinguish Providence as "general" and "particular," but the distinction is really superficial. So-called "particular providences," as when a loss or a danger that befalls one man passes another by, are all manifestations of the Lord's universal oversight and care.

     We need an over-all concept, one which does not seek to fashion universals out of a study of particulars, but one which is universal and under which particulars can be seen in a coherent and understandable pattern. Such a concept is offered in this teaching of the Writings. The Divine Providence is the government of the Divine love and wisdom. These proceed from the Lord as one, and in a certain semblance this one is in all created things. The end of the Divine Providence is that every created thing shall be such a one, and that if it is not it shall become such. By creation there was a marriage of good and truth in every created thing. This marriage was afterwards dissolved, but the Lord is working constantly to restore it. The resulting conjunction of the universe with Himself through man is the end of the Divine Providence, and to this end the Lord works to maintain and preserve that which is in order and to restore order where it has been lost.
     Therefore the Lord does not suffer that anything shall be divided. It must be in good and truth or in evil and falsity. His Providence has for its end that man should be in good and truth; but as man on earth can be in good and evil, and in truth and falsity, and it is better for him to become entirely evil and false than to be in a mixed state, the Lord permits this, not as what He wills, but as that which in view of the end He is unable to prevent.
     Under this concept we can relate all the operations of Providence under one universal principle. We can see that it is universal because it enters into all particulars; that in everything it looks to what is infinite and eternal, and to what is temporal only as it agrees with what is eternal. Only, we must be careful not to think of the operations of Providence as mechanistic and impersonal. The Lord is Divine Man, and His government is truly human, the most human government there can be.

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SHARON CHURCH: A CLARIFICATION 1973

SHARON CHURCH: A CLARIFICATION ELDRIC S. KLEIN 1973

Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:
     Because NEW CHURCH LIFE is a prime source for New Church history, I should like an opportunity to clarify the somewhat confused chronology of an article, "The History of the Sharon Church," published in the issue of July 1973, and especially the paragraph on page 333 which begins: "Dr. Caldwell was followed at Sharon Church by the Rev. David H. Klein, who came from Middleport, Ohio."
     The early chronology of the pastors of the Immanuel Church and of the Sharon Church, based on reports, editorials, obituaries, etc., published in NEW CHURCH LIFE, is as follows.
     In 1898 the Rev. David Klein was appointed an assistant to the Rev. N. D. Pendleton, the pastor of the Immanuel Church. Mr. Klein was appointed headmaster of the church school in Glenview in 1900 and served in that capacity until he was called to the pastorate of the society in Middleport in 1901. When the Rev. N. D. Pendleton accepted a call to Pittsburgh in 1903, the Rev. David Klein was called to the pastorate of the Immanuel Church in Glenview, and was also headmaster of the school there. He did not "visit the downstate Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan people."
     Also in 1903, the Rev. W. B. Caldwell was called to the pastorate of the newly formed Sharon Church in Chicago. The Rev. David Klein resigned the pastorate of the Immanuel Church in 1908* because of illness (tuberculosis), and the Rev. W. B. Caldwell succeeded him as pastor of the Immanuel Church. The Rev. Gilbert Smith became the pastor of the Sharon Church in 1913 and served until he was called to the pastorate of the church in Glenview on May 17, 1918, after Mr. Caldwell, the new editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE, had moved to Bryn Athyn. Mr. Klein served as acting pastor of the Sharon Church in 1919, but resigned in April, 1920, because of ill health, and died in Bryn Athyn the following year. The Rev. W. L. Gladish, who had succeeded Mr. Klein in Middleport, now succeeded him as acting pastor of the Sharon Church, 1920 to 1926, when he became full pastor there.
     * Corrected. See NCL 1973, p. 476.
     ELDRIC S. KLEIN
          The Academy Archives
               Bryn Athyn, Pa.

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DIRECTORY 1973

     GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM

     Officials and Councils
Bishop:     Right Rev. Willard D. Pendleton
Assistant Bishop: Right Rev. Louis B King,
Bishop Emeritus: Right Rev. George de Charms
Secretary:     Rev. Norbert H. Rogers

     CONSISTORY

     Bishop Willard D. Pendleton

Right Rev. Elmo C. Acton; Right Rev. George de Charms; Right Rev. Louis B. King; Rev. Messrs. Geoffrey S. Childs; Harold C. Cranch; Daniel W. Goodenough; W. Cairns Henderson, Secretary; Ormond de C. Odhner; Martin Pryke; Norman H. Reuter; Norbert H. Rogers; Frank S. Rose; Erik Sandstrom; Frederick L. Schnarr; David R. Simons

     "General Church of the New Jerusalem"

     (A corporation of Pennsylvania)

     OFFICERS OF THE CORPORATION

Right Rev. Willard D. Pendleton, President
Right Rev. Elmo C. Acton, Vice President
Mr. Stephen Pitcairn, Secretary
Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Treasurer

     BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE CORPORATION

     Right Rev. Willard D. Pendleton; Right Rev. Elmo C. Acton; Mr. William B. Alden; Mr. Lester Asplundh; Mr. Robert H. Asplundh; Mr. Theodore Brickman, Jr.; Mr. David H. Campbell; George M. Cooper, Esq.; Mr. Grant R. Doering; Mr. Bruce Elder; Mr. Alan B. Fuller; Mr. Charles P. Gyllenhaal; Mr. Leonard E. Gyllenhaal; Mr. James F. Junge; Mr. Ralph D. Junge; Mr. William R. Kintner; Mr. John E. Kuhl; Alexander H. Lindsay, Esq.; Mr. Willard R. Mansfield; Mr. H. Keith Morley; Mr. Lewis Nelson; Mr. Lachlan Pitcairn; Mr. Stephen Pitcairn; Mr. John W. Rose; Cal. B. Dean Smith; Mr. J. Ralph Synnestvedt, Jr.; Mr. Leo Synnestvedt; Mr. Alfred A. Umberger; Mr. Robert E. Walter; Mr. John H. Wyncoll.
Honorary Life Member: Right Rev. George de Charms.

     Council of the Clergy

     Bishops

PENDLETON, WILLARD DANDRIDGE. Ordained June 18, 1933; 2nd Degree, September 12. 1934; 3rd Degree, June 19, 1946. Bishop of the General Church. Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church. President, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009.

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ACTON, ELMO CARMAN. Ordained June 14, 1925; 2nd Degree, August 5, 1928; 3rd Degree, June 4, 1967. Special teacher of Theology and Religion, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009.

DR CHARMS, GEORGE. Ordained June 28, 1913; 2nd Degree, June 19, 1916; 3rd Degree, March 11, 1928. Bishop Emeritus of the General Church. President Emeritus, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009.

KING, LOUIS BLAIR. Ordained June 19, 1951; 2nd Degree, April 19, 1953; 3rd Degree, November 5, 1972. Assistant Bishop of the General Church, Dean of the Bryn Athyn Church. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009

Pastors

ACTON, ALFRED. Ordained June 19, 1964; 2nd Degree, October 30, 1966. Pastor of the Immanuel Church, Glenview, Illinois. Headmaster of the Immanuel Church School. Address: 73 Park Drive, Glenview, Illinois 60025.

ASPLUNDH, KURT HORIGAN. Ordained June 19, 1960; 2nd Degree June 19, 1962.
Assistant Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church. Principal of the Bryn Athyn Church Elementary School, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009.

BOYRSEN, BJORN ADOLPH HILDEMAR. Ordained June 19, 1939; 2nd Degree. March 30, 1941. Pastor of the Colchester Society. Address: 30 Inglis Road, Colchester C03-3HU, England.

BOYESEN, RAGNAR. Ordained June 19, 1972; 2nd Degree, June 17, 1973. Pastor of the Stockholm Society. Visiting Pastor of the Copenhagen, Jonkoping and Oslo Circles. Editor of Nova Ecclesia. Address: Aladdinsvagen 27, 161 38 Bromma, Sweden.

BUSS, PETER MARTIN. Ordained June 19, 1964; 2nd Degree, May 16. 1965. Pastor of the Durban Society. Address: 42 Pitlochry Road, Westville, Natal, Republic of South Africa.

CHILDS, GEOFRREY STAFFORD. Ordained June 19, 1952; 2nd Degree, June 19, 1954. Pastor of the Detroit Society. Address: 280 East Long Lake Road, Troy, Michigan 48084

COLE, ROBERT HUDSON PENDLETON. Ordained June 16, 1963; 2nd Degree, October 30, 1966. Pastor of Sharon Church, Chicago. Visiting Pastor to the Madison. Wisconsin, Circle and the St. Louis Group. Address: 5220 North Wayne Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60604

CRANCH, HAROLD COVERT. Ordained June 19, 1941; 2nd Degree, October 25, 1942. Pastor of the Olivet Church, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Address: 2 Lorraine Gardens, Islington, Ontario, Canada M9B 4Z4.

FRANSON, ROY. Ordained June 19, 1953; 2nd Degree, January 29, 1956. Visiting Pastor to the Southeastern States, resident in Miami, Florida. Address: 6721 Arbor Drive, Miramar, Florida 33023

GILL, ALAN. Ordained June 14, 1925; 2nd Degree, June 19, 1926. Address: 9 Ireton Road, Colchester, England.

GLADISH, VICTOR JEREMIAH. Ordained June 17, 1925; 2nd Degree, August 5, 1928. Address: 3508 Linneman Street, Glenview, Illinois 60025

GOODENOUGH, DANIEL, WEBSTER. Ordained June 19, 1965; 2nd Degree, December 10, 1967. Instructor in Religion and History, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009

427

HEINRICHS, DANIEL WINTHROP. Ordained June 19, 1957; 2nd Degree, April 6, 1958. Pastor of the Ohio District. Address: 1194 Belle Avenue, Lakewood, Ohio 44107

HEINRICHS, HENRY. Ordained June 24, 1923; 2nd Degree, February 8, 1925. Address: R. R. 3, (Preston) Cambridge, Ontario, Canada N3H 4R5.

HEINRICHS, WILLARD LEWIS DAVENPORT. Ordained June 19, 1965; 2nd Degree, January 26, 1969. Superintendent of the South African Mission. Visiting Pastor to isolated members and groups in South Africa. Address: 30 Perth Road, Westville, Natal, Republic of South Africa.

HENDERSON, WILLIAM CAIRNS. Ordained June 10, 1934; 2nd Degree, April 14, 1935. Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE. Professor of Homiletics, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009

HOLM, BERNARD DAVID. Ordained June 19, 1952; 2nd Degree, January 27, 1957. Director, General Church Religion Lessons and Instructor in Religion in the Bryn Athyn Church Elementary School, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009

HOWARD, GEOFFREY HORACE. Ordained June 19, 1961; 2nd Degree, June 2, 1963. Pastor of the Los Angeles Society. Visiting Pastor to San Francisco. Address:
5114 Finehill Ave., La Crescenta, Calif. 91214

JUNGE, ROBERT SCHILL. Ordained June 19, 1955; 2nd Degree, August 11, 1957. Instructor in Religion and Education, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009

NEMITZ, KURT PAUL. Ordained June 16, 1963; 2nd Degree, March 27, 1966. Visiting Pastor of the Central Western District, resident in Denver, Colorado Address:
3118 S. York St., Englewood, Colo. 80110

ODHNER, HUGO LJUNGBERG. Ordained June 28, 1914; 2nd Degree, June 24, 1917. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009

ODHNER, ORMOND DE CHARMS. Ordained June 19, 1940; 2nd Degree, October 11, 1942. Professor of Church History and Instructor in Religion, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009

PENDLETON, DANDRIDGE. Ordained June 19, 1952; 2nd Degree, June 19, 1954. Principal of the Boys School, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009

PRYKE, MARTIN. Ordained June 19, 1940; 2nd Degree, March 1, 1942. Executive Vice President, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009

REUTER, NORMAN HAROLD. Ordained June 17, 1928; 2nd Degree, June 15, 1930. Pastoral Assistant to the Bishop. Acting Pastor of the Tucson Circle. Acting Visiting Pastor to Phoenix, Arizona, San Diego, California. Address: 2536 N. Stewart Avenue, Tucson, Arizona 85716

RICH, MORLEY DYCKMAN. Ordained June 19, 193S; 2nd Degree, October 1.3, 1940. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009

ROGERS, NORBERT HENRY. Ordained June 19, 1938; 2nd Degree, October 13, 1940. Secretary of the General Church. Secretary of the Council of the Clergy. Chairman, General Church Translation Committee. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009

ROSE, DONALD LESLIE. Ordained June 16, 1957; 2nd Degree, June 23, 1963. Pastor of the Pittsburgh Society. Address: 7420 Ben Hur Street, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15208

ROSE, FRANK SHIRLEY. Ordained June 19, 1952; 2nd Degree, August 2, 1953. Pastor of the Carmel Church, Caryndale, Ontario Address: R. R. 3, (Preston) Cambridge, Ontario, Canada N3H 4R8.

SANDSTROM, ERIK. Ordained June 10, 1934; 2nd Degree, August 4, 1935. Visiting Pastor to the Erie (Pennsylvania) Circle. Dean of the Theological School, Professor of Theology and Religion, Academy of the New Church. Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009

428

SANDSTROM, ERIK EMANUEL. Ordained May 23, 1971; 2nd Degree, May 21, 1972. Pastor of Michael Church, London, England. Visiting Pastor to the Circles in Paris and The Hague. Address: 135 Mantilla Road, Tooting, London, SW. 17. 8DX, England.

SCHNARR, FREDERICK LAURIER. Ordained June 19, 1955; 2nd Degree, May 12, 1957. Pastor of the Washington, D. C., Society. Visiting Pastor in North and South Carolina. Address: 3809 Enterprise Road, Mitchellville, Md. 20716

SIMONS, DAVID RESTYN. Ordained June 19, 1948; 2nd Degree, June 19, 1953 Assistant Pastor of the Immanuel Church. Principal of the Midwestern Academy. Visiting Pastor to the St. Paul-Minneapolis Circle. Address: 2700 Park Lane, Glenview, Illinois 60025

SMITH, CHRISTOPHER RONALD JACK. Ordained June 19, 1969; 2nd Degree, May 9, 1971. Visiting Pastor to the Pacific Northwest, resident in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada. Address: 1536 94th Ave., Dawson Creek, B. C., Canada.

SONESON, LORENTZ RAY. Ordained June 16, 1963; 2nd Degree, May 16. 1965. Pastor of the New England, New York and Northern New Jersey District, resident in Connecticut. Address: 145 Shadyside Lane, Milford, Connecticut 06460

STROH, KENNETH OLIVER. Ordained June 19, 1948; 2nd Degree, June 19, 1950. Director of Music, Bryn Athyn Church. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009

TAYLOR, DOUGLAS MCLEOD. Ordained June 19, 1960; 2nd Degree, June 19, 1962. Pastor of the Hurstville Society. Address: 22 Dudley Street, Penshurst, New South Wales, Australia.

WHITEHEAD, WILLIAM. Ordained June 19, 1922; 2nd Degree, June 19, 1926. Professor Emeritus of History, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009

     Ministers

CARLSON, MARK ROBERT. Ordained June 10, 1973. Instructor in Religion. Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009

FIGUEIREDO, JOSE LOPES DE. Ordained October 24, 1965. Minister to the Rio de Janeiro Society, Brazil. Address: Rua Desembargador Izidro 155, Apt., 202. Tiluca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

GLADISH, MICHAEL DAVID, Ordained June 10, 1973. Assistant to the Pastor of the Olivet Church, Toronto, Canada. Visiting Minister to the Montreal Circle. Address: 73 Haliburton Ave., Islinglon, Ontario, Canada M9B 4Y6.

KLINE, THOMAS LEROY. Ordained June 10, 1973. Assistant to the Pastor of the Washington, D. C., Society. Visiting Minister to the Atlanta Group. Address: 7609 Riverdale Rd., #321, New Carrollton, Md. 20784.

ROGERS, NORBERT BRUCE. Ordained January 12, 1969. Instructor in Religion and Latin, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009

     Associate Member

WEIS, JAN HUGO. Ordained June 19, 1955; 2nd Degree, May 12. 1957 Address: 2650 Del Vista Drive, Hacienda Heights, Calif. 91745.

     Authorized Candidates

ALDEN, GLENN GRAHAM. Authorized March 21, 1973. Address: Bryn Athyn. Pa.
19009

429

LARSEN, OTTAR TROSVIK. Authorized March 21, 1973. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009

     South African Mission

     Pastors

BUTELEZI, STEPHEN EPHRIAM. Ordained September 11, 1938; 2nd Degree, October 3, 1948. Address: 1118 North Rd., Clermont Township. P. O. Clernaville, Natal.
MBEDZI, PAULUS. Ordained March 23, 1958; 2nd Degree, March 14, 1965. Resident Pastor of the Hambrook Society, Visiting Pastor of the Enkumba Society. Address: Hatnbrook Bantu School, P. B. 9912, Ladysmith, Natal.
NZIMANDE, BENJAMIN ISHMAEL. Ordained August 21, 1938; 2nd Degree, October 3, 1948. Assistant Superintendent. Resident Pastor of the Clermont Society, Pastor in charge of the Kwa Mashu Society. Visiting Pastor of the Kent Manor Society and the Dondotha Group. Address: 1701-31st Avenue, Clermont Township, P. O. Clernavilie, Natal.
SIBEKO, PAUILUS PEFENUS. Ordained October 3, 1948; 2nd Degree, March 23, 1958. Resident Pastor of the Alexandra Society, Visiting Pastor of the Balfour Society and the Tembisa Group. Address: 159-11th Avenue, Alexandra Township, Johannesburg, Transvaal.
ZUNGU, AARON. Ordained August 21, 1938; 2nd Degree, October 3, 1948. Mission Translator. Visiting Pastor of the Umlazi Group. Address: 2102 Main Avenue, Clermont Township, P. O. Clernaville, Natal.

     Minister

MBATHA, BHEKUYISE ALFRED. Ordained June 27, 1971. Assistant to the Rev. P. P. Sibeko, Resident Minister to the Greylingstad Society. Visiting Minister to the Mofolo Society and the Rietfontein Group. Address: P. O. Box 41, Greylingstad, Transvaal.

     Societies and Circles

     Societies

                                                  Pastor

BRYN ATHYN CHURCH                              Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton
                                        Rt. Rev. Louis B. King (Dean)
CARMEL CHURCH OF KITCHENER, ONTARIO               Rev. Frank S. Rose
COLCHESTER SOCIETY, ENGLAND                    Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen
DETROIT SOCIETY, MICHIGAN                    Rev. Geoffrey S. Childs
DURBAN SOCIETY, NATAL, SOUTH AFRICA               Rev. Peter M. Buss
HURSTVILLE SOCIETY, N. S. W., AUSTRALIA          Rev. Douglas McL. Taylor
IMMANUEL CHURCH OF GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS          Rev. Alfred Acton
LOS ANGELES SOCIETY, CALIFORNIA               Rev. Geoffrey H. Howard
MICHAEL CHURCH, LONDON, ENGLAND               Rev. Erik E. Sandstrom
OLIVET CHURCH, TORONTO, ONTARIO               Rev. Harold C. Cranch
PITTSBURGH SOCIETY                         Rev. Donald L. Rose

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RIO DE JANEIRO SOCIETY, BRAZIL               Rev. Jose Lopes de Figueiredo
SHARON CHURCH, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS                Rev. Robert H. P. Cole (Resident)
STOCKHOLM SOCIETY, SWEDEN                     Rev. Ragnar Boyesen
WASHINGTON SOCIETY, D. C.                    Rev. Frederick L. Schnarr

     Circles

                                        Visiting Pastor or Minister

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK                         Rev. Ragnar Boyesen
DAWSON CREEK, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA          Rev. Christopher R. J. Smith
DENVER, COLORADO                              Rev. Kurt P. Nemitz
ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA                          Rev. Erik Sandstrom
FORT WORTH, TEXAS                              Rev. Kurt P. Nemitz
THE HAGUE, HOLLAND                         Rev. Erik E. Sandstrom
JONKOPING, SWEDEN                              Rev. Ragnar Boyesen
MADISON, WISCONSIN                         Rev. Robert H. P. Cole
MIAMI, FLORIDA                              Rev. Roy Franson
MONTREAL, CANADA                              Rev. Michael D. Gladish
NORTH JERSEY                              Rev. Lorentz R. Soneson
NORTH OHIO                                   Rev. Daniel W. Heinrichs
OSLO, NORWAY                              Rev. Ragnar Boyesen
PARIS, FRANCE                              Rev. Erik E. Sandstrom
ST. PAUL-MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA               Rev. David R. Simons
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA                         Rev. Norman H. Reuter (Acting)
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA                    Rev. Geoffrey H. Howard
SOUTH OHIO                                   Rev. Daniel W. Heinrich
TRANSVAAL, REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA               Rev. Willard L. D. Heinrichs
TUCSON, ARIZONA                              Rev. Norman H. Reuter (Acting)

     In order to avoid confusion, it seems well to observe, in the official records and the official journal of the General Church, the recognized distinctions between a "Society," a "Circle," and a "Group."
     A "Group" consists of all interested receivers of the Heavenly Doctrine in any locality who meet together for worship and instruction under the general supervision of pastors who visit them from time to time.
     A "Circle" consists of members of the General Church in any locality who are under the leadership of a regular visiting Pastor appointed by the Bishop, and who are organized by their Pastor to take responsibility for their local uses in the interim between his visits. A Group may become a Circle when, on the recommendation of the visiting Pastor, it is formally recognized as such by the Bishop.
     A "Society" or local "Church" consists of the members of the General Church in any locality who have been organized under the leadership of a resident Pastor to maintain the uses of regular worship, instruction and social life. A Circle may become a Society by application to the Bishop and formal recognition by him.
     WILLARD D. PENDLETON
          Bishop

431

     Committees of the General Church

                                                  Chairman

British Finance Committee                         Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen
General Church Extension Committee                    Rev. B. David Holm
General Church Publication Committee               Rev. Norbert H. Rogers
General Church Religion Lessons Committee               Rev. B. David Holm
Orphanage Committee                              Mr. Leonard E. Gyllenhaal
Pension Committee                                   Mr. Garthowen Pitcairn
Revolving Building Fund Committee                    Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal
Salary Committee                                   Mr. Robert E. Walter
Sound Recording Committee                         Rev. B. David Holm
Translation Committee                              Rev. Norbert H. Rogers
Visual Education Committee                         Rev. B. David Holm

     Address all Committees, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009 except the following:

Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen
30 Inglis Road, Colchester C03-3HU, England

Mr. Garthowen Pitcairn
600 Woodward Drive, Huntington Valley, Pa. 19006
CHARTER DAY 1973

1973

     Announcements
     All ex-students, members of the General Church and friends of the Academy are invited to attend the 57th Charter Day Exercises, to be held in Bryn Athyn, Pa., Thursday through Saturday, October 18-20, 1973. The program:
     Thursday, 8:30 p.m., Arts Department Open House and Program.
     Friday, 11 a.m., Cathedral Service with an address by the Rev. Donald L. Rose.
     Friday Afternoon-Football Game
     Friday Evening-Dance
     Saturday, 7 p.m., Banquet. Toastmaster: the Rev. Dandridge Pendleton
WHY MUST WE SHUN EVILS AS SINS AGAINST GOD? 1973

WHY MUST WE SHUN EVILS AS SINS AGAINST GOD? Rev. RAGNAR BOYESEN 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Vol. XCIII
OCTOBER, 1973
No. 10
     "The world cannot hate you; but Me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil." (John 7: 7)

     Throughout the Lord's public ministry the Jews sought to destroy Ills mission. They succeeded in destroying His body, but not His Divinity. He had warned them that they should turn from their evil wars and look toward heaven-toward His Father who had sent Him into the world. He was not afraid to teach His kingdom, even though He knew He would suffer death for His Divine doctrine.
     We are told that the world could not hate the disciples, but hated the Lord because He testified against it. Its works were evil. It accepted the influx of hell.
     There were good reasons to fear the Lord if one was a leader of Israel at that time. He dared to interpret the Law in a manner which bespoke an authority they had never encountered previously. The simple people marveled at His teachings, and it was asked throughout Jerusalem where He had learned to speak such truth. For they said: "How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?"* When the Lord answered that His doctrine was not His "but His that sent Me," He confirmed the truth that every man has to speak the doctrine of those who sent him or of the one he believes to be his authority. The Lord therefore said of His Father: "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself.

434

He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him."**
     * John 7:15.
     ** John 7: 17, 18.
     The final proof of the Divinity of doctrine is whether it be of God or whether it be of man. If doctrine be of man, it cannot lead to a life of redemption; it cannot lead away from a life which in itself is evil. It is powerless against evil. All life which is given to man through the knowledge of doctrine is life from the spiritual world through the heavens. Because an angel and a good man never seeks his own glory in doing the use which he loves, he is said not to speak of himself but of the Lord To seek one's own glory is to do the works of unrighteousness. Those who pursue the image of their own personality resist the Lord's injunction to reform, and to shun evils as sins in order to obtain eternal life.
     The Lord said: "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment."* To judge according to the appearance is to judge from self, but to judge righteous judgment is to judge from a truth which has been given man from the Lord. Man can never generate truth from himself but is dependent upon his Creator for its continued supply. If man fails to judge righteous judgment, he is like those evil spirits in our lesson who believed that evils and punishments are from the Divine and not from hell. This, of course, contradicts the entire purpose of the Divine, which has for its sole end the protection and salvation of all men. However, the insistence of a selfish will can never see a Divine purpose.
     * John 7: 24.

     The Jews at the time of the Lord believed, of course, that evils were from Jehovah. Modern man, if he accepts a God, believes the Divine permits evils. Because evil is permitted, modern man reproaches God, however, for allowing evil to befall him. Our century has been called the "century of anxiety." The anxious spirit of our age stems in part from the belief that worry and fear are inherent in man. It is a visceral reaction to adverse outside stimuli because it is thought that circumstances in the outside world are controlled by external forces, not by Providence. Lacking a Divine hand to guide our world we are left with materialistic determinism. On the other hand, if we accept the idea that God is transcendent, we also accept the idea that He operates from afar and has no real interest in our control over an increasingly evil and chaotic world. The obvious conclusion of such gloomy contemplations is that God is not concerned, God is not involved, God has little interest in His creation. Why shun evils against a God who does not care? Why work against evil if we do not care?
     However, in the New Church we are asked specifically to combat evil.

435

No man has told us; the Lord Himself has. A New Church answer to the critics would be specific: if the Divine did not permit evils to come forth, man could not possibly be free. The Writings say directly: "He who permits [evils] and does not take away [evils] when he is able [or has the power] appears to will and thus to be the cause of [evil]. But the Divine wills nothing but good; and if it were to prevent and take away the evils, that is, those of punishment, vastations, persecutions, temptations and the like, then it would will evil, for then such persons could not amend, and evil would increase until it has the dominion over good."*
     * AC 8227: 2.
     Since the Lord loves man's freedom as the apple of His eye, we may be content with the statement of the Writings that man must as of himself shun evils as sins against God, and thereby receive a new conscience which will receive a new will. This heavenly will can remain with him only when he has clearly rejected evil and seen its implications in his everyday life. Our question, then, is this: should man hate evil?
     In one of the Psalms we are taught: "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil."* However, in the Gospels the Lord taught love instead of hatred. Nothing the Lord ever said indicates that He hated evil. The Writings reveal, moreover, that there is no other source of hatred than hell. We are clearly in a predicament. Since we know that no hatred can flow from the Lord or from any of the heavens, and since we know that no good man or angel practices hatred, we have to relegate hatred to hell. However, there is the appearance of hatred in the natural manifestation of zeal. We are taught: "Those who have genuine charity are zealous for what is good; and their zeal may appear in the external man as the flaming fire of anger; yet on the repentance of the adversary this instantly dies down and is appeased."**
     * Psalm 97: 10.
     ** TCR 403.

     Knowing that only good flows in from the Lord's heavenly kingdom and evil or hatred from the hells, it is clear that no good man can hate or be angry with evil, and still be called a good man. The frame of mind we are asked in the Writings to adopt is that of aversion. This aversion is the "shunning" of evils-the term we so often meet in the Writings. We are asked by the Lord not to embrace evil, but to turn away from it; to turn our attention from evil so that the influx from the hells has no power over us. If a good man must fight evil, he must do so without anger or vindictiveness or desire to hurt whoever or whatever caused that evil to be brought to his attention in the first place. We must be especially careful not to come to the conclusion that evil must be hated with a vengeance.

436

We should remember that devils hate evils, but the evils of others, not their own. The striking characteristic of hell is to hide from oneself and to project one's shortcomings onto others. Evils seen in another can very quickly be condemned by evil people. This is one of the ways in which devils torment one another. As New Church men we should be on guard against attitudes which tend to judge our neighbor unjustly. We should take care that our thoughts do not breathe revenge or a spirit of unjust retribution. The thoughts of the man of the New Church are to be derived from the true teachings of the Word, those teachings which will lift the mind towards the heavens and towards the Lord's work in His kingdom. This is thought which forgives evils, which shuns evil, turns its back upon evil and moves away from it.

     When the man of the New Church actually endeavors to judge righteous judgment and turn away from evils because they are sins against God, he feels uncertain of himself. At first he feels uneasiness; later, perhaps, anxiety; and perhaps finally torment itself. But this can go on only as long as he is ignorant of, or forgets, the truth that evils flow in from hell and not from himself. By himself man does not have any form of power; he needs to receive all power, whether it be of good or evil, from the other world. For this reason he is with spirits while he lives in the world, and it is up to him to choose by which spirits he will be accompanied.* Knowing this, his doubt can be turned to certainty, particularly when the mind's attention focuses from truth on an evil, to register its origin. As soon as man does focus his mind, the power of hell must recede. By Divine law, we are told, it has been ordained that evils cannot withstand the presence of the sphere of good. What we should pay attention to, therefore, is what kind of sphere we invite from the other world. This sphere we can know, recognize, accept or reject. The Writings tell us that we are utterly free in this regard.
     * See AC 5036.
     "The spirits who are with man, both those conjoined with heaven and those conjoined with hell, never flow into man from their own memory and its thought, for if they should flow in from their own thought, whatever belonged to them would seem to the man to be his. Nevertheless there flows into man through them out of heaven an affection belonging to the love of good and truth, and out of hell an affection belonging to the love of evil and falsity. Therefore as far as man's affection agrees with the affection that flows in, so far that affection is received by him in his thought, since man's interior thought is wholly in accord with his affection or love; but as far as man's affection does not agree with that affection it is not received. . . .

437

Since thought is not introduced into man through spirits, but only an affection for good and an affection for evil, man has choice, because he has freedom; and is thus able by his thought to receive good and reject evil, since he knows from the Word what is good and what is evil. Moreover, whatever he receives by thought from affection is appropriated to him; but whatever he does not receive by thought from affection is not appropriated to him. All this makes evident the nature of the influx of good out of heaven with man, and the nature of the influx of evil out of hell."*
     * HH 298.
     Since man is thus free to choose which influence he will acquire, he can know who is with him when he examines the images of his thought produced by affection. The thought is his, whereas its source, the affection, flows in. Because man is asked to shun evils as sins against God, he should remember that one of the favorite occupations of the hells is to accuse man on the very ground that he thinks he has reformed. In the name of religion the hells will accuse him and will torment him. An example of this is given in Arcana 5036: 4, where we are told that evil spirits insinuate the thought that neighbors ought to be benefited, and indeed remind the man that he has approved of this, and has even gone so far as to benefit the neighbor. But when he refuses to do good to those who are evil, the evil spirits immediately attack him for inconsistency and charge him with thinking and speaking what is false. They also blame him for not thinking according to what he has told others. Man feels this accusation in his conscience, and he becomes uneasy and uncertain.

     Such insinuations are of the most stealthy type, and unless man were told by the Lord that evils should be shunned on all accounts and that he had been given new truths to do so, he would have no power against evil. We are told that the actual shunning of evils as sins against God requires that man must examine himself continually. This means examining his actions, intentions and thoughts. If he finds that which is against God he must confess his sins before the Lord; then desist from the evils and lead a new life.* When man petitions the Lord for power to resist evil, that, we are told, is specifically an act of the as-of-self. Unless man were in truths he would be unable to see evils and therefore falsities. For the same reason he would be unable to desist from these evils and to fight against them. Yet we are told by the Lord that if we shun evils as sins and come to Him we will receive as much as we desire of the truth of the Word.**
     * See Life 106.
     ** See F 12.

438

     So why must we shun evils as sins against God? For the reason that man has no life in himself, and particularly since his hereditary aptitudes incline to evil, not to good. Let us emphasize incline; man is not actually evil until he chooses to be. "Man does not produce anything evil and false from himself, but it is the evil spirits with him who produce it, and at the same time make the man believe that he does it of himself," we are told in Arcana 761. The same number says that the hells specialize in reminding people of past misdeeds. When these deeds are firmly established in the memory, so that man not only recognizes them as evils but agrees that these are evils he has actually thought or done, then the very devils who brought these evils to his attention turn round and accuse him. This most despicable act of backstabbing is extremely delightful to them.
     Have you heard of similar methods being used in the world today? Does this type of slander sound familiar to you? Perhaps it is reminiscent of the commentators on radio or TV who dig up scandals and later accuse society or certain individuals in it. Stirring up embers in order to reflect one's own ingenuity by condemning others is an act of evil. We are not asked to follow it.
     So why should man shun evils as sins against God? Because it is the will of our Maker that we do so. Because it pleases Him, because by so doing man looks beyond himself to God. By shunning evils as sins against God he turns his back upon the hells, pitying rather than condemning them. When you give your thoughts to the Lord the world may hate you, but no devil of hell or accuser on earth can hurt you.
     By turning to the Lord we ask Him for help to do His will, to follow where His Providence leads. In the Lord we are safe; in Him we will find peace from anxiety and tribulation. For He has told us: "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light."* Amen.
     * Matthew 11: 28-30.

     LESSONS:     John 7:1-24. Arcana Coelestia 8227.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 462, 463, 495.
     PRAYERS     Liturgy, nos. 69, 87.

439

LIMITATIONS OF MISSIONARY WORK 1973

LIMITATIONS OF MISSIONARY WORK Rev. DONALD L. ROSE 1973

     The spread of the Christian Church by preaching from the Word was a necessity.* But how could it be accomplished? Ideally it should have been accomplished by Christians who would be willing to do the work involved from a love of use. But they had to be free to do this, or not to do it.
     * See DP 257.
     And supposing their zeal were insufficient to the task? How could the work be accomplished? Much of the basic work could be accomplished by the stirring of loves of selfish men whose ambitions for dominion and glory could be channeled to the performance of use. This is not ideal, but man being what he is, the Lord frequently "moves the wicked to do good to others."* The wicked often work with "greater zeal" and "perform more uses" than the good.**
     * Char. 8.
     ** DP 250.
     This happened in the necessary spread of Christianity around the world, and, as we shall see, it even happened in a striking way in the time of the twelve apostles. Generally we may say it was necessary that the work should be done.

     "But this could be done only by an advance guard who would do this with zeal; and none would do this except those who were in an ardor resembling zeal that was from the fire of self-love. By such a fire they were at first stirred up to preach the Lord and to teach the Word."*
     * DP 254.

In another translation this is rendered: "This, however, could only be done by leaders who would act with zeal; nor were others found but those who from the fire of self-love burned with a zealous ardor."
     Because of the limitations of missionaries the Divine Providence accomplished the spread of religion also through less direct means, even through the precepts of pagan religions.

     "The Gospel could not reach through missionaries all that dwell in the whole world, and yet religion could be communicated in various ways even to the nations that occupy the remote parts of the earth, therefore this has been accomplished by the Divine Providence. For no man gets his religion from himself, but through another, who has either learned directly from the Word, or by transmission from others who have learned it, that there is a God, that there is a heaven and a hell. . . "*
     * DP 257.

440

     Those ambitions which brought about world-wide trade were also used. People who did not intend to be missionaries traveled for commercial reasons to other nations and brought the Word with them. The Lord used this, too, as a means of spreading light in a wonderful way.*
     * See Acts 15: 7.

     "Let Providence Take Care of It"

     It is very common for people to shrug off responsibility with the thought that if a use is vital Providence will look after it. It is true that if one person will not do the work other means will be found. Suppose parents were to say: "I needn't bother to feed or rear my children. Providence will look after them." This seldom happens, because in Providence parents are stirred by powerful loves, sometimes zealously furthering the welfare of their children for the sake of their own glory. A less fanciful thing to suppose is a parent saying: "I will not bother to teach religion to my children. If it is conducive to their salvation, surely Providence will do it without me?" Such an attitude can even take on a kind of seeming piety when one says: "I ought to wait for immediate influx." But the Writings say: "If he slackens his effort, thinking as has been said, he is not then a subject into which the Lord can operate."* An individual can become a drop-out, and uses will continue. A group can ignore a use, and other means will be found. This happened in Christian missionary work.
     * AC 1712: 3.

     The Limited Zeal of the Apostles

     We are told that when there was evangelization to be done in the spiritual world, the twelve apostles were called and given certain tasks: and we read: "This command they are executing with great zeal and industry."* Great zeal and industry.
     * TCR 108.
     These same men had been in this world directly commanded to the work of evangelization. Although they obeyed, their zeal was less than ideal, and they actually ignored an important aspect of the command. The evidence is clear that if a man named Paul had not come upon the scene the apostles would not have performed the necessary work of spreading Christianity. If Peter had not interceded on behalf of the work Paul was doing the rest might have opposed it.*
     * See DP 256: 3.
     Peter, like the other apostles, had been slow to face the implications of the Lord's command to go and "teach all nations." This plainly meant that Christianity was to be spread to Gentiles.

441

But Peter and the rest worked at spreading it among the Jews, and did nothing about the Gentiles until an influential centurion literally asked to be converted. Peter complied only after being urged in a spiritual vision to do so.* Subsequently Peter came to see that this work was right and of the Lord's command. In their zeal the apostles were bolstered in the excitement of miraculous occurrences, and even though they were good men, their zeal in teaching was partly stirred by the fires of their own ambitions.**
     * See Acts 10.
     ** See AC 3417:3, 3857:7.
     The outstanding missionary was undoubtedly Paul. He could rightly claim in the spiritual world that he had done more work than Peter.* He was a selfish man before he was stirred to do the work he did, and that selfishness continued as the fire of his life.**
     * See SD mm 4631.
     ** See SD 4412.
     In certain respects the spread of the New Church will be like that of the Christian Church.* But it will not be spread through a miraculous faith, and we will not, like Peter, be urged in open visions to do the work. We are asked to shun selfish loves that we may enter into uses from a love of uses.
     * See AE 732; AR 547.

     Do We Love Missionary Work?

     To ask whether New Church people love missionary work is to invite a generalization that might be unjustly applied. But a fair answer N seems to be that we love the end, but we do not yet love the means.
     It is not insincere to love the end without loving the means. It is usually just a form of immaturity, frequently seen in various fields. The young often extol an end with a naive passion, while the means tend to turn them off. To call this simple laziness would not be right. The love of the end has a commendable idealism in it, and the truth often is that the means have just not been thought about. Swedenborg was a mature thinker when he opened the Principia with the observation: "But he who wishes to reach the end, must desire also to provide the means,"
     The Writings seem to emphasize the fact that religious knowledge is to be spread "mediately" and not immediately.* Men tend to imagine that it can take place immediately, that is, without means. A man hangs down his hands and says: "I ought to wait for immediate influx," and we are told that this is like "one who would teach nothing unless the words were put into him; or as if one would attempt nothing unless he were put into action like one without will."**

442

It has not been uncommon in the New Church to imagine vaguely that some day we will be put into action in missionary work apart from our determination and initiative. Some have been inclined to wait for an influx of new members "brought by Providence" apart from our means, and also to wait for an influx of light into the minds of other people apart from specific efforts to distribute the books of the new revelation.
     * See DP 254.
     ** AC 1712.
     Has our zeal and industry in spreading the books been what it should be? Most would answer that we should be doing more. Somehow the terms "internal evangelization" and "external evangelization" have been coined. The phrases do not seem to occur in the Writings, and they might just give the impression that to teach religious knowledge to a student in school is somehow more "internal" than conveying the knowledge to an interested adult! But the point is valid that there are distinct fields of evangelization and that one of them needs more attention.

     If we are to make progress in that field, what form will that progress take? What new developments can we hope for? Will we find a few more passages in the Writings than those that have appeared in papers already written on evangelization? Will we develop more emphatic statements about our dedication to the end? Or shall we not rather look for the most significant progress in coming to terms with means?
     He who loves the end ought also to love the means. It is in the area of means that we are uncertain and even uncomfortable. Some have sincerely believed that we will one day discover some exotic means that have never entered into our imaginations before. But a more realistic attitude may be developed when we consider that the means employed in New Church education after all have not been mysterious or drastically different from ordinary educational means. Perhaps we will find that the most suitable means are quite simple and obvious. Let us expect and be prepared for two prosaic elements. They are the expenditure of money and good honest work.
     If it does turn out that the best means are found to be down to earth and all too real, will it discourage us? Will our idealistic love, our romantic love, of the end become disenchanted, and will our zeal become cool? On the contrary, it is more likely that we will find a more genuine delight, the delight which refreshingly attends the actual performance of uses. Zeal will be enhanced through industry; and as we enter more into the means, then the organization we serve will become more and more in this field a "subject into which the Lord can operate."*

443

* AC 1712: 3.
TEACHER 1973

TEACHER Jr. EDWARD B. LEE 1973

     Having become a college teacher at a fairly advanced age, the author views his job more for what can be done for the student than for what he can add to the world's knowledge of the subject. Therefore, the approach considered for this article is that of an outline of the qualifications for being an ideal teacher from the point of view of the effect on the student. The main points, reinforced by reference to the Writings, are taken from a series of lectures by George and Alice Palmer published in a book entitled The Teacher, Houghton-Mifflin, (1908). These points are that a teacher should have:
     1)     An aptitude for vicariousness
     2)     An already accumulated wealth of knowledge
     3)     An ability to invigorate life through this knowledge
     4)     A readiness to be forgotten
     1)     A teacher's task is not primarily the acquisition of knowledge, but the imparting of it. What constitutes the ideal teacher is not to be a scholar, but to make scholars; to enjoy what they may accomplish and not what he may. Like Chaucer's clerke, "gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche."

     "We have no right to tumble out in a mass whatever comes into our heads, leaving to that feeble folk in our classroom the work of finding it in what order they may; instead we must shape it for ready access to those far less interested than we. Noblesse oblige-One who would be a great teacher must be a nimble servant, his head full of others' needs."*
     * The Teacher, p. 21.

     The business teacher creates an affection for the subject on the part of his student, and hopefully starts the chain of events, beginning with this affection of knowing.

     "By it [knowing] he learns many things which will be of use to him-the details that relate to his business; this then becomes his use, with which he is affected. Thus the affection of use makes the beginning, and this produces an affection for the means, by which he masters his business, which is his use."*
     * DLW 25.

     This aptitude for vicariousness is really a simple statement of the basic truth that a teacher is an instrument, a droplet in the ocean of the Divine Providence, whose skills are not his but are absorbed from the navigation guides provided for the safe guidance of his charges, whose safe arrival in port is his only concern.

444

     2) If these hungry (?) pupils are to draw their nourishment from us, and we are their source of supply, teachers must have a reasonably full storehouse of knowledge about their subject. Here an older person has the advantage of experience, for he learns that all knowledge is his province and that he can reinforce his colleagues. The accounting instructor, for example, can call the attention of his students to the glories of the language, or the English teacher can explain, Micawber like, the virtues of living within income. We must all prepare more matter than can be used, since we should not teach right up to the edge of our knowledge with a fear of falling off, which our students will discover. We must "move freely across our subject, calling attention to the many mansions which exist around it, so that their minds may swell and they gain eagerness to enter regions of which they had not previously thought."*
     * The Teacher, p. 18.
     As New Church men we know that this wealth of "scientifics" exists, not for itself, but for its application, or its sowing. Spreading truth requires much seed, for some of it will fall on poor soil. The Lord will bless this seed, though the sower may not know the plant that will grow, for "of what consequence is it for a man to know how the seed grows up, provided he knows how to plough and harrow the land-and when he reaps his harvest, to bless God?"*
     * AE 1153e.
     With the sunshine of research and the rain of change, it becomes necessary for teachers to keep adding more storage space in the barns of their minds for the new crops that are growing in greater quantities and which must be gleaned, separated, and kept available in the form of good food to satisfy the more discerning appetites of those in our classrooms.

     3) It is the teacher's role to see that the onslaught of knowledge does not enfeeble. A book is an imperfect instructor; its truth needs to be reflected and to shine through a zealous interpreter before it can exert a vital force on any reader. Some teachers say they could do better if only the students cared to learn, but then there would be little need of teachers. Hence the kindling of interest is of the first magnitude. It is necessary to have an unshakable confidence that others may soon see and enjoy what has enriched us. Our chief concern must be those who are unawakened. These sleepy ones are the object of our invigoration so that they may gain curiosity, thereby strengthening their will to perceive with affection and thence, with help, to develop a preference for good over evil.

445

     "Scientifics are a receptacle of good. . . . The scientifics that enter the memory are always introduced by means of some affection; those that are not introduced by any affection do not stick there, but slip away. . . . Scientifics therefore together with goods form as it were a marriage, and hence it is that when this good is excited, the scientifics with which it is conjoined are also at once excited, and conversely, when the scientifics are recalled, the good conjoined with them also comes forth."*
     * AC 5489.

     It is this process of "exciting" our students that makes us entertainers as well as instructors, and which requires us to become somewhat acquainted with the many arts of the theater and developments in the new fields of audio-vision.
     4) It is perfectly human to desire to leave footprints on the sands of time, but the Lord sets the example to show us all the folly of desiring only earthly fame. He who would be master of all is servant of all. The teacher, likewise, should not be concerned with being remembered but with being forgotten, so that those who have known him will have more room in their hearts and minds for the truths he has taught them.
     Many a man is ready to be generous, if thereby he can win praise or honor or reputation, but the teacher lives not for himself only but for those he serves. His aim is to be the medium through which truth may shine into opening minds. They should not be encouraged to remember his personality, his idiosyncrasies, or even his scholarship, but the concepts which he laid bare for them. "We gather what seems to us of consequence and pour it out upon our classes in abundance knowing that some will be shed, but then again, some slight word might just happen to be that nutrition which a mind grasps, is caught up, and absorbed, as part of that life."*
     * The Teacher, p. 36.
     Out upon the waters our bread is cast, and if we are wise, we do not attempt to trace its return.

     [EDITORIAL NOTE: Mr. Lee is Associate Professor of Administrative Science in the Community College of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.]

446

RESPONSE 1973

RESPONSE Rev. LOUIS B. KING 1973

     (Delivered to the Third Session of the Twenty-Sixth General Assembly, Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 13, 1973.)

     "Then Samuel answered, Speak; for Thy servant heareth."* Samuel answered and he listened. He responded to the Divine and he obeyed. The essence of human life is response. Its intended quality or true form is obedience-affirmation of the Divine will. In the lovely story of the child Samuel-dressed in his white linen ephod, learning the duties of the priesthood under the watchful eye of Eli, the old priest, in the tabernacle of God at Shiloh-we have a wonderful picture of response. Samuel at first believed that it was Eli who called to him. So does the man of the church, in the early states of reformation, look to the priesthood for authority in Divine things. But Eli instructed the child to answer directly to the Lord. A faithful priesthood teaches the truth in order to lead the laity to the good of life, that is, to the Lord. "And Samuel answered, Speak; for Thy servant heareth."
     * I Samuel 3: 10.

     Man:     A Vessel Receptive of and Responsive to Life

     Intrinsically man is nothing but a response. He is a vessel receptive of life-the "dust of the ground" to which the Divine of the Lord, signified by the "breath of lives," is adjoined. Notice! The dust-formed man, the receptacle, was not called a "living soul" until after the adjunction of the breath of lives.* Only thus is the as-of-self response established and individual life given. In man the image and likeness of God are to be found in the faculties of rationality and liberty, with which each human being is Divinely endowed at birth. More specifically the image of God is the presence of these faculties in man. God's likeness, on the other hand, is the employment of these faculties as Divinely intended to effect an affirmative response which freely and rationally acknowledges that all life, all good and truth, are present in man by influx from the Lord.** That man is free to confirm the appearance of self-life or acknowledge freely and rationally that all life is from the Divine is represented by the two trees placed in the Garden of Eden, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
     * See Genesis 2: 7.
     ** See CL 132.

447

     So man is a free agent in spiritual things: a creature of God, in His image and likeness, endowed with a peculiar creativity capable of responding to the Divine influx either affirmatively or negatively. It is God's purpose that he shall respond affirmatively, that he may be conjoined to the Lord through a life of use to his fellow man. His life's use is measured in terms of his response.

     Response Is Essential to Conjunction with the Lord

     Conjunction with the Lord is the end and purpose of creation-a heaven from the human race. Now if there is to be conjunction there must be three things: 1) action, 2) reception and 3) reaction.* To satisfy these requisites there must be: a) two separate entities in a mutual approach or reciprocal inclination; b) a contiguous relationship between them; and c) a sensing of oneness or sharing of a common life and delight. Only then can the conjunction be complete. In the case of the Lord and man these conditions are met gradually, as man regenerates.
     * See CL 293:5.

     The Lord Alone Acts, Man Alone Reacts (As-of-Self)

     All action is predicated of the Lord. He alone lives. To acknowledge this is the highest delight and joy of the angels.* All influx, then, is of life and goes forth from the Lord who alone lives and acts. Man alone receives. "The esse of man is nothing else than the receiving of the eternal which proceeds from the Lord."** "There is nothing in man except the faculty of receiving."*** Since "the reception of life is that of which existence is predicated,"**** "every person has his being from conception and his manifesting from birth."***** It is because man is finite that all reception is predicated of him. Reception was predicated of the Lord only as to His Human while He was yet in the world and before that Human was fully glorified.****** After the glorification reception has no reference to Him.
     * See AC 6325.
     ** AC 3938: 2.
     *** Conv. Ang. 9.
     **** AC 3938: 3.
     ***** AC 2621.
     ****** See AC 5417.
     Now although reception is predicated of man as to the vessels of the human organic, we cannot think of it as something passive. Reception implies influx, and influx is life. Therefore life never terminates.

448

It passes on and through and out. Man passes on to the spiritual world; he does not die. Therefore whenever there is reception, reaction is involved, for it immediately follows. Reception, the Writings explain, is the reciprocal of influx.* The active is really the reactive also.** Man, therefore, is no agent, but a reagent as of self.*** Only by being a reagent can a thing be a containant.**** The appearance is that man acts, but the Lord acts into him and reacts through him*****; and we are surely familiar with the many teachings that truths are not really received by man until they are lived by him.
     * See AC 8776, 2912, 4096, 8340.
     ** See AC 6262: 2.
     *** See Life 107.
     **** See DLW 58e.
     ***** See Infl. 14: 4.
     So reaction, the third essential of conjunction, is predicated of both man and God together, in that the Divine acts upon man by influx and reacts through him with his consent, producing efflux or the as-of-self response. Action, then, is of the Lord. Reception is of man. Reaction is both the Divine action in and through man and his co-operative consent. But since reaction is formed according to the state of the reacting vessel it is credited to man.* Efflux includes reception and reaction, combining them into one effect-response.
     * See AC 5828: 31; TCR 814.

     In the letter of Scripture the verb, to answer, is used, in some form, in over 600 places: the Lord or His agent, such as a prophet, answering the people; the people or their representative answering the Lord. The appearance is that God and man interact and inter-react, but this is not so. The Lord never reacts or responds to man. Man changes his state, modifies his vessel, and therefore qualifies the effect of Divine influx upon him. Influx is constant and unchanging. It is said to accommodate itself to reception only because of some change in the receptacle. The Lord wills to give the greatest possible happiness to each man. The giving never changes, never diminishes; only man's response changes so that he is affected differently. The Lord is the only active, while man is the only reactive. It is a vital fact to be recognized by New Church men and women that the Lord not only acts into man but reacts in and through him, the man feeling the reaction as if it originated in himself. On the basis of this appearance of self-life individuality is granted to man and reciprocal conjunction of God and man is made possible.*
     * See AC 4380, 6262: 2; Life 107; DLW 58e; Infl. 14:4.

449

     There Could Be No Conjunction of Man With the Lord Apart From the Appearance of Self-Life

     Conjunction with the Lord is the end and purpose of creation.

     "Between the Lord's Divine essence and His Human essence there was a union; but between the Lord and the human race there is conjunction. . . . Jehovah or the Lord is life. . . . His Human essence also was made life . . . and between life and life there is union. Whereas man . . . is but a receptacle of life . . . and when life flows into a receptacle of life, there is conjunction. . . . The principal and the instrumental do indeed appear to be conjoined together as if they were one, but still they are not one; for the former is by itself and the latter is by itself. Man does not live from himself, but the Lord in His mercy adjoins man to Himself and thereby causes him to live to eternity; and because the Lord and man are thus distinct it is called conjunction."*
     * AC 2021.

     "Between the Lord and Jehovah there was union, but between man and the Lord there is not union, but conjunction . . . man by no means conjoins himself by his own power, but by the power of the Lord; so that the Lord conjoins man with Himself."* "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives; and man became a living soul."** Notice once again that "man" is referred to prior to the "breath of lives." He is but a dead, organic vessel apart from the Infinite. However, he becomes an eternal being when the Lord's life is adjoined to him as if his own.
     * AC 2004: 3.
     ** Genesis 2: 7.

     "Eternal things are all things which are proper to the Lord, and from Him are seemingly proper to man. The things proper to the Lord are all infinite and eternal, thus without time, consequently without limit and without end. Those things which are thence as it were proper to man are similarly infinite and eternal; but none of them is of man; but they are of the Lord alone in man."*
     * DP 219.

     "Inasmuch as the finite has nothing of the Divine in itself, there is in man or angel no such thing as is his own, not even the least; for a man or angel is finite, and only a receptacle in itself dead; what is living of it is from the Divine proceeding conjoined to it through contiguity, which appears to it as its own."*
     * DP 57e.

     Because Divine life, good and truth, can enter into man by influx and be perceived by man as if they were his very own, the Lord can be in man. Man is said to receive Divine life, good and truth, when he not only perceives their presence but acknowledges their Divine origin and endeavors to co-operate with their leading. Influx can be predicated only of the Lord-the Infinite. Reception can be predicated only of man- the finite. But because the Infinite can be in the finite as if in its own, there can be conjunction.*
     * See DP 54.
     Remember! Reception on man's part is not a passive experience but a reactive or reciprocal response, as of self. Reception is therefore termed in the Writings "the reciprocal of influx."*

450

"Reception is not anything," the number continues, "unless there is also application to use." "The Lord cannot love and dwell with man unless He is received."**
     * AC 8439.
     ** Life 102.
"And to live according to truths is reception."* "To prepare oneself for the reception of God is to live according to Divine order."**
     * AE 198.
     ** TCR 110: 5.
     "The Lord's Divine love is such that it wills that what is its own shall he man's, and as these things cannot be man's because they are Divine, it makes them to be as if they were man's. In this way reciprocal conjunction is effected, that is, man is in the Lord, and the Lord is in man, according to the words of the Lord Himself in John (14: 20); for this would not be possible if there were not in the conjunction something belonging as it were to man. What a man does as if from self he does as if from his own will, from his own affection, from his own liberty, thence from his own life; unless these were present on man's part as if they were his there could be no receptivity because nothing reactive, thus no covenant and no conjunction."*
     * AE 97l: 5.

     According to this number, reception cannot be separated from the appearance that what is adjoined becomes a part of that to which it is adjoined; when yet reception of the Divine means the exercise of Divine things as if they were man's own. However, this adjunction to the finite does not finite the Divine, for if this were so then the Divine will that His infinite things should be as if man's own would never be fulfilled.
     But let us consider the difference between that which proceeds to man from God and that which returns to God from and through man. The former is the infinite life which adjoins itself to man through his soul. But when that life returns there is adjoined to it something of limitation from man-the appearance that the life is his own. Thus, although the infinite life remains Divine after its adjunction to man, still, man does not feel its presence as it is in itself, or as it is in the Lord; but he feels it as his own finite life, when yet it is the Lord in him. By acting into man's soul, the Lord adjoins Himself to man; and when this life acting into man's soul reaches the ultimates of the human organic and is returned as a breath of life, man as it were conjoins himself with the Lord by consenting to the action and reaction of the Divine in him. Thus man and God act together as one, which constitutes conjunction or the active and reciprocal of eternal life.
     But what is the cause of man's limited perception of the Divine presence in him?

451

It is an appearance which arises from the receiving vessel itself because that vessel is created and finite; and when it is caused to live by the immanent presence of the Divine, all that proceeds from it is finite and limited, whereas that which proceeds through it from the Lord is Divine.

     The Lord Is in Us and We in Him

     "Because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you."* "Abide in Me, and I in you. . . He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing."** The Lord abides in us by influx. We abide in Him by reception, for reception involves man's total response or efflux; it is a reciprocal response made possible by the as of self reality. It is a law of order, therefore, that influx shall accommodate itself to efflux.
     * John 14: 19, 20.
     ** John 15: 4, 5.

     "With man there is a connection with the Divine, and his inmost is of such a nature that he can receive the Divine, and not only receive it but also make it his own by acknowledgment and affection, thus by reciprocation. He, therefore, can never die because he has been implanted in the Divine, and therefore is in what is infinite and eternal, not merely through influx thence, but also through the reception of it."* "Those who are in heaven and truly in the church are said to be 'in the Lord' when they are in the good of love and in the truth of faith from Him."** "Angels there are in the Lord because they are in the sphere of the Divine truth proceeding from Him: and therefore the Divine things in the Word's internal sense relative to the Lord and to the glorification of His Human so greatly affect them that they perceive thence all the blessedness of their wisdom and intelligence."*** "So the Lord dwells in a man in what is His own, and the man dwells in those things which are from the Lord, and thus dwells in the Lord."****
     * AC 5114: 4.
     ** AC 10,157e.
     *** AC 5316e.
     **** Life 102.

     To receive and be received of the Lord! To dwell in Him and He in us! Here is the end of creation, a heaven from the human race, a state of conjunction for which each of us is to strive in our response. Let us not forget: conjunction describes a) the mutual approach of God and man; b) their acting together as if one, from the same life; and c) their contiguous relationship to eternity. The Lord's approach to man, and thus His action, is His influx as life, as Divine good and truth. But man's approach to the Lord is his acknowledgment that all life, all good and truth, are Divine and from the Lord. Man's co-operative action is the Lord's life acting and reacting in and through him by his consent.*
     * See DP 54.

452

     The Divine of the Lord is always infinite. It comes to man in three ways: immediately into his soul as life; mediately into the interiors of his conscious mind, as the enlightenment of good through the heavens; and as forms of revealed truth from without. The Divine is never finited by reception; it only seems to be because limitations, which are appearances arising from the finite vessel, are adjoined to the Divine, and thus limit man's awareness of its presence as well as its effects in his life. All that is genuinely good and true proceeding from the life of man draws its essence from the Divine that is in and through him; while all limitation is an extension of the finite, is from the man himself. Thus the limitation which proceeds from man is adjoined to the Divine proceeding from the Lord, so that they appear as one proceeding; they appear as the finite life, thought, perception and affection of man, his response! Nevertheless, all that is genuinely good and true in these is the Divine of the Lord appearing; whereas all that is limited and proprial in them is man's own, adjoined to the Divine.*
     * See DP 219.

     The Life of Use-A Positive Response

     The capacity to receive and react as of self! The ability to respond positively to all forms of influx! What an exciting, unique potential each man has been given with which to fill the needs of his fellow beings and thereby share in the blessed delights of heavenly use!
     Divine life is action. Human life is response or reaction as of self. Man cannot live, and fail to respond. The question is, what will be his response? Will it be affirmative or negative, heavenly or infernal?*
     * See AC 256S.

     Response-Ability As a Specific Church

     As New Church men and women it is our responsibility to join in the performance of those uses which belong to the church specific.* This means that we have been given the capacity to react positively to the Lord's will that His Divine shall dwell with men. Unless somewhere in the world the Word is understood and the visible Lord in His Divine Human is worshiped the human race would be cut off from consociation with heaven and conjunction with the Lord.
     * SS 79; HD 242-244; HH 308; AC 2853, 6637; TCR 245; SS 78.
     What greater need does universal humanity have than to become increasingly the beneficiary of open channels of influx out of heaven, that they who acknowledge a God and live in something of charity may be saved?

453

As New Church men and women we have the peculiar capacity and the duty to react to the Divine in such a way that this need may be fulfilled. It becomes our responsibility, then, to develop the distinctiveness of the New Church; to approach the Lord in His Word and pattern our thinking, willing, speaking and acting from Him alone. Our response to this need as well as our own regeneration go hand in hand. Also, the continued development of New Church education, community living and church extension must parallel this growth, as they also are vital needs of the organized New Church. In the last analysis, let us not forget, the New Church is individual. Therefore it becomes the duty of each one of us to search the Word for enlightenment and incentive to respond positively to the needs that come to our perception in all our human relationships. Everything that the Lord does for man He does through man, through man's as of self response. Again let us ask, what will be our response?

     The Church in Man and Man in the Church

     Membership in the General Church is founded upon individual acknowledgement that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one only God, that His Human is Divine and that in the Writings, which are the Word, He appears visibly and immediately present. As the Word the Writings provide us not only with an immediate vision of the Lord but with a formula of response to His Divine will that may exercise direction and control over our thoughts, affections, rational judgments, our words and our deeds.
     The New Church is to consist of those men in whom the church is-those who read and study diligently, and who reflect deeply and with humility upon the teachings of the Word for the New Church. For it is the understanding of the Word that makes the church*; not a superficial understanding or intellectual scrimmage, but a deep, reflective understanding fortified by sincere efforts to repent-an understanding of which it can be said that Divine truth is seen in the light of truth. Genuine affection for the truth is the heat that generates light. So man is in the light of heaven in so far as he is in the good of love.**
     * See SS 78.
     ** See AC 5411e, 5400, 6047, 5342: 3.
     When man loves the Lord and the neighbor, when he is affected by truth so that he perceives the good within it and thus the use to which it leads, then he is said to understand the Word spiritually and to love the good of life. This is the response the Lord seeks, the response which testifies that the church is truly within a man.
     So the New Church is essentially individual. The Lord is to rule each man according to his understanding of the Word.

454

And when we gather in Assembly-to worship together, to receive doctrinal instruction, to deliberate in matters of the church, to share our reflections and convictions-we strengthen the bonds of mutual understanding and charity and we share one another's inspiration as we offer to the Lord a free and united response to His leadership. The Lord governs His church primarily through the Word as received in the individual's understanding. As a body of men in whom the church is, the church external, organized for the performance of ecclesiastical uses, requires an external form of government, namely, that of the priesthood. As the Divinely appointed means for the governing of His church the office of the priesthood acts as a representative of the Lord whereby His Divine may be with men. Therefore priests are to be motivated by a love for the salvation of souls. Their primary duty or response to their sacred office is to teach the truth and lead thereby to the good of life, not to themselves but to the Lord who is the good of life. They are to expound the Word, take the lead in formulating doctrine out of the Word for the church's use, but this only for the purpose of bringing the laity ever more directly to the Word. Priests are to govern the organized bodies of the church that ecclesiastical uses may be protected and promoted among men. If the laity, under priestly leadership, goes increasingly to the Word, the priesthood has succeeded in leading to the good of life, that is, to the Lord in His Word. But in the degree that the laity fails to seek the Lord directly in His Word, the clergy have failed.
     In drawing and confirming doctrine from the Word as a guide to the policies and life of the organized church, the individual priest must acknowledge the limitations of his own understanding and his ability to accommodate and apply; and he should never assert any authority other than that which is manifest in the clear teaching of the Heavenly Doctrine. The laity must counsel the priesthood, then consent to its government. Those who accept principles of doctrine relating to the life of society, as offered by the priesthood must do so by mutual consent, but always holding such derived principles open to modification and change.

     The Word is infinite, eternal, absolute. It is the means whereby the "Lord is with man and is conjoined to him; for the Lord is the Word, and as it were speaks with man in it."* Men, however, adjoin fallacy, even falsity, to truth. The appearances with which the human understanding clothes the truth must be put off gradually, as light out of heaven illuminates the mind. Sincere, humble affection will open the

mind to the Lord, so that our understanding of the Word-the building of the church with us-may become an increasing reality.
     * SS 78.

455

     Our response must be open and humble, never stubbornly insistent that we momentarily understand the truth in its fullness. The final, absolute truth resides only in the Word itself. Nevertheless, at any point in time, our understanding of the Word must be the authority in our lives. But the mind that is kept malleable and affirmative to the Word itself will be receptive to new ideas, new applications, yea, an ever new response.
     The New Church depends upon open minds-affirmative minds, collective, studious and reflective minds. Only thus can there be adequate balance and yet creative thought that will blend into rich unity of understanding and action. The Lord governs each man's understanding immediately out of the Word. Mediately, through the affections and thoughts of associate spirits and men, there are provided contrasts, the perception of which sharpens and develops rationality or the human faculty itself.
     So does the Lord provide a communion or sharing of doctrine, affection, thought, words and action; and out of the rich and splendid unity that results the Gorand Man of heaven is formed and perfected. So we are told that the church with man is reckoned according to his understanding of the Word, while the church outside of him is composed of those in whom the church truly is.

     One of the uses of the church is to extend our thought into the spiritual world and invite mediate influx through the presence of many and varied angelic societies. Thought brings presence and love conjoins. At the same time the church is to provide for human relationships which enable us to share our mutual inspiration and delight through the support of and participation in common uses of worship, instruction, deliberation, formal education, missionary effort and social intercourse. These latter are organizational uses dependent upon many men, but they are particularly important because of their service to the individual: establishing the church itself-establishing a vision of the Lord in His Divine Human and a positive response to the Divine will in the mind, heart and outward life of each member. Here again is the use of Assemblies. Hundreds of individuals who acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ in His second coming, deliberating together, sharing their rich and diversified backgrounds and their individual approaches to the truth, New Church men and women in communion inviting a wealth of influx of new affections and enlightenment out of the New Christian Heaven to strengthen and enlarge the church on earth and its sphere of usefulness in the world.

456

Our responsibility, our ability to respond, our response, will be measured and judged by our determination to "seek the Lord where He may be found," in the Word for the New Church, that He who is the "way, the truth and the life," may guide our thought, affection and judgment as we collectively draw near to receive and share His counsel, illustration and enlightenment.

     Immediate Response, Or the Sin of Omission

     In I Samuel 29: 10 we read a simple phrase which inspired David to take decisive action at a most important time in his life: "As soon as ye be up early in the morning, and have light, depart." So many times in life each of us faces difficult decisions. Occasionally, after serious reflection, the way seems clear. The heart is aroused and the eye sees with clarity a duty to be done, a battle to be fought, or a work of charity to be dispensed. That is the time to act, without needless delay. That is the very moment to shun omission of duty as a sin. Still, is it not easy to indulge the weakness of procrastination, to allow another set of affections and thoughts to sidetrack one's good intention?
     It is so sad and so prevalent for men of the church to remain in the rapture of an early morning state-to enjoy and bask in the fresh inspiration of use envisioned without gathering sufficient intelligence and combining it with sufficient will power to go forward. And what is the result? A new state has grown old, an opportunity is missed without the fruition of the use which called it into being. We have seen a need, felt the glow of inspiration, perhaps even a foretaste of the delight of its fulfillment; but like the priest and the Levite in a certain Divine parable, we have managed to walk by on the other side, uninvolved, doing absolutely nothing.
     Why are we given borrowed states to enlighten our thoughts and affections if not to respond to the need and do the work? "As soon as ye are up early in the morning, and have light, depart!" Each feeling and thought for the welfare of others, if acted upon immediately, strengthens the character and develops that eternal and expansive love called charity which literally makes the life of heaven with angel and man. But to feel deeply and to be moved to sympathize with the needs of others without ultimating our good intentions is gradually and progressively to dull all human sensitivity and eventually calcify the very spirit itself. The man who has the opportunity and the desire to do good, as the good Samaritan did, yet does it not, accomplishes no real harm to the one whose need he ignores; but surely he destroys his own heart by such neglect.

457

     Constantly to be filled with fresh emotions and creative ideas without ever carrying them forth into useful deeds is to spawn that pernicious inertia called sentimentality. In so doing we devise an escape-mechanism with an inbuilt conscience salve. We listen to beautiful music and are rapt by inspired thoughts of what we will do for the neighbor-our fellow man, our country, our church, the Lord's kingdom. We plunge our conscious being into the narratives of heroic literature and set up for ourselves ideals even beyond those of the great authors.
     We glory in the peace and beauty and order of nature, resolving to return to the work-a-day world more thoughtful and devoted participants in the kingdom of uses. We sit in worship and listen to the Divine invitation to come unto the Lord, and we resolve to respond. We determine to read the Word regularly, to avail ourselves of the means of instruction which He has provided through the functions of the priesthood that we may be conjoined to Him in a life of use. But what happens? Invariably we hesitate too long, reclining in the light of theory and the delight of contemplation. In the meantime other interests move in and conveniently and instantly fabricate reasons to justify our lack of action. Though the morning dawns, and new light falls all around us, we fail to get up and be off; apathy becomes our bed-fellow.

     For the sake of illustration let us consider how the man of the church repeatedly but often impotently resolves to advance his knowledge and life in the doctrines. The morning comes. He is enlightened and inspired to see and feel the dynamic importance of eternal values and the blessing of the church he has been given. He has not availed himself of what the Lord has offered, and he admits his fault honestly and sincerely. He will do better, and in certain clearly defined and specific ways. The resolve is earnest, the vision is clear, the proposed reformation is a pleasant and exciting challenge. But he hesitates. Other thoughts come and, like the birds that pecked away the sweetmeats from the baskets in the baker's dream, steal away and subvert the good intentions of the heart; hardening them to become apathetic paving stones for the highway to hell.
     The fresh, soft light of early morning heralded an inspired vision of use. Sooner than the man of the church suspected or would admit, however, the mid-day heat of self-love was upon him and the mornings vision, like the dew, had melted away. Thoughts and feelings other than of use, which began as mere whispers, now boldly assert that he cannot attend church or class as long as his profession demands so much time and energy. He cannot study the Word and reflect upon its teachings as he should, and would like to do, when it means selfishly depriving his family of the little time he has allotted for them.

458

Besides, the cares and responsibilities of the day's occupation so exhaust him that he cannot concentrate upon or derive any benefit from study at night. Other thoughts will assert that the poor instruction he received during childhood and youth have left him unable to understand the Writings, even when rested. Yet others will declare that too much emphasis on religion in earlier days killed their affection for it and turned them away from the church.
     Again, it will be suggested that present ministers and teachers are at best uninspiring, covering the same teachings over and over again, with the same boring format. Occasionally the thought is expressed, and most certainly arises if not expressed, that we as individuals have learned a sufficiency of truth; that rather than attending classes and formal worship or reading individually, we will concentrate on living the truth we already have. Surely one taking this position must realize that living an outwardly moral and charitable life is not so difficult because it is in his own best interest so to live, as far as honor, reputation and gain are concerned. And surely he realizes that such an outward life of order does not necessarily bespeak an inner desire to approach the Lord daily and shun evils as sins against Him.
     More detrimental even than these thoughts is the conviction that our spiritual state is momentarily neutral: neither good nor bad, just overworked and over-occupied with other concerns. We will do better, quite soon, but for the moment we are of necessity otherwise involved. Of such indifference, however, the Lord says: "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth."*
     * Revelation 3:15, 16.

     Apathy, deliberate indifference to spiritual obligations, is not the result of any forces or extrinsic pressures over which man has no control. These conditions may well exist, but they present the occasion and not the cause of apathy, and they are always balanced by the direct leading of the Lord's Providence, so equilibrium may be maintained. What upsets the balance is man's own will. He desires something else and gives it admitted or unadmitted priority. Apathy is not a neutral state. It is a negative response to the Divine. Disinterest in spiritual things is the result of too great an interest in material things. And man is free!

459

"When he [the man of the church] has wandered into perverse ways, and has completely rejected the things of the church, he then indeed has the same faculty of understanding truths, but no longer desires to understand them, being averse to them as soon as he hears them."*
     * AC 5464e.
     It is to assist man in his responsibility, his ability to respond, that the Lord provides morning states of inspiration. They are the remains of innocence, stored up secretly long ago and now activated to produce new beginnings, new inspiration produced by the Divine love of the Lord inflowing mediately through angelic societies whose response to the Divine will is centered in their eager desire to develop in us the love of spiritual truth.

     Influx (Divine Action) Accommodates Itself to Efflux (Human Response, as of Self)

     With what marvelous, profound economy the Lord gives of His Divine to man! Infinite life inflowing and adjoining itself to his soul endows man with the faculties of rationality and liberty, providing the dual capacity to feel life as if one's own yet be able to affirm rationally that all life is the Lord's in man. The Divine also proceeds mediately through angelic and satanic societies, imparting to man's conscious mind a balance of affections, good and evil, providing an equilibrium of motivation essential to the exercise of free choice. Inflowing from without, by way of nature and revelation, is the afflux or reciprocal influx of knowledges of truth. These forms are gathered up in the natural memory and then abstracted as to their interior forms to produce ideas of rational thought. It is in the ideas of rational thought, formed from the Writings, enlightened and warmed by angelic affections and perceived by the Divine life through the soul, that the visible Divine Human of the Lord is seen.

     So can the Lord lead man directly by means of the immediate presence of His Divine Human in him; and since reception involves reaction, the Divine motivates man and proceeds through him to accomplish uses. So does man become aware of the Lord's presence, acknowledge it, respond as of self to its Divine leading, and yet reflect affirmatively that it is, after all, the Lord's own life-good and truth. And so does he find the delight of his life in cultivating and exhibiting a positive attitude towards all forms of use which come to his awareness as the needs of his fellow men. Charity! The life of use! Love to the Lord from the Lord through man made manifest as human response. And of this, the Lord's own in man, He says: "I am the vine, ye are the branches.

460

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me." But "inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me."

     (Discussion of Bishop King's Address)

     In opening the floor for discussion, the Rev. Harold C. Cranch said that we had been privileged to hear a warm and affectionate speech, very inspirational in nature, that must have stirred us all. The warmth could not be doubted; there were many evidences of it both in the address and in our response to it. Emphasis had been placed on our personal response to the church-a response that must be given if the church is to be living; it involved a dedication that makes the life of the church, the reception of the Lord.
     The Rev. Erik E. Sandstrom remarked that in treating of response Bishop King had provided an influx arousing response in us. In keeping with the teaching that influx is according to reception, when we respond to the Lord we, in fact, invite influx from Him. Ministers are often accused of saving the same thing over and over again. With this he agreed; and in his thought the reason was that the whole range of truth had been so amply covered in the history of the New Church that one would be hard put to it to make a really original statement We max come to a conclusion which we think is based on our own opinions; then we realize that not only have others stated it but that it is also stated somewhere in the Word. You respond to the Word and realize that all the time you have been led to see a great truth which to begin with you had thought to be your own idea.
     The Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen observed that as he listened to the address he recalled that the Lord once said to His disciples: "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you." By a "friend knowing" is meant one who acts as if he were equal to the Lord: he acts as the Lord acts, that is, as from himself. Yet we must remember that, when speaking of ourselves, we are servants; we do not really act from ourselves, but are mere obediences. Obedience is necessary-not blind but willing obedience; he who loves the Lord is a friend who obeys Him willingly. The Lord gives us the power to act as of ourselves; thus to be able to be a friend of the Lord is a gift from Him.
     Mr. Kenneth Rose said there had been a question this morning about Scripture passages which said that the Lord had made us kings and priests. In the Authorized Version these are wrongly translated. The Apocalypse passage should be: "The Lord hath made us a kingdom, priests to the Lord"; and the Exodus passage should be: "The Lord hath made us a royal priesthood." He believed that what is meant is not that the Lord will make all of us either kings or priests, but that He is setting up for us a kingdom of priests, where priests will govern the kingdom.
     Mrs. Zoe G. Simons, recalling `that a young woman at the morning session had advocated women having greater opportunity' in doctrinal study, recommended that the doors of our Theological School be open to women. It is not that women want to enter the priesthood; but they need training to develop and direct their peculiar feminine response to doctrine, and enable them better to help their husbands, sons, friends and brothers, and to give counsel firmly yet in a feminine way.
     Mr. E. Bruce Glenn had been moved by the challenge and appeal in the address to our "morning" states, and he felt it was particularly appropriate to make that appeal at a time of Assembly.

461

The challenge that remains for the laymen must involve the response of each individual, in order to serve the most important use of conjunction between heaven and earth. Laymen have often been told that they do not read the Writings enough, and he suggested that to sustain the morning states specific instruction needs to be given on how to read the doctrines. He was impressed by the stress Bishop W. F. Pendleton had placed in his addresses on The Principles of the Academy on being motivated by the affection of truth, that is, on seeking truth not simply to accumulate knowledges or to appear learned and wise, but because it is useful to learn truth for its own sake. To this end he suggested that the priesthood stimulate people when in their morning states to take up certain specific doctrines; to examine as a congregation, perhaps through doctrinal classes, certain things with which they had previously whetted their appetites, but about which they had not given sufficient answers. Priests had a certain humility that should stir a challenge in laymen to decide what the use of the love of self is, for example, or to be concerned by Bishop King's brief and oblique reference to the dreams of the butler and the baker and to look up what the series in the Arcana said about the subject.
     Mr. Kent Junge was sure we were all familiar with experiencing a state of inspiration we had longed and prayed for, and when it came enjoying it without really using or putting it to work. He thought one reason we do this is that the state seems to be transient. However, it is useful to remember that although the "morning" state is temporary, it is really the promise of something eternal.
     The Rev. Daniel W. Heinrichs said that the mention of the "morning" state had reminded him of a Memorable Relation which records a conversation with celestial angels who, in answer to a question said simply that whatever they learned from the Word they committed to life, and so became celestial angels. That, essentially, is the response asked of us-to regard whatever we learn from the Word as a commandment of the Lord which we in simplicity and innocence commit to life. This, he thought, was what had been meant by the "morning" state.
     Bishop King expressed appreciation for the response to his address. As Kent Junge had said, the "morning" state does indeed become eternal. The celestial heaven is said to be a state of peace which is described as being like early spring or dawn, when life is fresh and vibrant and there is hope for the future; it is a state of continuous new beginnings. He concluded by referring to the program arranged for the next day as giving the laity an opportunity to respond and to take counsel. This special opportunity is a response of the clergy to a need expressed by the church.
VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

Visitors to Bryn Athyn for Charter Day or any other occasion who need assistance in finding accommodation please communicate with the Guest Committee, c/o Mrs. Leo Synnestvedt, 611 Waverly Lane, Bryn Athyn, Pa., 19009. Phone: (215) WIlson 7-3725.

462

JOURNAL OF THE TWENTY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM 1973

     HELD AT BRYN ATHYN, PENNSYLVANIA

     JUNE 12-15, 1973

     First Session-Tuesday, June 12, 8:00 p.m.

     1.     After Hymn 71 had been sung, the Rev. Daniel W. Heinrichs conducted a brief opening service, the Lesson being taken from John 16.
     2.     The Rev. Geoffrey S. Childs, presiding, after saying a word of welcome to the General Assembly, introduced Bishop Willard D. Pendleton to give an address on "The Organized Church." (For the address and the discussion following it see NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1973, pp. 345-357.)
     3.     The session adjourned at 9:30 p.m.

     Second Session-Wednesday, June 13, 10:00 a.m.

     4. The second session opened with the singing of Hymn 32 and a brief service led by the Rev. Frederick L. Schnarr, the Lesson being from Numbers 3.
     5.     Bishop Willard D. Pendleton called for the Journal of the 25th General Assembly which was approved as printed in NEW CHURCH LIFE 1970, pp. 516-520.
     6.     Bishop Pendleton then said: "The primary purpose for which this

Assembly was called is to consider the nomination of the Rt. Rev. Louis B. King for the Office of Assistant Bishop of the General Church. I would, therefore, call on the Rev. Norbert Rogers, Secretary of the Council of the Clergy, who has been selected to place the name of Bishop King before this Assembly."

463

     The Rev. Norbert H. Rogers:

     "Bishop, Members and Friends of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, as Secretary of the Joint Council of the Council of the Clergy and of the Board of Directors of the General Church I wish to read to you and to enter into the record of this General Assembly the following part of the report of the Joint Council Meeting of March 11, 1972 published in NEW CHURCH LIFE (June, 1972, pp. 269-70, item 5).
     "Bishop Pendleton read the following communication to the members of the Board of Directors of the General Church from the Rev. Norbert H. Rogers, Secretary of the Council of the Clergy:
     "Since July, 1970, the Council of the Clergy has been giving serious consideration to the need for executive assistance in the episcopal office. At our meetings this week, we agreed that ample time had been given for consideration, and we further agreed that we should proceed directly to the nomination of a man to fill the vacant office of Assistant Bishop of the General Church.
     "As the choice of any bishop who is to serve in an executive capacity must be confirmed by the 'General Assembly, it is of order that his name should first be submitted to the Board of Directors for 'counsel and response.' (See Order and Organization of the General Church, p. 12; Revised Statement, 1970.)
     "It is with this in mind that the Council of the Clergy now submits to you, the members of the Board of Directors, the name of the Reverend Louis B. King. If, as we hope, you are affirmative to this nomination we will proceed in Joint Council to the question of when and where the next General Assembly will be held for the purpose set forth in this communication."
     "Bishop Pendleton then read the following communication from Mr. Stephen Pitcairn, Secretary of the Board of Directors:
     'Your communication in regard to the choice of the Council of the Clergy for the office of Assistant Bishop of the General Church has been received, and I report that the Board of Directors wholeheartedly supports the nomination of the Reverend Louis B. King.'
     "When the above communications were read Joint Council stood in applause."
     "And now, as Secretary of the Council of the Clergy, it is my honored privilege to present to you at this session of the Twenty-Sixth General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, the name of the Right Reverend Louis Blair King as the priest the Council of the Clergy deem best qualified at this time to serve in the Office of Assistant Bishop of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. After careful consideration the priesthood of this Church are satisfied that Bishop King has the intellectual qualifications and doctrinal knowledge as well as the pastoral and educational experience to meet the needs of both the clergy and laity of the General Church of the New Jerusalem as Assistant Bishop, and that he has the ability to give whatever assistance the Executive Bishop of our Church may need. The name of Bishop King to be Assistant Bishop is before you."

     Mr. Stephen Pitcairn, Secretary of the Corporation of the General Church:

     "The Council of the Clergy has named Bishop Louis B. King as its choice for the office of Assistant Bishop of the General Church of the New Jerusalem and the Board of Directors, at a meeting held March 10, 1972 has wholeheartedly supported this choice of Bishop Louis King as Assistant Bishop.
     "As Secretary of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, a corporation, I have the honor to second the nomination of Bishop Louis B. King as Assistant Bishop of the General Church of the New Jerusalem."

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Bishop Pendleton announced the following Judges of Election:

Donald C. Fitzpatrick, Jr., Chairman     Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Theodore S. Alden                         Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Robert H. Blair                         Pittsburgh, Pa.
James S. Boatman                         Piscataway, N. J.
Theodore W. Brickman, Jr.               Glenview, Ill.
William W. Buick                         Birmingham, Mich.
Dave Friesen                         Dawson Creek, B.C.
Donald R. Haworth                         Lincoln, Neb.
Frederick E. Hendricks                    Fort St. John, B.C.
Garry Hyatt                              Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Fred E. Odhner                         Glenmont, N. Y.
Gordon B. Smith                         Prospect, Ky.

     Ballots inscribed as follows were distributed and collected by, the Judges of Election:

     Do you support the nomination of the Rt. Rev. Louis B. King for the office of Assistant Bishop of the General Church?
     Yes     No

     Recess was declared.

     7. The Rev. Dandridge Pendleton, taking the chair, introduced the Right Rev. Elmo C. Acton who delivered an address on the subject of "The Priesthood." (For the address and the discussion following it see
NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1973, pp. 399-411.)
     8. Bishop Willard D. Pendleton called for the, Report of the Judges of Election.
     Mr. Donald C. Fitzpatrick, Jr. reported that 632 ballots had been cast, 629 marked YES, and 3 NO.
     The report was received with much applause.

Bishop Louis B. King: "In the Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture #104, there is a teaching familiar to all of us and the importance of the teaching perhaps is enhanced because it is in the present tense. It refers to the need for the Church Specific. And the teaching states in effect that there must be somewhere in this world a church where 'the Word is understood and where through the understanding of that Word, the Lord Jesus Christ is worshipped in his Divine Humanity'. Unless this is the case, there can be no conjunction between the Lord and the human race or any consociation between heaven and the men of the human race on earth. Nothing could be more vital. And `the number continues that it suffices that this church exist with a few, a `very few, it says, for where the Lord is known and loved He is present then with the whole human race through this church, no matter how small; there is conjunction between God and His creation.
     "Now, I believe with my whole heart that in so far as its members acknowledge the principles upon which the General Church is founded, which were emphasized last night by our Bishop; in so far as these ideals are in the hearts and lives of the General Church membership, the General Church is a vital part of the Church Specific.

465

And in order to carry on its many uses whereby the Divine of the Lord can be known of men and he with men, there must be that distinctive priesthood and the historic development thereof, which you have heard about this morning. The Bishop's job is an immense one as we all know. As general pastor of this Church, as general governor of it, as President of the Academy, ultimately responsible for the education of the Church, and as pastor of the episcopal society of the Church, he has a tremendous call upon his energy and his time. Now he has said that he needs assistance and the Council of the Clergy has responded with a nomination and you, the Assembly, have given me the privilege to respond to that need to assist our Bishop wherein he deems that assistance necessary.
      "I think you will see from these three addresses also at the beginning of this Assembly, that the Bishop has three essential responsibilities. First, is to preserve the distinctiveness of the General Church. He made that clear. When everyone has done his very best, the final leadership, the inspiration to keep this church distinctive, drawing its policies and its life from the Writings, is the ultmate responsibility of our Bishop. Secondly, it is the Bishop's responsibility to preserve order in the Church. If unintentionally there arises a cause that threatens the distinctiveness of the New Church he must be in the position to preserve the order of the Church through the principle and practice of ecclesiastical government. The Church will not survive without that leadership. And finally, and frequently essential, it is the Bishop's responsibility to provide for the freedom of the Church, for the freedom and response of those individuals in whom the church is, without which there would he no church, and there is an endeavor at this Assembly to do just that; to provide for and to urge for the freedom and response, the counsel and the assembly of this Church. I feel very grateful, indeed, for the confidence you have placed in me. I feel grateful for our clergy, the wonderful clergy, an active, intelligent clergy-that is truly motivated by a desire to serve the Lord's office on this earth, and I feel grateful for the leadership of our Bishop. My prayer is that I will be given sufficient humility and wisdom to serve as a good and a faithful servant to the Church and especially as an Assistant to our Bishop whom we all respect as our leader and for whom we all have a great deal of affection. Thank you."

     Bishop Willard D. Pendleton: "Thank you, Bishop King. And I assure you your work is cut out for you. There is much to be done. There is a new, I wouldn't say a new awakening, but a new spirit of the future moving in the General Church.
     I believe that we are coming into a state of renewal of our covenant with the Lord. And I am sure that we were all deeply affected by your acceptance. And I can say one heartening thing to you-there were only three negative votes, and when I ran for Bishop, I had four-so you did a little better."

     9.     The session adjourned at 12:30 p.m.

     Third Session-Wednesday, June 13, 8:00 p.m.

     10.     After the singing of Anthem 10, the Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen opened the Meeting with the Lord's Prayer and the reading of I Samuel 3: 1-10 and AC 2563: 4-6.
     11.     The Rev. Harold C. Cranch, presiding, introduced Bishop Louis B. King who delivered an address on "Response." (For the address and discussion following it see NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1973, pp. 446-461.)

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     12.     The session adjourned at 9:30 p.m.

     Fourth Session-Thursday, June 14, 10:00 a.m.

     13. After the singing of Hymn 9, the Rev. Ormond de C. Odhner opened the meeting with the Lord's Prayer and the reading of John 17.

     14. Bishop Willard D. Pendleton: The business to be taken up at this session of the Assembly is the Report of the Extension Committee. This Committee has existed as a Committee of the Council of the Clergy for many years. Its purpose has been to keep alive our sense of commitment to external evangelization. But as we feel the time has come when we can take more active steps in the work of external evangelization, I propose to ask the Council of the Clergy to release this Committee and to turn the Committee into a General Church Committee. This means that because it would no longer be under the Council of the Clergy and composed of the membership of that body, we could then ask laymen to take an active part as members of the General Church Extension Committee. I believe this is the first step that should be taken towards a positive program of external evangelization. The second positive step that has been taken is that I have asked the Rev. David Holm to serve as Chairman of the newly formed Extension Committee. This is a work of deep interest to him. Mr. Holm has many constructive ideas and thoughts in regard to this work and how it should be developed, and I believe that under his leadership we will see progress and growth. I now call for the Report of the Extension Committee. Mr. Holm.
     The Rev. B. David Holm:

     "I would like to speak to what the Bishop has just announced. The General Church has now made a beginning towards an organized and official effort in the field of New Church evangelization. A large step has been made in doing this- one that affects not only the present but also the future of the Church as well.
     "This is not to say that there has been no successful missionary work up to this time. There has been effective evangelization from the beginnings of the Church-else none of us would be present here today. Over one-third of the adult membership of the General Church are converts to the New Church. Also, we have had some zealous missionaries in the Church, and a few of them have been very successful. But this has been largely individual effort. There have been certain missionary drives and programs, but these, too, were largely dependent upon a few people.
     "Now the Church is ready to enter into evangelization in an organized and official way. Some small beginnings have already' been made. Groundwork for the establishment of an effective committee of the General Church is well under way.

467

This is to be a committee which will include both priests and laymen who have a special love for the work of evangelization. Even as the establishment of New Church education has been the work of both priests and laymen, so we believe the same will be the case with New Church evangelization.
     "We will need both doctrinal principles and effective methods if our missionary ventures are to succeed. This was the case with New Church education, where the doctrine first had to be seen and only then effective methods and means were found. So it is, we must have priestly leadership in developing a proper doctrine of evangelization, but we must also have active laymen devoted to finding the proper means of fulfilling the doctrine. Certainly this was the case with New Church education.
      "There is, indeed, a parallel between New Church education and New Church evangelization. Between them they encompass all of the uses of the New Church.
     Both are necessary if we are to fulfill the New Church commitment to live in the world but not be of the world. (See Heaven and Hell 360) New Church education is internal evangelization, and missionary work is external evangelization. They are the two aspects of the same essential ecclesiastical use of propagating the Word of the Lord, that such might be saved.
     "If our external evangelization is to succeed, it must not interfere with our use of education. And more, it must derive its strength from the same source-the same Divine principles-as does our education. We must develop a doctrine of evangelization even as we have developed a doctrine of education. As we, through study, come to see ever more clearly the doctrines which apply to evangelization, so we will providentially find effective means to bring the New gospel to the world.
     "A good deal of doctrinal study has already been made by those priests who have had missionary zeal in the past. More and more study will need to be done in the future. But we have reached a point where we are confident that an organized effort can now be made in the missionary work of the Church. We do not have in mind, for the present, any large-scale missionary drives that use the modern media. This does not mean that we will not use them in the future as we gain strength and ability. Rather, for the present, we propose to establish a central office which can serve as a headquarters to which those who are missionary-minded can look for support, literature and ideas for effective evangelization.
     "It is our hope to use the existing organizations of the Church in our missionary efforts, rather than establish a complicated organization of our own. We hope to produce suitable pamphlets for free distribution, and perhaps set up a means of training our laymen for the use of missionary work.
     "We have many ideas, some of which we hope will prove effective. The whole concept excites the imagination. We need your ideas and your support-each one of you. This is the beginning of what we hope will prove to be the missionary arm of the General Church.
     "Let us go forward into 'the world and there teach all nations. Truly the fields are white with harvest, but the laborers are few.'"

     15. The Rev. Frank S. Rose, taking the chair, described the arrangements for the Assembly to break up into small groups of twenty to thirty persons each to discuss the question of "The New Church in the World," and he stressed the importance of all participating in the discussions, sharing their thoughts with one another.

468

     Fifth Session-Thursday, June 14, 2:30 p.m.

     16.     The Rev. Frank S. Rose served as moderator of a panel discussion of questions resulting from the small group discussions in the morning. The panel consisted of the following six priests: the Rev. Messrs. Alfred Acton, Peter M. Buss, Donald L. Rose, Erik E. Sandstrom, Christopher R. J. Smith and Lorentz R. Soneson. (An account of the panel discussion will be published in a later issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE.)
     17.     The meeting adjourned at 3:30 p.m.
          Respectfully submitted,
               NORBERT H. ROGERS
                    Secretary

     ASSEMBLY MESSAGES

     The following messages were received. With the exception of the letter from the President of Conference, which arrived too late to be included at that time, they were read at the banquet.

From the General Conference of the New Church:

Dear Bishop Pendleton,

     On behalf of the General Conference of the New Church in Great Britain, I extend greetings and good wishes to the officers and members of the General Church.
     We rejoice that throughout the world the Lord maintains the devotion of men and women, who radiate spheres of wisdom and holiness, which in some measure help to purify the spiritual atmosphere in which the minds of men operate, while in this world.
     The Writings speak of spheres pouring forth from men, according to their affections. In these days, when there is so much emphasis on material and selfish pursuits, the affections of many are directed to personal gain and carnal pleasure. The spheres emitted cannot but pollute the general spiritual atmosphere, to the extent that the minds of mankind would become poisoned.
     It could become impossible for thoughts and feelings relating to faith and charity to blossom in the human mind, were it not for the centres of study and worship, where affections for truth are cultivated from an understanding of true doctrine.
     May our work for the Lord and our mutual dependence on one another in furthering this work, continue to draw us closer together.
     Yours sincerely,
          RONALD A. PRESTON
               President

From the Durban Society, South Africa:
     Warm greetings to the Assembly from the Durban Society. WILLARD HEINRICHS.

From the Hurstville Society, Australia:
     Best wishes for wonderful feast of charity on this special occasion. HURSTVILLE SOCIETY.

469

From the South African Mission, the Transvaal Circle, the Cape Town Group, and the South African Isolated, and from Vanessa and myself, Greetings to the Assembly. May there be a blessing! WILLARD AND VANESSA HEINRICHS.

From the Rev. and Mrs. Douglas Taylor, Hurstville, Australia.
     Affectionate greetings to the Assembly banquet. Our spirits are with yours.
DOUGLAS AND CHISTINE TAYLOR.

     ASSEMBLY NOTES

     (Continued from the September issue.)

     Young People's Entertainment. Due to the brevity of the General Assembly, this year's organized young people's entertainment was confined to the evenings of Tuesday the 12th, and Wednesday the 13th of June. Below is a summary of the activities on these two evenings, and at this time I would like to thank publicly for their genuine willingness to help all those who worked on the various committees.
     Tuesday's entertainment, after the evening session, consisted of a Band Party at the Assembly Hall directed at those of high school and college ages. However, many young marrieds and even some middle-agers showed up to enjoy the music of Blane Bostock and his group. The chaperones had an easy evening of it as most of the young people were eating pieces of the 100 pizzas or slurping down a glass of draft root beer, when not participating on the dance floor.
     On Wednesday night, beginning at 10:00 p.m., we had a Timberdog Party for those of high school age, and a Folk Concert set with red and white checkered table-clothed tables at Cairncrest for college age and above. The Timberdog Party, held in Ed Cranch's woods, was a success with a roaring bonfire, plenty of hot dogs for timbering and talented musicians supplying folk songs.
     The Cairncrest Folk Concert featured Bengy Aronoff, a professional folk guitarist, and many talented groups from within the college ranks.

     The excellent music was nicely complemented by a beautiful full moon, a perfect view of the lit Cathedral, and four kegs of imported Tuborg beer.
     I think everyone would agree that the entertainment went very smoothly both evenings, and that people were already looking forward to the next Assembly.

     DIRK JUNGE

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USE OF REWARDS 1973

USE OF REWARDS Editor 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.

Published Monthly By

THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM BRYN ATHYN, PA.
Editor                Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager          Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications, should be sent to the Business Manatee. Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.

     TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$5.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 50 cents.
     It is said in the Arcana, no. 3816, that "reward is of service as a means of conjunction with those who are not yet initiated," that is, into good and its affections. The reference is to children, young people, and those in a simple state, and it is well known that a system of rewards does establish a certain mutuality between children and parents, pupils and teachers, employees and employers; setting in motion a cycle of action and reaction that may lead to mutual love.
     This might be the test. Is the reward, and the way in which it is promised and given, likely to promote conjunction? Or is it more likely to disjoin the giver and the recipient? If it appeals to selfishness and cupidity it is more likely to disjoin, for only self-gratification is excited. But if it is linked with a use which the giver properly desires shall be performed, then an affection of the use can be stirred up, and in that the giver and the receiver can be conjoined.
     Another point we would make is that if punishments have a place in the education of children and in later life, and the Writings speak of them affirmatively, so do rewards. But they should be given sparingly and, as has been suggested, prudently. Ill-advised rewards are detrimental to human development, if not disastrous. They may become bribes, or encourage vanity and conceit. But properly and carefully used they are means of conjunction. It seems to be a weakness in our social structure that punishments are not sufficiently balanced by rewards for well-doing, or to encourage it. No more may be called for than recognition, but that can be valuable when it is well deserved.

471

     A CARDINAL TEACHING

     There is a teaching in the Arcana, no. 3803, which should be engraved on the memory of every New Church man and woman, and be recalled frequently to active thought. It is that a "man receives only as much from others as he either has of his own, or acquires for himself by looking into the matter in himself; all the rest passes away." This follows the observation that "he who by his own investigation has not acquired for himself some idea concerning these things, receives but a faint idea, if any, from description."
     Here is a teaching that should have an important influence upon the development of the societies of the church. Preaching and pastoral instruction will not by themselves build a rational understanding of the Word. The church cannot be sustained indefinitely by the scholarship of a few, cannot be carried in the sphere of doctrinal studies made by the priesthood and presented to the laity. There must be reception- knowledges from the Writings in which the layman's own rational may move freely, and interest to attract those knowledges and be further stimulated by that operation-so that there can be an active intellectual and affectional response to the instruction given. These knowledges can be acquired only by individual reading, study and reflection; and only through these will there be genuine reception. For a "man receives only as much from others as he either has of his own, or acquires for himself by looking into the matter in himself."

     If this teaching should be recalled and acted upon frequently, it may be heeded especially at this time, when most societies are in process of again being offered the fullness of pastoral teaching. The Writings insist that spiritual things can be learned and understood as well as natural ones, and that they are learned in the same way. In higher education it is not unusual for students to be required to take certain courses before they are admitted to others, these being regarded as preparatory; and although, for obvious reasons, we do not require this in the church, it is true that the man or woman who brings to pastoral teaching a background in knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures and the Writings can get that much more out of the instruction offered.
     However, an intellectual background is not all that is required. Love is the medium of conjunction, and what brings the internal and the external church together and makes them a complete instrument of use in the Lord's hand, is a common love of spiritual things. Those who are external will not enter deeply into that love, but it will be there and will sustain them in affection for what they do understand.

472

     THE EDUCATIONAL ARM OF THE CHURCH

     When the Academy was formed in 1876, there was no intention of separating from the existing bodies of the New Church. For fourteen years the Academy, although a separate legal corporation, functioned within the framework of the General Convention; and it was not until 1890 that the General Church of Pennsylvania, with which it was then affiliated, withdrew from the General Convention and reorganized as the General Church of the Advent of the Lord.
     Bishop Benade, however, had already developed his concepts of an internal and an external church, and in 1897 this and other things led to withdrawal from him and the formation of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. Although never under the control of any body of the church, the Academy has always been faithful to those with which it was affiliated; and the internal bond which had united it with the predecessors of the General Church held and linked it with that body; not now as an ecclesiastical body but as the educational arm of the General Church.
     The phrase, the educational arm of the General Church, tells us several things. It tells us that the General Church is the main and primary body, and that the Academy is performing certain uses for it which are, by definition, church uses. It tells us also that the two bodies are interdependent. The Academy has educated the priesthood of the General Church and the teachers who staff its elementary schools, and it provides New Church education on the secondary and college levels for the young people of the General Church. On the other hand, it is from the General Church that the Academy recruits its staff, from the families of the General Church that it draws most though not all of its students, and from the membership of the General Church that it receives the support, financial and otherwise, which sustains its work.

     We have long recognized that education is a priestly use; not that all educators should be ordained priests but that the love which should inspire education is the priestly love. The Academy serves as an ultimate for the expression of that love; and in its acceptance of priestly leadership in the development of doctrine and educational concepts, it is also the arm which ultimates priestly wisdom.
     Thus the uses which it performs and the means by which it seeks to perform them are uses of the church; although not the uses of worship and instruction which are the province of the institutional church they are church motivated and church inspired. This will continue as long as the Academy remains the educational arm of the General Church. These thoughts are offered in connection with Charter Day.

473

Title Unspecified 1973

Title Unspecified ORMOND ODHNER 1973

CONJUGIAL LOVE 49e: A PROMISE OR A STATEMENT OF FACT?Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:
      Conjugial Love 49e begins with an explanation of why so many marriages contracted on earth today do not endure after death: marriages today are seldom based on any "internal perception of love," but rather are based on external attractions-wealth, dignity, honor, beauty, pleasant Manners, etc. Another reason (though this seems to apply more to Swedenborg's day than to the 20th Century Western civilization) is that the choice of a married partner is limited by such merely external factors as geography and social class.
     The passage closes with a well-known teaching found at the end of the final sentence. "Hence it is that [after death] there is separation and afterwards new conjunctions with those who are similar and homogeneous-unless these had been provided on earth, as is the case with those who from youth have loved, chosen, and asked of the Lord a legitimate and lovely partnership with one, and who spurn and reject wandering lusts as an offence to their nostrils."

     Before getting to my real reason for writing this, I would note several items concerning the translation.
     I quoted the Acton translation, Academy of the New Church, 1953, edition. The phrase Dr. Acton translated as "from youth" is translated in other editions as "from early youth" or "from an early age." The Latin is a juventute, and in Latin juventus means something like "a mature young man." Most certainly it refers to an age well beyond boyhood and even beyond early physical adolescence. It should never be translated "early youth," and even the translation "youth" may connote too young an age today. After some decades working with young people, I have come to feel that we must beware of inculcating any really deep sense of guilt into a boy just in the first heat of the love of the sex, simply because he cannot always control his lustful imaginations.
     And O, how I wish we could have an absolutely literal translation of the very end of that last sentence! Instead of reading, "spurn and reject wandering lusts as an offence to their nostrils," it would read, "spurn and contract the nostrils [or, hold the nose] at wandering lusts." This makes it stronger, and it should be strong. Wandering lusts stink!

     But now let me get back to the provision of marital conjunctions "with those who are similar and homogeneous," and the provision of these on earth, "as is the case with those who from young manhood have loved, chosen, and asked of the Lord a legitimate and lovely partnership with one, and who spurn and hold the nose at wandering lusts."

474

Is this an all-embracing promise, or is it merely a statement of fact?
     It has often been interpreted as such a promise in the church, as though it actually teaches that the Lord will provide on earth a marriage that will endure to eternity for every person who prays to Him for such a marriage, and who shuns wandering lusts as a sin against God. I would ask: does not such an interpretation inevitably carry with it unwarranted (nay, downright foolish) ramifications? What of earth's comparatively few bachelors? Have none of them lived up to the qualifications stated in this passage? And what of our many, many unmarried women? Have they all failed in their spiritual responsibilities? Ridiculous! And what of the person, spiritually responsible from early adult years, whose partner, in freedom, becomes a spiritual failure? Is it the good partner's fault that his spouse turned away from heaven? Again- ridiculous!
     I would not belittle the importance of the teaching at the end of this passage. It does list the things pre-requisite to the attainment of a marriage that will endure to eternity: a heartfelt desire for such a marriage and the wise choice of a married partner, both being guided by sincere prayer to the Lord for help, and coupled with the shunning of wandering lusts as sins-and all
this from early adult life onward. Surely these pre-requisites should be written on the very hearts of every New Church youth and maiden!
     But the passage does not teach that such a marriage will be attained on earth, willy nilly, by every single person who does his very best to live up to these teachings. By no means is it a universal, all-embracing promise. The passage, remember, starts out by teaching why so many marriages made on earth today do not endure after death. It ends by stating why certain marriages made on earth today do endure to eternity. Using neither the future tense of the verbs (which would imply a promise), nor the past tense (which would indicate nothing more than a statement of an historical fact), it uses the present tense (as it were embracing the past and the future), as it states why some marriages made on earth today do last into eternity.

     The real "promise" of the Writings in this regard, I believe, is found in a later section of Conjugial Love, dealing with similitudes (nos. 227-229). The general teaching is that various similitudes can be conjoined in marriages of love truly conjugial whereas dissimilitudes cannot be so conjoined. The promise given is this: "That for those who desire love truly conjugial, the Lord provides similitudes; and if not given on earth, He provides them in the heavens." (no. 229)

475

This is the universal, all-embracing promise, and surely Conjugial Love 49e should be interpreted in its light.
     ORMOND ODHNER
          Bryn Athyn
               Penna.
FURTHER ON SHARON CHURCH 1973

FURTHER ON SHARON CHURCH ROBERT H. P. COLE & MICHAEL A. NASH 1973

Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:
     We were very pleased to respond to your request which you made of us during March of this year to write a short article for NEW CHURCH LIFE outlining the seventy-year history of Sharon Church. From the outset of this project, we were well aware of many of the difficulties in attaining absolute accuracy and in attending to meticulous detail about the individuals mentioned in the outline. As we said on page 336: "Some we may never know about, they are known perhaps only to the Lord."
     We believe that a good number of New Church men would have rather strong feelings of heartfelt nostalgia about various persons and events connected with the history of Sharon Church. We are glad that a number of such New Church men have indeed added new insight from their own memories and knowledge. Nevertheless, we would especially hope that none would be at all offended by the request made of us to keep much of the detail to a minimum.
     We did receive some additional information from Professor Klein clarifying the pastorates during the 1903 to 1908 period. We spent much effort researching NEW CHURCH LIFE issues of this period, and we were still left with some lack of information concerning especially the precise dates of his father's Immanuel Church and later Sharon Church pastorates.
     Although we may have been somewhat in error in our conclusion regarding the activities of the Rev. David H. Klein for the period in question, it was our impression that Mr. Klein did make occasional pastoral calls outside of Chicago and Glenview when his health permitted. Furthermore, it appeared to us from our research and to others at Sharon Church that it would be rather difficult to form a true, detailed account of all his activities in this regard. Therefore Professor Eldric S. Klein's comments on this and other matters are much welcomed.
     In addition, others have observed that we should have noted that Mr. Nels Johnson was a key financial leader and prime mover in the early period of the Church along with Sarah Junge.

476

Also noteworthy is the fact that Alexander McQueen in recent years was responsible for the Book Room and for keeping a large correspondence with interested readers of the Writings.
     It is our hope that other readers will come forward with any of their observations on these matters, as it would be very helpful for our records. We might also mention that Sharon Church's Discussion Group is at the present time considering the subject of the Church's history.
     P.S. We note a minor exclusion in the published article on page 332, regarding the wording of the Revised Proposition. It actually read: "not to exceed less than $500.00 in the Trustee's Note"! Perhaps they also chuckled over that point.
     ROBERT H. P. COLE
     MICHAEL A. NASH
          Chicago
          Illinois
SHARON CHURCH: A CORRECTION 1973

SHARON CHURCH: A CORRECTION 1973

Professor Eldric S. Klein wishes to correct an error in his letter, published in the September issue, page 424. The Rev. David H. Klein resigned the pastorate of the Immanuel Church in 1908, not 1909, as there stated.
1970 NEW CHURCH WORLD ASSEMBLY 1973

1970 NEW CHURCH WORLD ASSEMBLY Roy GRIFFITH 1973

Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:

On June 13, 1973, the London Committee of the 1970 New Church World Assembly was finally wound up. The Committee, which had been responsible for the detailed organization of the Assembly, was pleased to note that there was a surplus of L1275 (approx. $3060). This sum has been transferred to the General Conference (a Trust Corporation) in Britain, to hold and invest in trust until required by the organizing committee of the next World Assembly, wherever that may be.
The success of the Assembly cannot be measured in financial terms. Surely the success was in the prevailing spirit of good will and the tolerance shown to each other by members of the different organizations of the New Church. Perhaps it reminded one of the Ancient Church in its various parts in the Middle East and Africa: "Among these men doctrinals and rituals differed, but still the church was one, because charity was for them essential. . . . If it were so now, all would be governed as one man by the Lord, for they would all be as members and organs of one body, which, although they have different forms and different functions, have nevertheless relation to one heart, on which depend all things in general and particular, in their own forms which are everywhere different.

477

Thus everyone would say, in whatever doctrine or whatever external worship he was, 'This is my brother, I see he worships the Lord and he is good.'" (AC 2385)
     May that spirit animate and prosper all future World Assemblies of the New Church!
     Roy GRIFFITH
          Director
SONS OF THE ACADEMY 1973

SONS OF THE ACADEMY 1973

The International Executive cordially invites the men of the General Church and of the College to attend the Charter Day Meeting on Saturday, October 20, 1973, at 9:30 a.m., in Pendleton Hall. After the business session an Academy speaker will address the meeting.
A luncheon arranged by the Bryn Athyn Chapter will follow at the Civic and Social Club House.
CHARTER DAY BANQUET TICKETS 1973

1973

     In order to avoid confusion and embarrassment, those who will be guests in Bryn Athyn homes for the Charter Day weekend should order their Banquet tickets in advance, by mail, unless they have made other specific arrangements with their hostesses.

     The date is October 20. The regular ticket price is $5.50. For all students, including those not presently attending the Academy, the price is $2.75 per ticket. Checks should be made payable to The Academy of the New Church.
     Orders should be sent to the attention of Mrs. R. Waelchli, The Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania 19009, before October 11th. Please mark clearly on envelopes "Banquet Tickets." Tickets will be carefully held at the switchboard in Benade Hall for pick-up either by you or your hosts. No tickets can be sold at the door because of the need for advance arrangements with the caterer.

478

Church News 1973

Church News NORMAN HELDON 1973

     HURSTVILLE, AUSTRALIA

     1973 is a Happening year Down Under. Apart from the activities that fill the calendar the big news has been the completion of the new hall, yet to `be named, and of the tennis court; the return home from the Academy College of Brian and Margaret Homer; also, at the time of writing, the imminent departure for the same college of Patricia Coull and Ralph Horner. The biggest happening will be the visit of Bishop Pendleton and his wife in November.
     Tribute was paid to Emanuel Swedenborg as we celebrated his birthday with a tape produced locally, entitled "Interviewing the Revelator." This had been written by the Rev. Cairns Henderson and consisted of questions put by an interviewer and answered by Swedenborg, the answers being gathered from the Writings, letters and other documents.
     The Sons Open Meeting was an experiment, and a very successful one. It was an attempt to show New Church education at work. Two classes were actually given to students, one a science lesson on the instincts of animals and the other an English lesson on the book, Lord of the Flies. The lessons complemented each other, and the teachers showed in their summing up that man can choose to remain in an animal-like state or to be led by the Lord to the Divinely intended destiny of a heavenly life.
     The pastor's report of the Clergy Meetings is always very interesting and informative. There are usually numerous humorous sidelights that he remembers.
     The New Church Day celebration saw the first use of the new hall. It was a very successful banquet and there were quite a few new faces, including some who had listened to the radio program. The two films that were shown-The Academy, A Snapshot and The Bryn Athyn Cathedral-put the focus on the work of the Academy and the General Church, and these, helped by excellent explanatory remarks by the Rev. Douglas Taylor, proved the theme of the evening to be "The Fruits of the New Evangel." There were messages, songs and toasts, including one to the Homer family who worked with tremendous energy, enthusiasm and skill to get the hall finished in time.
     The children celebrated New Church Day with a pageant. Groups of children represented the different churches which have existed on the earth. They wore appropriate costumes and performed actions that were descriptive of the churches they represented, and all the children charmed and delighted their audience with their unaffected acting.
     There was a really delightful evening on July 7, also in the new ball, when there was a "Welcome Home" to Brian and Margaret Homer and a welcome to Wellesley Rose and Kay Reuter, who have come to help the Society in any way they can. It turned out to be a musical evening with many songs, some written for the occasion. There were slides shown by Kay and Wellesley and a lot of spontaneous fun.
     To round off a happy half-year, there were the visits we enjoyed from Mr. and Mrs. Denis Pryke of Colchester, and Mr. and Mrs. C. D. Brock. Also we have seen often Mr. Michael Lockhart, who proposed a toast to the Academy at the banquet, and his Australian wife, Kerry.
     It is a Church on the move, this New Church!
          NORMAN HELDON

479

CHARTER DAY 1973

1973

Announcements
All ca-students, members of the General Church and friends of the Academy are invited to attend the 57th Charter Day Exercises, to be held in Bryn Athyn, Pa., Thursday through Saturday, October 18-20, 1973. The program:
Thursday, 8:30 p.m., Arts Department Open House and Program Benade Hall.
Friday, 11 a.m., Cathedral Service with an address by the Rev. Donald L. Rose.
Friday Afternoon-Football Game
Friday Evening-Dance
Saturday, 7 p.m., Banquet. Toastmaster: the Rev. Dandridge Pendleton
MIDWESTERN ACADEMY 1973

MIDWESTERN ACADEMY ROBERT O. BRICKMAN 1973

     The annual meeting of the Midwestern Academy of the New Church will be held at 8:45 P.M., Friday, October 26, 1973, in Pendleton Hall. Glenview, Illinois.
     The purpose will be to elect members of the Board of Directors, hear reports, and transact such other business as may come before the meeting.
     ROBERT O. BRICKMAN
          Secretary
CORRECTION 1973

CORRECTION 1973

Philip Bruce Ridgway, whose baptism was published in the May issue, page 238, was born October 23, 1972 not October 10, 1972, as reported to NEW CHURCH LIFE.

481

GIFTS OF THANKSGIVING 1973

GIFTS OF THANKSGIVING Rev. B. DAVID HOLM 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Vol. XCIII
November, 1973
No. 11.
     "My laces shall not be seen empty." (Exodus 23: 15)

     As we approach the time of our harvest festival, we would do well to prepare our minds and hearts to be truly thankful. Even as the harvest is brought in from the fields and stored, so are we to order and arrange our minds according to the spiritual gifts we have received from the Lord. It is from these spiritual gifts that we are to make an offering of thanksgiving to our Maker and Benefactor. Truly these gifts of life, of love and wisdom, of good and truth, of charity and use, and of marriage and family are to be treasured. It is from this treasure that we are to give thanks.

     From ancient times it was the custom to give gifts to priests, prophets and kings, for by such gifts were signified initiation into a relationship and from this consociation with one another.* In the Jewish Church, gifts were also commanded to be given to the Lord in acts of worship. These gifts signified conjunction with the Lord. Such gifts, among other things, signified thanksgiving or the giving of thanks to the Lord.
     * See AC 4262: 2, 3; AE 661:2.
     Thanksgiving, then, was commanded as part of worship from ancient times. "My faces shall not be seen empty." All worship in the Jewish Church was to be accompanied by a gift. They were not to approach the Lord empty-handed. They were to select a gift from the blessings given them by the Lord, and return it to Him as a thank offering.

     Such thanksgiving is still demanded by the Lord.* It is demanded by the Lord, not for His own sake, but for man's sake. The reason for this is that thanksgiving is one of the chief things which open man's mind to the Lord. Such opening of the mind is necessary for the Lord to bestow good upon man.

482

Thanksgiving and its accompanying gratitude cause man to turn to the Lord and be separated, at least temporarily, from the love of self and its evils which are obstacles to the Lord's inflowing good.**
     * See AC 5957.
     ** Ibid.
     It is for this reason that gifts of thanksgiving were required of the Israelites by the Lord. Are they not still required today? We should especially think of this during our festival of thanksgiving. We should reflect upon all the blessings and benefits He bestows upon us-benefits which are not only for our natural life but also for our spiritual life. We should reflect upon the blessing of His Word, the blessing of His Divine power to overcome evil in our lives, and His blessing of eternal life. Especially should we be grateful for purification from evil and falsity.*
     * See AC 9281.
     If we pause in our busy lives, even for a short time, and concentrate on the benefits the Lord has given us, we will find that they are more than we can number. Most of us do this far too seldom. Indeed, if we are honest with ourselves we will find that often we are more aware of our problems and handicaps than we are of the Lord's blessings. We should actively seek to form a spirit of gratitude within ourselves-a spirit which brings the gift of thanksgiving to the Lord.

     "My faces shall not be seen empty." This text signifies man's reception of good from the Lord's mercy, and also man's thanksgiving because of this gift of good*' All of the gifts given to Jehovah were testifications of man's reception of good and his thanksgiving because of this. These gifts, selected by man from among his benefits, signify all such things as are offered from the heart by man to the Lord and accepted by Him.**
     * See AC 9293.
     ** Ibid.
     By the Lord's faces is meant all His Divine celestial qualities-His Divine good, His Divine love and mercy and peace,* thus all that which is He Himself. To see the Lord is to perceive the Divine advent or presence of the Lord in His Word.** It also signifies an understanding of the Lord, and an acknowledgment of and belief in Him.*** By empty is meant mere knowledge where there is no truth from good?**** By emptiness is meant an external in which there is no internal.*****
     * See AC 8367, 9297.
     ** See AC 8830, 9405.
     *** See AE 37, 84e.
     **** See AC 3079: 4, 4744.
     ***** See AC 7045e.
     By our text, "My faces shall not be seen empty," is meant the following: the presence of the Divine good of the Lord in His Word can never be seen, understood, acknowledged or believed unless the truths of faith with us are genuine and so are open to and filled by good. It is from His good in us that we can see and receive more of His good and know Him as a God of love.

483

     We are therefore to offer back to Him the good we have received from Him-offer it back to Him in order that we can receive ever more from Him. From His treasure we are to make gifts of thanksgiving that we may be blessed anew. There is nothing selfish in this desire to be blessed with more good if use in His kingdom be our goal. It is thankfulness or gratitude that causes us to proffer back the good we have received. This is the quality for which we should actively strive. Without cheerful gratitude our opening to the Lord is limited.
     All of our blessings and benefits, both natural and spiritual, are free gifts from the Lord. He has provided them from His love and mercy. Every good of love and every truth of faith is from Him. Heaven and eternal happiness are from Him.* Because of all this shall we not "bless His holy name forever and ever"?**
     * See AE 430.
     ** Psalm 145: 21.
     Yes, He requires us to give thanks for His gifts. This may seem to make His benefits non-free, and thus seem not as gifts but something for which we must make payment in the form of thanksgiving, but this is not the case. We are taught that everything that flows in from the Lord through our internal into our external or natural is given freely. The Divine has no glory in man's humiliation and adoration, nor in his thanksgiving.* All these are gifts freely given. Indeed, even the ability to give thanks is a free gift. No one can be forced to give thanks that is genuine thanks. Such forced thanksgiving is not free. This is not the thanks the Lord requires.
     * See AC 5957.

     To understand the nature of genuine thanksgiving, we must turn to what the Writings say about it. In the Word, thanksgiving signifies that all worship of the Lord is from the Lord.* This means that we can worship the Lord only with and from those things which we receive from Him. We are to worship Him only from the things of good and truth He has given us through His Word.
     * See AR 249.

     This explains the passage in the Spiritual Diary which seems to contradict our first teaching, that the Lord does indeed demand thanksgiving.
     The passage states that the Lord does not demand praise and thanksgiving. No spirit or angel can give thanks to the Lord except by manifest permission of the Lord.* Does this not mean that they are not allowed to thank the Lord from self? Even with the angels that which is of self is evil. Something of false humility and smugness would enter in and pervert the thanksgiving into the things of self-love.

484

Angels, then, are to give thanks only when they have manifest permission from the Lord.
      * See SD 2098.
     How can they tell when they have such manifest permission from the Lord to give thanks? Only when from humility and adoration they sense a great need to thank and praise Him. The same is true of us when we are in regenerative states. Such a state is not as uncommon as we might think. Each time we have wittingly done His will, each time we have allowed His good and truth to act in us, each time we have obeyed Him rather than our own proprium, each time we have actively shunned an evil-do we not have manifest permission to give thanks to the Lord? Every such time we are thanking Him from what is His own in us.
     We give thanks, we are taught, from and by means of the Divine truth which we receive. This Divine truth is the Divine spiritual of the Lord.* This in turn means that it is the presence of the Lord with us in the truths of the Word. This is what causes us to give thanks to the Lord. How important this teaching is! Does it not mean that we can be truly thankful to the Lord only if we have received the truths of His Word by patient study and meditation? Such truths are indeed cause for thanksgiving, for they alone show us the path of life.
     * See AR 372.

     This leads us to the next passage from the Writings which we are to consider, Arcana Coelestia 9294, where the spiritual meaning of the harvest feast of the Jews is given. The first harvest feast of the Jews-that midsummer feast of first fruits-when mentioned in the Word signifies the implantation of truth in good. By this is meant the implanting of the truths of faith in our will so that we truly will to live the truth in our lives. After the feast of first fruits came the fall feast of harvest, or the feast of ingathering. By this feast was signified thanksgiving because of the implantation of good, for when the truths of the Word are loved and lived then the good has been implanted in us. We are no longer in the state of truth apart from good. We have then entered into the state of good itself.
     From these two harvest feasts of the Jews we can see that while we give thanks by means of the truth, still the ideal is for us to give thanks from the good of love implanted in us by the Lord. This is pointed out even more clearly in another passage, where it is said that the source of thanksgiving in man is a good heart or will.* We are to confess the Lord from the goods of doctrine-the good that doctrine teaches. Again, we are taught that thanksgiving and honor have to do with the reception of the Divine good, for thanksgiving is to be made from the heart from good.**

485

This is why gifts to the Lord, in Israelitish times, were to be offered in clean vessels. This represented a cleansed heart or will of man.***
     * See AC 9391.
     ** See AE 466.
     *** See AC 9223.
     Thanksgiving also signifies the praise and glorification of the Lord. When said of the Lord, glorification means the perpetual influx of the Divine good and truth with angels and men. When said of men, glorification is the reception and acknowledgment in heart that all good and truth are from the Lord, and therefore all intelligence, wisdom and blessedness.* If we would glorify the Lord in our hearts and lives, let us open our minds and hearts to receive the influx of His good and truth and let us acknowledge Him as their only source.
     * See AE 287.
     Further, in the Word, the giving of thanks signifies the acknowledgment of the Lord and the glorification of His Divine Human.* This, of course, involves the acknowledgment that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one God of heaven and earth. This is the essential of thanksgiving and praise-that the Lord Jehovah took on a human nature and by glorification made it Divine. This, of course, is the gift of Himself to mankind for which blessing we should he eternally grateful.
     * See AR 522.

     From all this we learn that thanksgiving is a Divinely commanded act. It is a gift that we are to render to the Lord. It is not demanded by the Lord for His own sake, but rather for man's sake. For by giving the gift of thanksgiving to the Lord man opens himself to the Lord to receive more blessings. If thanksgiving is to be genuine it must be from those gifts we have been given by Him-the gifts of good and truth in His Word. We are to return these gifts from our hearts-from a good will. Included in this is an acknowledgment of all the Lord's qualities of love and mercy as seen in His Word. This is not to be an empty knowledge we are to offer, but truth filled with the good of life. We must take care that we do not give thanks from self but from a genuine and humble gratitude in what we have received from the Lord. We are to give thanks from the Lord's good in us by means of His truth. Thanksgiving, then, is to be a praise and glorification of the Lord-acknowledging that all good and truth are from Him, together with all intelligence, wisdom and happiness. When the Lord is so glorified, then our minds are opened to receive the perpetual influx of good and truth from Him. Then we can know and love Him as the glorified Lord. This is the purpose of Thanksgiving.
     Let us remind ourselves of this as we gather together with our families and friends for our Thanksgiving Day festivities.

486

In the warm atmosphere of mutual love and appreciation let us take time to meditate on the real meaning of thanksgiving. Let us remind ourselves of our many blessings, not merely those of the natural world, but especially of our spiritual blessings-those blessings of home and marriage, of our daily uses, our church and eternal life, the blessing of the Lord's truth in His Word and of His good in our lives, and, lastly, the highest blessing of all, which is the Lord's presence with us in His glorified Human. "Let us come before His faces with thanksgiving." Amen.

     LESSONS:     Exodus 23: 14-33. Revelation 4. Arcana Coelestia 9293: 1.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 577, 571, 572, 574.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 81, 147.
TWELFTH PEACE RIVER DISTRICT ASSEMBLY 1973

TWELFTH PEACE RIVER DISTRICT ASSEMBLY 1973

     JUNE 29-JULY 1, 1973

     The Twelfth Peace River District Assembly was held in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada, June 29 through July 1, 1973. The Right Rev. Willard D. Pendleton presided at the meeting of the Dawson Creek Circle's Pastor's Council and Board of Directors on Friday afternoon. That evening an opportunity to meet with the Bishop and his charming wife was given at an open house at the home of the Rev. and Mrs. Christopher Smith.
     Saturday noon registrations were taken by Erdman Hendricks, There were representatives from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and other points in British Columbia. Twenty-four adult guests were present at a lovely luncheon served by the Women's Group. A brief business meeting followed with a report from the Treasurer's Agent for the Canadian west, Dr. Fred Hendricks. Bishop Pendleton then gave the episcopal address, an inspiring and thought-provoking message concerning truth and its application to each member of the church in daily life.
     A banquet was held in the Windsor Hotel that evening. Three speakers were introduced by Cornelius Friesen and spoke on their views of "What the New Church Means to Me." Mrs. William Esak, Stephen Hendricks and Kenneth Scott, who represent a Cross-section of New

     (Continued on Page 518.)

487

GIVING THE FIRST FRUITS 1973

GIVING THE FIRST FRUITS Rev. MARK CARLSON 1973

     A Thanksgiving Talk to Children

     You are all familiar with the story of the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt. You know how the Lord caused great plagues to come upon the Egyptians, how He led the sons of Israel out of bondage under the leadership of Moses, how the armies of Pharaoh were drowned in the sea as they pursued the fleeing Israelites, and how the Lord led the Israelites through the wilderness for forty years and at last brought them into the promised land, where they were to enjoy its fruits.
     Contained in this simple story is the story of every man who follows the Lord, for the story of Exodus is one of "leaving" or "going out," a story of leaving our ambitions for worldly profit and recognition for the life of heaven. The story of the Exodus and the parallel story of the road each of us must traverse to reach heaven can be summarized under three main events. First, the Lord delivered Israel from Egypt, just as He will deliver us from our selfish thoughts and deeds if we will but allow Him. Second, He brought the Israelites into the land of Canaan, just as He will bring us into heaven if we obey His commandments. And third, the Israelites dwelt in Canaan and enjoyed its fruits, just as we may be eternally happy in a life of use in heaven.
     It was for these three things that the Israelites were to be thankful to the Lord. Therefore the Lord instituted with them three feasts which signified these three events. They were to be celebrated in order, one after the other, throughout the year. The first feast was the "feast of unleavened bread," or the Passover. This refers to the first event, the deliverance from Egypt, for it was in Egypt that the first Passover was held, when the angel of the Lord took the firstborn of all the Egyptians but spared the Israelites. The "feast of the first fruits" was the second celebration instituted by the Lord with the Israelites, and this was to commemorate their entrance into the promised land. The third feast was the "feast of ingathering," established as a memorial to their fulfillment in enjoying the bountiful harvests of Canaan.
     Today we are particularly interested in the "feast of the first fruits," for our day of Thanksgiving, when we offer fruit to the Lord in recognition that everything we have is from Him, had its origin in that feast instituted long ago by the Lord.

488

At this day nearly every nation and culture in the world celebrates some kind of thanksgiving when the harvest is in, for this is when men are most aware that all things are from the Lord. To one who tills the ground, this truth is presented clearly every year when he sees that all that he has planted has come forth into precious life, while he had no part in it but the planting.
     But today few of us have the opportunity to live on a farm where the financial immediacy of a successful harvest brings to life the real affection of thankfulness to the Lord. It is indeed difficult really to feel thankful to the Lord when everything we have seems to come from men or machines; even the food we eat seems to pop up on the shelves of a supermarket. Therefore today and every day it is well to remember that everything we eat still depends on a successful harvest granted by the Lord. And not only is our material food from the Lord, but our spiritual food as well, the Divine truth of His Word.
     The feast of the first fruits was to be held seven weeks after the sickle was first put to the standing grain. During this time nothing of the new harvest was to be eaten by the Israelites. Thus the fruits they were to offer before the Lord were indeed the first fruits of the harvest. It was very important that this be the case for otherwise there would be no representation of genuine thankfulness in the celebration. Think for a moment. If you were to give a friend a large piece of cake, and he gave you back as an expression of his gratitude only what he could not eat, would you feel he was very thankful for your generosity? In like manner, we are not to offer to the Lord only what we do not want as an expression of our gratitude. It was for this reason that the Israelites were commanded not to eat of the harvest until the feast of the first fruits, and why they were to offer as sacrifice only the best animals of their flocks, none of the lame, sick or blind.

     This is an important principle to remember as you get older and must begin to accept responsibility for supporting the Lord's church. In a genuine internal church, such as the Lord has now established, the only offering we can make before the Lord to demonstrate our thankfulness for all His blessings is support of the uses of His church in whatever way we are able to give it. Only when we do this do we ultimate our thankfulness to the Lord and make our thankfulness genuine. But again, our offering must be of the first fruits of our labors, not the last. In other words, we must not say to ourselves that we will support the church only if we can still afford to do so after all our other expenses have been met, If such is our attitude, then whenever the harvest is poor, or our selfish desires too great, support of the church will be the first thing to give up.

489

But if we do not eat of the harvest until we have made our offering to the Lord, then no matter how small the harvest may be, we will still be truly thankful to the Lord.
     The true spirit of thankfulness is neither felt nor shown merely by saying, "Thank you," but by putting together with this something of oneself and of one's harvest to others and to the Lord. Thus the Lord commanded the Israelites concerning the feast of first fruits: "They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed; every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you."* Amen.
     * Deuteronomy 16: 16.

     LESSONS:     Exodus 23: 1-19. Arcana Coelestia 5957.
     MUSIC:     Hymnal, 136, 141, 139, 123.
     PRAYERS:     Hymnal, 108, 109.
SOME GENERAL CHURCH USES 1973

SOME GENERAL CHURCH USES 1973

     GENERAL CHURCH BOOK CENTER. Books, pamphlets and other material for sale or may be ordered. Reading Room. Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009.
     GENERAL CHURCH RELIGION LESSONS. Graded lessons and other material from pre-school through Grade 12. Address inquiries to: the Rev. B. David Holm, Director, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009.
     GENERAL CHURCH SOUND RECORDING COMMITTEE. Tape-recordings of services, sermons, doctrinal classes, children's services, etc.
Address:     General Church Sound Recording Committee, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009.
     GENERAL CHURCH VISUAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE, Biblical and other slides. Address: the Rev. B. David Holm, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009.
     NEW CHURCH EDUCATION. Published by Religion Lessons Committee monthly, September to June, inclusive. Subscription, $2.00. Editor: the Rev. B. David Holm.
     NEW CHURCH LIFE. Published monthly by the General Church of the New Jerusalem. Sermons, articles, official reports, reviews, news, etc. Subscription, $5.00. Editor: the Rev. W. Cairns Henderson. Business Manager: Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal.

490

MAN'S DEVELOPMENT 1973

MAN'S DEVELOPMENT Rev. BENJAMIN I. NZIMANDE 1973

     If we know that the end of creation is a heaven from the human race, we may understand the reason for man's temporary sojourn in the natural world, and of what use this is to him. For we read: "human life, from infancy to old age, is nothing else than a progression from the world to heaven; and the last age, which is death, is the transition itself."*
     * AC 3016.
     This makes it clear that life on earth is nothing but a temporary, brief preparation for the real human life which is eternal. Hence it is clear that man is here in order to prepare, or to be prepared, for the real and lasting life he is to live in heaven. Everything that is to be attained needs to be prepared for: the rules needed for the attainment of it need to be studied and applied correctly.
     Man's life here, then, is nothing but a short period of preparation, which must sooner or later come to an end. The end of this preparation is called death, which is therefore not a calamity but a necessary stage of development that must be reached in order that the goal may be achieved-a heaven from the human race. The fullness of this preparation varies with the individual; some take longer, some a shorter period, and this explains the reason for there being varying ages at which death, or the last age, is reached.
     Man never dies, for what is called death is only a transition from one world to another after the period of preparation has been completed. The time when this is reached varies with the individual.
     Man is a wonderful creation. In him the two worlds, the spiritual and the natural, are brought together. By his internal he has communication with the spiritual world, and by his external with the natural world. But man is not conscious of his spiritual environment while still in the natural body; he becomes conscious of this when the last age, called death, is reached.
     In his preparation for eternal life man, during his temporary sojourn in the natural world, needs to develop and thus advance in an orderly way, step by step. He is not born fully a man, but becomes more and more a man as he advances step by step, as we read:

491

     "It is known that every man when he is born is merely corporeal, and that from corporeal he becomes more and more interiorly natural, and thus rational, and at length spiritual. The reason he thus progressively advances is that the corporeal is like ground, into which natural, rational and spiritual things are implanted in their order; thus a man becomes more and more a man."*
     * CL 59.

     From this we can see that man is not born fully a man, but has the capacity of becoming more and more a man. This he does as he makes an orderly advance or progression from the first plane into which he is born, the corporeal, and advances into the interior natural by education and sciences, and thus becomes rational; and finally becomes spiritual or celestial if he regenerates.
     Without learning and understanding from others, man would remain corporeal like a worm. Only a beast is born with connate knowledge, but it cannot advance further. Man is born without knowledge to the end that his development may be unlimited; thus the imperfection of man at birth becomes his perfection, and the perfection of the beast at birth becomes its imperfection.*
     * See CL 133e.
     We have said that a man is not born fully a man, but becomes more and more a man as he develops in an orderly way from the corporeal to the interior natural and finally to the rational. But if we are to understand this properly, we must understand the relationship of these three degrees in man and how they communicate. As we know, the corporeal is the outermost, the natural is the intermediate, and the rational is the interior. These three parts communicate in a wonderful way; the corporeal with the natural and the natural with the rational. When first born man is corporeal, but has the capacity of advancing and becoming natural, and finally rational. How does this advancement or communication take place? The corporeal communicates with the natural by means of the senses, and this it does in a distinct and separate manner by those senses which belong to the understanding and by those which belong to the will, for both of these faculties in man must be perfected that he may become and may be a man. The senses of sight and hearing are those which perfect his intellectual faculty; the other three senses have special regard to the will. It is by means of these senses that man's corporeal communicates with his natural, which is the middle part.
     The things which enter by the senses place themselves in the natural as in a kind of receptacle, which is the memory. The delight, the pleasure and the desire therein belong to the will, and are called natural goods; and the memory knowledges belong to the understanding and are called natural truths.

492

By means of the things that have been mentioned, man's natural communicates with the rational, the rational part.
     Those things which elevate themselves from the natural to the rational also place themselves in the rational as in a kind of receptacle, which is the interior memory. What is blessed and happy therein belongs to the will, and is of rational good; the interior mental view of things and perceptions belong to the understanding, and the things that belong to these are called rational truths.
     These three are what constitute man, and there are communications among the three. The external senses are the means by which man's corporeal communicates with his natural, and the interior senses are those by which man's natural communicates with the rational. Therefore, those things in the natural that partake of the external senses which are proper to the body are those which are called the exterior and external truths of good; but those which partake of the internal senses which are proper to his spirit, and which communicate with the rational, are what are called interior goods and truths. Those which are between the two and partake of both are what are called mediate goods and truths.*
     * See AC 4038: 2, 3.

     We have mentioned the three things that follow in order with man-the corporeal, the natural and the rational-how these communicate, and how the order is that higher things should rule over the lower, and not the reverse. Man is not rational and is not called rational until the lower degrees of his life are subservient to the higher. At first the natural is not willing to obey and serve the rational as a servant serves his master. It desires to command, so that the lower things have command over the higher. Such is the state of man before regeneration. Until the lower degrees of his life are obedient to the higher, man is not rational, no matter what the appearance may be. In order that the natural may be reduced to a state of compliance and service it is harassed by states of vastation and temptation until its concupiscences decline, and then, by the influx of the good of faith and charity through the internal man from the Lord, the natural is tempered.*
     * See AC 3470: 3.

     The development of man does not end with the rational: it must go further. The rational is intermediate between the spiritual and the natural. Man does not become spiritual until the rational is opened above, and it is opened up when man learns spiritual truths and lives according to them. Then his internal is opened in which goods and truths are stored up by the Lord; for in man's internal nothing else is stored, and when his internal is opened these goods and truths flow into his rational and down to the lower degrees of his life, and man becomes an image of heaven; but this cannot take place until the lower degrees of his life are subservient, that is, act as servants to higher things, and this cannot happen until there is self-denial and a recognition of one's wretchedness.

493

     It is during this time, that is, when man has begun his regeneration, that he observes a combat between his rational or internal man and his natural or external man. Man is regenerated as to his rational before he is regenerated as to his natural. Those who are in a life according to doctrinal things are regenerate as to their interiors, which are their rational, but not yet as to their exteriors, which are their natural things. The reason man's natural is regenerated much later than his internal is that the natural is altogether in the world, and in the natural as in a plane man's thought and will are founded. This is why his external is regenerated much later and with much greater difficulty than his internal man. That which is nearer to the world cannot be easily constrained to render obedience to the internal man; but only after a considerable length of time and by means of many new states into which man is introduced, which are states of self-acknowledgment and of acknowledgment of the Lord, that is, of one's own wretchedness and of the Lord's mercy; thus states of humiliation resulting from temptation combats.*
     * See AC 3469: 2.

     When man is in the order of heaven, that is, when his exteriors are fully obedient or subservient to internal things, his external becomes resplendent with beauty, as is evidenced in the spiritual world; for the faces of spirits and angels are formed according to this. With those whose interiors are formed by love to the Lord and toward the neighbor, there is a consequent resplendence in their face and the face itself is love and charity in form. But if the interiors are formed of the love of self and the world, and the derivative hatred, revenge, cruelty and the like, there is a consequent diabolical expression in the face, and the face itself is hatred, revenge and cruelty in form. From this it is evident what the exterior natural is and what is its use, and what it is when interior things are made subject to it.*
     * See AC 5165: 2, 3.
     It is highly important that the natural should be in compliance with the rational. Unless the light of the rational is received in the natural, its sight perishes; it is as it were choked or blocked. It is like the sight of the eye; unless this has objects outside of itself which it sees, it perishes. The case is similar if the objects are altogether contrary, for these induce death; and it is the same as with the vein of a spring whose waters have no overflow, causing the spring to be choked.

494

It is the same with the rational; unless there is reception of its light in the natural its sight perishes, for the knowledges in the natural are the objects of sight to the rational; and if these are contrary to the light, that is, to the intelligence of truth and the wisdom of good, the sight of the rational also perishes, for it cannot flow into things contrary to itself. Hence it is that with those who are in evils and falsities the rational is closed, so that no communication with heaven is open through it except only as it were through chinks, in order that there may be the capacity of thinking, of reasoning, and of speaking. Consequently, in order that the natural may be conjoined with the rational, it must be prepared for reception of it, which is effected by the Lord by means of regeneration. When it is conjoined, the rational lives in the natural; for, as before said, the rational sees its objects in the natural as does the sight of the eye in the objects of the world. The rational has indeed a life in itself that is distinct from the life of the natural; but still the rational is in the natural like a man in his house, or a soul in its body.*
     * See AC 4618: 2, 3.

     We have said that the rational is regenerated before the natural, and that the reason man's natural is regenerated much later and with difficulty-in fact, greater difficulty than the internal man-is that the natural is altogether in the world, and that in the natural as a plane man's thought and will are founded. For that which is nearer to the world and nearer to the body cannot be easily constrained to render obedience to the internal man, but only after a considerable length of time.
     This is exemplified in the story of the Lord's laying aside His garments, taking a towel, girding Himself, pouring water into a basin, and beginning to wash the disciples' feet. When He came to Peter, Peter did not accept spontaneously the washing of his feet. He questioned this, but the Lord said: "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part in Me."*
     * John 13: 8.
     This confirms what has been said above, namely, that the rational or the internal is regenerated first, which in this story is represented by the washing of the head and the hands first. But a man is not completely regenerated until his natural has been regenerated also, which is meant by the washing of the feet; but that the natural is regenerated with much difficulty is represented by Peter's questioning the washing of his feet. That man cannot be conjoined with the Lord unless his natural is regenerated also is represented by the Lord's saying: "If I wash thee not thou hast no part in Me." The natural questions the washing, and that is why it is regenerated much later and with difficulty.

495

It is not regenerated until after a considerable length of time and by means of many new states into which man is introduced, which are states of self-acknowledgment and of acknowledgment of the Lord, and of recognizing one's own wretchedness and thus recognizing the Lord's mercy-and this after states of humiliation resulting from temptation combats. When man comes into this state he says, as did Peter: "Not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." But the Lord says: "He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit."
     It is highly important that the natural of man be purified while he lives in the world because it cannot be purified afterwards to eternity. Such as is the natural of man when he dies, such it remains; it is not afterwards amended, since it is that plane into which interior things which are spiritual inflow, it being their receptacle; wherefore, when it is perverted, interior things, when they inflow, are perverted like it.* If the natural is perverted, interior things that flow in also become perverted. I think we should note this: to me it seems very important.
     * See AC 10,243.

     It would seem that the natural is like a mold, the shape of which is taken by liquids which are poured into it. When we see an oval-shaped toilet soap, its shape is like that because of the mold into which the liquid soap was poured. The soap can take any shape; it all depends on the mold.
     Spiritual things terminate in the natural as a mold. If the natural is in disorder until the man dies, he will remain like that to eternity. His natural can no longer be amended; all the spiritual things that flow in will take the form of the receptacle and be likewise disfigured. That is why the natural must be in compliance with the rational or the internal. It must serve. As we said before, unless the light of the rational is received in the natural its sight perishes. Or, we might say, unless its life is received in the natural that life perishes. If the rational flows into things contrary to itself it perishes. The natural must be entirely in accord with the rational. Peter must agree to have his feet washed, otherwise he has no part in the Lord, that is, there can be no conjunction. It is highly irrational for one to continue to call himself a Christian while openly committing adultery with his neighbor's wife, for his natural, which is in disorder, causes whatever is in his rational or internal to take the same shape as the mold he is providing. In other words, his rational or internal perishes, and that is why it is said: "With those who are in evils and falsities the rational is closed, so that there is no communication with heaven except only as it were through chinks, in order that there may be the capacity of thinking, of reasoning and of speaking."*

496

     * AC 4618: 2.
     If external things rule over internal things in man he becomes an image of hell; he has his head downwards and his feet upwards. Order consists in celestial things ruling over spiritual things, through these over natural things, and through these over corporeal things, and when the reverse takes place the man becomes an image of hell. In a regenerated man external things correspond to internal, that is, they render obedience to them; in no other way can man become an image of heaven. He becomes an image of heaven when the external, that is, his life in the world, renders obedience to internal things; his external becomes as it were the image or the face through which internal things shine. The exterior or natural cannot serve the interior as a plane unless it becomes subordinate! That is why it is said:

     "For unless it [the natural] is made subordinate, interior truths and goods, and consequently interior thoughts which have in them what is spiritual and celestial, have not anything in which they can be presented; for they are presented in the exterior natural as in their face, or as in a mirror."*
     * AC 5168: 2.

     This is what is meant by the Lord's words:

     "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thins eye be single, thy whole body shall he full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!"*
     * Matthew 6: 22, 23.

     The internal meaning of this is:

     "With those who are in celestial and spiritual love, good from the Lord flows in through the soul into the body, and thence the body becomes full of light; but with those who are in bodily and worldly love, good from the Lord cannot flow in through the soul into the body, but their interiors are in darkness whence also the body becomes full of darkness."*
     * AC 2973: 5.

     In conclusion, let me say that we have seen that man is born corporeal like a worm, and he remains corporeal unless he learns to know, understand and be wise from others: thus that the imperfection of man at his birth becomes his perfection, and the perfection of a beast at its birth becomes its imperfection. We have seen that man's life in the world is nothing but a progression from the world to heaven; and that the last age which is called death is the transition itself, so that life in the world is nothing but a temporary preparation; and that although man is born corporeal like a worm he is capable of advancing or progressing from being merely corporeal to being natural, and finally becoming rational.

497

Nor does he rest there. If he regenerates his rational is opened above and he becomes spiritual and finally celestial, provided he advances in an orderly manner and does not allow external things to have dominion over internal, but reduces his external to obedience to internal things, thus allowing the Lord to wash his feet. By so doing he comes into conjunction with the Lord; and when this takes place be has a "part" in the Lord, that is, he is saved.

[EDITORIAL NOTE: The Rev. Benjamin I. Nzimande is Assistant Superintendent of the General Church Mission in South Africa, Resident Pastor of the Clermont Society, and Pastor in charge of the Kwa Mashu Society.]
FOURTH SESSION OF THE ASSEMBLY 1973

FOURTH SESSION OF THE ASSEMBLY 1973

A report of the Fourth Session of the General Assembly, held on June 14, 1973, was received too late for inclusion in this issue. It will be published in December.
FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS TO NEW CHURCH LIFE 1973

FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS TO NEW CHURCH LIFE 1973

At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the General Church it was resolved that a free one-year subscription to NEW CHURCH LIFE be given to every new member of the General Church, and that, upon application, a free subscription be sent to college students living away from home with free one-year renewals upon request. Qualified college students should make written application, not to the Editor, but to the Business Manager, Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009.
WONDERFUL IN COUNSEL 1973

WONDERFUL IN COUNSEL 1973

Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rye in their place? For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him (Isaiah 28: 24-26).

498

REFLECTIONS ON THE ASSEMBLY: A STUDY OF FRIENDSHIP 1973

REFLECTIONS ON THE ASSEMBLY: A STUDY OF FRIENDSHIP STEPHEN G. GLADISH 1973

     (This article stems from a two-year study on the affective domain in New Church education, to be entitled: Understanding the Student First (200 pp).)

     "By Friendship I mean the greatest love, and the greatest usefulness, and the most open communication, and the noblest sufferings, and the most exemplary faithfulness, and the severest truth, and the heartiest counsel, and the greatest union of minds, of which brave men and women are capable." (Jeremy Taylor 1651)

     How much more enriching might the Assembly be, how much more enriched might our church be, if each one of us first reflected on ways to create more and deeper friendships? Friendships between God and man,* man and wife, parents and children, male friendships, female friendships, boy-girl friendships: whatever the type, the United States, studies have shown, does nothing to encourage them and much to prevent them. We in the church have been warned about the dangers of what is commonly called friendship; mutual love instead has been held up to us as the ideal. Yet the literary authors I wish to illuminate here treat friendship exaltedly-mutual love and other teachings of the Writings are mirrored in their treatment of it. And who among us could not be happier and more fulfilled, more useful, in his or her friendships?
     * See AE 409: 10.
     There is much to say for mutual love. It is the desire to serve all.* It is contrary to love of self.** It wishes better to another than to self. It wills to give to another what belongs to oneself, namely, one's goods.*** It is the source of all happiness.**** It conjoins-spiritually.***** It teaches us that "anything good or right in a particular friend is to be loved, and to be loved the same whether the person is a companion or not, thus for the sake of the good itself."****** Mutual love is the doing of good of "use to the community: this love descends from love to the Lord, because the Lord's love is to do uses to the community . . . through men who are in love to Him."*******

499

And "he who is in mutual love believes everything good and true is from the Lord; his ability to love others more than self he believes to be the Lord's gift."********
     * See AC 1594: 4.
     ** See AC 1506e, 2057.
     *** See AC 1013: 4; SD 4607m.
     **** See AC 4435.
     ***** See AC 5161: 2.
     ****** SD 4524.
     ******* AR 353.
     ******** AC 1594e. [Italics added.]
     Mutual angelic love is derived and descends from conjugial love-which is wanting to be in the life of another as a one mutual love is willing better for another, because it is a joy to do so (not for one's own sake.)* Mutual love versus friendship is explained as follows: "Mutual love regards the good with a man from good or for the sake of good. Friendship regards the man. Mutual love is nothing else than charity toward the neighbor, or spiritual love."** Friendship approaches the love of self; it regards others for the sake of self, which it calls good. In proportion as it does this, it is opposite to mutual love.***
     * See AC 2738, 4435; SD 4229.
     ** AC 3957: 7, 4286: 2.
     *** See AC 3875: 5.

     Much is said about friendship. First we learn that friendships and civilities are "somewhat remote from charity; friendship is not charity, still less is civility-they are a degree below charity. Yet the more they derive from charity, the more sincere they are."* However, those in the sphere of spirits "looking to mere pleasures and self-indulgence in friendships [who appear to be good, delightful, polite and clever] extinguish in others the affections of good and truth. . . . They are curses and pests. . . . What it is to be a friend to good or what the friendship of good is, they know not, and do not want to know."** We are warned that "we should not prefer the delight of social intercourse to every other delight or love those with whom we have social intercourse, without caring whether they were good or evil, provided they were agreeable."*** How many of us hoped merely for fun and social pleasures at Assembly time? If the person is regarded and not what is good, "great injury is done to the spiritual life of man by friendship."****
     * AC 1158: 2.
     ** AC 4054. See SD 5791 1/4, 4439, 4716m.
     *** AC 4804.
     **** AC 4804. See TCR 446, 447, 448.
     On a quieter note of classification we learn: it is natural to do good to a friend of whatever quality he be. To do good to a friend for the sake of the good that is in him, and still more to hold good itself as the friend to which one does good, is spiritual-natural. But we transgress if we do good to a friend who is evil, for through him we do evil to others.* And friendship for the sake of self "despises and indeed hates all except itself and those who make one with itself."** This friendship loves all who favor it, and rejects all who do not.***

500

We must daily force such a natural inclination from our lives. However, "flatteries with the end of friendship or the pleasure of social intercourse are not so evil"****; and external friendship "for the sake of various uses does no harm."***** Finally: "The delights of use are those with friends."****** But most importantly, we should be naturally expansive (we tend not to be) and spiritually discriminating. "Everyone may indeed be friendly to others, but still he must be most friendly to what is good."*******
     * See AC 4992e.
     ** AC 5132: 2.
     *** See AC 6667.
     **** AC 8333: 2.
     ***** TCR 449.
     ****** Love XI: 3.
     ******* AC 4804. See SD 4243.

     In the other life "likenesses of mind effect friendships, not keeping company or social intercourse."* Yet the wicked enter into friendships, "in order to inflict injury on the upright; the delight of hatred consociates them."** Swedenborg continues: Friendship is saying "I love him because he loves me and does good to me. This is not interiorly to love him. . . . Loving another from friendship alone conjoins with the person and at the same time with his evils. One can be conjoined to another's person in so far and for as long as he is in good."*** Loving good in another means, for example, "loving justice, judgment, sincerity, benevolence from charity, especially loving faith and love to the Lord.**** A chaste love of the sex, regarded in itself, is interior spiritual friendship."*****
     * SD 4731.
     ** AE 661.
     *** F 21. [Italics added.]
     **** TCR 449.
     ***** See CL 55: 7. For friendship leading to marriage, sea David R. Simons, "Genuine Friendship," NEW CHURCH LIFE, March 1961, pp. 122-127.
     Friendship, we read, belongs to civil life, but never the love of friendship.* Love of friendship "ties minds together; sometimes dissimilar minds" (causing trouble in the other life.)** External friendship may "conceal lasciviousness, delight in idleness, or contempt for others, internally." An angelic virgin, in appearance, spoke contemptuously and abusively about others when she was in a relixed modesty predicated of friendship, she also communicated with societies of adulter and whoredom.*** But one of the dangers of friendship at Assembly time can be related. There existed with the Moravians a society of interior friendship.**** Like the societies of friendship spoken of in Diary 449, they took away the external delight of life from others.

501

Swedenborg says:
     * See SD 4524e.
     ** SD 4524.
     *** See SD 4810m.
     **** Our connection may be closer than we think. It is interesting to note that the founder of the Academy Bishop Benade, was originally a Moravian, and that the Academy was tacitly modeled after the educational system of the Moravians. Richard R. Gladish, History of the Academy of the New Church, p. 10.

     "They call all brothers who are in their society, and with them have an interior delight of life, but they spurn all others outside the society and call them dead, and they despise others in comparison with themselves and judge others to hell. They believe themselves to be elect. They praise a life of good of those in their congregation, not from charity but from interior friendship: friend praises friend, and thinks well concerning him. This in the degree in which he perceives delight from social intercourse with him."*
     * SD 1763m. See LJ post 295. [Italics added.]

     Erich Fromm, world famous psychoanalyst and author, enlarges on the idea of friendship, particularly in his book, The Art of Loving (Bantam Edition 1970). "Brotherly love," he says, "is between equals" (p. 40). "In brotherly love, the most fundamental kind of love, there is the experience of union with all men, of human solidarity, of human at-onement. . . It is characterized by its very lack of exclusivness" (p. 39). The Art of Loving details the disintegration of love in Western society, and argues that brotherly love is the most essential medicine for the maintenance of a healthy, happy society (p. 17). Fromm ventures the following:

     "In contemporary society the meaning of equality has been transformed. By equality one refers to the equality of automatons; of men who have lost their individuality. Equality today means 'sameness' rather than 'oneness.' . . . Contemporary society preaches the ideal of unindividualized equality. . . . Mass production requires the standardization of commodities, the social process requires standardization of man. The incidence of alcoholism, drug addiction, compulsive sexualism and suicide in contemporary Western society are symptoms of this relative failure of herd conformity" (pp. 12, 13).

     In the sequel, The Revolution of Hope (Bantam Edition 1968), he asks: "Must we produce sick people in order to have a healthy economy?" (p. 2). Dr. Harris, in I'm OK-You're OK, documents another frightening symptom of love's disintegration: six thousand five hundred murders per year in the United States, compared to thirty in England, thirty-seven in Japan, sixty-eight in Germany, and ninety-nine in Canada (p. 262). More than one New Church minister has expressed to me the belief that the lost joys of friendship have contributed to the above symptoms.
     Fromm goes into more detail on love. He states: "Mature love is union under the condition of preserving one's integrity, one's individuality. Love is an active power in man. . . . It breaks through walls separating man from others, it unites them, yet permits him to be himself" (p. 17). According to Fromm, "the deepest need of man is to . . . overcome his separateness, to leave the prison of his aloneness" (p. 8). And love is the answer; but "love is primarily giving, not receiving. . . .

502

Whoever is capable of giving of himself is rich. . . . He has overcome dependency, narcissistic omnipotence, the wish to exploit others, or to hoard; he has acquired faith in his own human powers, and courage to rely on his powers. . . . To the degree that these qualities are lacking, he is afraid of giving himself-hence of loving" (pp. 21, 22). He concludes his chapter on "Love of God" as follows: "One thing is certain: the nature of an individual's love for God corresponds to the nature of his love for man" (p. 69). In explaining one who is incapable of loving others, he states: "The selfish person does not love himself too much but too little" (p. 51). But he adds: "The affirmation of one's own life, happiness, growth, freedom, is rooted in one's capacity to love" (p. 50).

     The active character of love, he explains, implies certain basic elements, common to all forms of love; care, responsibility, respect and knowledge:
     "Care: love is the active concern for the life and growth of that which we love" (p. 22).
     "Responsibility: the response to the needs, expressed or unexpressed, of another human being . . . an entirely voluntary act" (p. 23).
     "Respect: The ability to see a person as he is, to be aware of his unique individuality. Respect means the concern that the other person should grow and unfold as he is" (p. 23). There is no domination, possessiveness or exploitation.
     "Knowledge: knowing a person enables respect for him to flourish. Care and responsibility would be blind if . . . not guided by knowledge. Knowledge would be empty if... not motivated by concern. . . . Loving another is feeling oneness with him as he is, not as one needs him to be. Independence means no need for dominating or exploiting anyone: 'Love is the child of freedom'" (p. 24). "Love is possible only if two persons communicate with each other from the center of their existence" (p. 86). "They are one with each other by being one with themselves" (p. 87). Emerson states it another way: "We must be our own before we can be another's" (p. 116 in "Friendship" in Harvard Classics Emerson, Essays and English Traits).
     Fromm concludes: "People capable of love, under the present social system, are necessarily the exceptions; love is by necessity a marginal phenomenon in present day Western society. Not so much because many occupations would not permit of a loving attitude, but because the spirit of a production-centered, commodity-greedy society is such that only the non-conformist can defend himself successfully against it" (p. 111). "To analyze the nature of love is to discover its general absence today and criticize the social conditions responsible for its absence. . . . That the need for love has been obscured does not mean that it does not exist. . . .

503

Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence" (p. 112).
     Two thousand years ago Plutarch highlighted friendship by contrasting it with flattery. The first premise we should absorb leaps off the page:
"Friendships shape character" (p. 75, "Flattery and Friendship." In Selected Essays on Love, The Family and the Good Life, Mentor Books, 1957).* He goes on to quote Plato:
     * See, David R. Simons, "Genuine Friendship," NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1961, pp. 122-127.

     "'Self-love entails many evils, of which the greatest is that it prevents man from being an honest and unprejudiced judge of himself. In friendship a man must school himself to respect and pursue excellence rather than habit and familiarity; love is blind as concerns its object. This blindness gives the flatterer, not the friend, a wide range under the heading of love. The outsider, who corroborates and endorses the high opinion an individual has for himself, has ready access to that individual. A lover of flatterers is a lover of himself'" (p. 123).

Plato is quoted further:

     "'If truth is divine, and the just principle of all good, chances are the flatterer is an enemy of truth and good. By implanting in a man deception concerning himself and ignorance of himself and of what is good and evil in him, he goes counter to the principle of Know thyself He prevents the good from being perfected and consummated and the evil from being corrected'" (p. 124).*
     * For teaching paralleling Plutarch's, see Robert B. Caldwell, Sr., "New Church Friendship," NEW CHURCH LIFE, May 1906, pp. 271-274.

     Thoreau, going back twenty-five hundred years, quoted Confucius on this matter: "To contract ties of friendship with anyone, is to contract friendship with his virtues. There ought not to be any other motive in Friendship." The Writings offer parallel thought.
      Plutarch defines friendship further: "A true friend does not imitate or readily praise everything, but only what is excellent. As Sophocles said, 'Not hatred does he share, but love.' In addition, he shares right dealing and love of the honorable, but not iniquity or roguery" (pp. 130, 131). He goes on to say: "Consistent snappishness and fault-finding is unfriendly and unsociable, but we shall accept reproof and outspoken criticism patiently and without offense from a kindly temperament which can also give unstinted and ungrudging praise, because we are confident that a man who is willing to praise, blames only when he must for our own good" (p. 125). This, too, we should recognize, we who criticize so easily. "The true outspokedness of a friend cleaves to failings and its prick is solicitous and salutary, like honey which stings when it cleanses a wound but is sweet and beneficial in other respects" (p. 140).

504

     The flatterer, on the other hand, "affects a stern and inexorable attitude in his dealings with others, is severe and alert to castigate the failings of his relatives and household; he never admires or respects but always looks down on others. In quest of a reputation as a puritan he would not temper his outspokedness for anyone or do or say anything to make himself agreeable" (p. 141). Plutarch cautions us: "Know and always bear in mind that the soul contains on the one hand truth and honor and rationality, and on the other unreason and falsehood and passion. A friend is always ready to counsel and promote the better. The flatterer supports the passionate and irrational part" (p. 143). Admonition is friendly and large-spirited, the flatterer's faultfinding selfish and petty (p. 152). Furthermore, a friend wishes to share his friends, to see his friends have many friends and to be much prized; while a flatterer is jealous, competitive, and wishes to drive other friends away (pp. 149, 150). Plutarch concludes by confiding that "Diogenes used to say that for a man to be saved he needed good friends or flagrant enemies; the former teach, the latter upbraid. . . . Outspokenness requires subtle art; it is the greatest and most potent medicine for friendship" (p. 164). Further contrast between the appearance of good in a friend and what is truly good may be seen in the following speech:

     Don Juan: "It is the fact that these men are doing your will, or rather drifting with your want of will, instead of doing their own, that makes them the uncomfortable, false, restless, artificial, petulant, wretched creatures they are."
     The Devil: (mortified) "Senor Don Juan: you are uncivil to my friends."
     Don Juan: "Pooh! Why should I be civil to them or to you? In this Palace of Lies a truth or two will not hurt you. Your friends are all the dullest dogs I know. They are not beautiful; they are only decorated. They are not clean: they are only shaved and starched. They are not educated: they are only college pass~ men. They are not dignified: they are only fashionably dressed. They are not religious: they are only pretenders. They are not moral: they are only conventional. They are not virtuous: they are only cowardly. They are not even vicious: they are only 'frail.' They are not artistic: they are only lascivious. They are not prosperous: they are only rich. They are not loyal, they are only servile; not dutiful, only sheepish; not public-spirited, only patriotic; not courageous, only quarrelsome; not determined, only obstinate; not masterful, only domineering; not self-controlled, only obtuse; not self-respecting, only vain; not kind, only sentimental; not social, only gregarious; not considerate, only polite; not intelligent, only opinionated; not progressive, only factious; not imaginative, only superstitious; not just, only vindictive; not generous, only proprietary; not disciplined, only cowed; and not truthful at all-liars every one of them, to the very backbone of their souls."*
     * George Bernard Shaw, "Don Juan in Hell," in Plays by George Bernard Shaw (Signet Classics, 1964), pp. 368-369.

     (To be continued.)

505

DR. WILLIAM WHITEHEAD 1973

DR. WILLIAM WHITEHEAD Rev. ELMO C. ACTON 1973

     A Memorial Address

     (Delivered in the Bryn Athyn Cathedral, August 30, 1973.)

     With loving devotion and with suitable religious rites we have interred the body in which we revered and loved William Whitehead, and we now gather here in the house of the Lord to join with angels and friends in celebration of his resurrection to life. We call it a celebration because in the resurrection of man's spirit is fulfilled the purpose of his life.
     To a New Church man this is self-evident, for he knows the reality of the spiritual world; but to others there must be doubt, and at some time they must ask themselves what the purpose of life is, and is it continued after the death of the body? Dr. Whitehead was not always a New Church man, and so this question was frequently in his mind. Before pursuing this further let me give you something of the history of William Whitehead's acceptance of the doctrine of the New Church.
     William Whitehead was born in England in 1883. He was trained for and became a Methodist minister. After serving a year in England he was sent to Canada to work in a home mission circuit of the Methodist Church in Muskoka. There, in Dorset, he met some members of the church who were spending some time in that region. They were Mr. and Mrs. Robert Caldwell, Sr., and Miss Venita Pendleton. They introduced him to New Church thought and interested him in reading the True Christian Religion. Being a man of learning he had heard of Swedenborg, but vaguely regarded him as a mystic.
     After he had read the True Christian Religion with care, the foundations of his former faith were shaken, and it was while reading on the nature of the life after death in the chapter on the Second Coming that he wrote in the margin: "What is my end? How live my life if I know not the nature of the hereafter?" He slowly came to realize that he had found the answers to these questions. Also, the work answered many other questions of doctrine which had troubled him for some years, especially the doctrine of the Trinity, with the result that when he had carefully and thoughtfully read through the work he came to this conclusion, which he wrote on the flyleaf of his copy: "If the Christian Doctrine be not a Beautiful Fable and a Clever Dream, then this, and this only, can be its true account."

506

     Shortly after this he became fully convinced of the Divine origin of the teachings given in the True Christian Religion which contains the "Universal Theology of the New Church." After a time he came to Bryn Athyn, where on the fifteenth of December, 1907, he was baptized into the New Church, Bishop W. F. Pendleton officiating. Thus William Whitehead was introduced to a long and useful life as a minister and teacher of the doctrine and life of the New Church. While studying at the Academy for the ministry, he was asked to teach a course in history as a temporary measure. He accepted, and fulfilled his temporary appointment some fifty years later! However, he succeeded in his intention to become a priest, for in 1922 he was inaugurated into the first degree and in 1926 into the second degree of the priesthood. He did pastoral work in New York, Northern New Jersey and Philadelphia. He assisted with the preaching in Bryn Athyn, and preached and gave classes in other societies.

     And now in his ninetieth year he has been called to the spiritual world, and we join with him in the joy of his awakening in the spiritual world. Soon he will return fully to the performance of his high use and the blessedness and joy of serving others by means of it.
     Use in its widest sense, as given in the Writings, is the complex of those works by which man is judged. The very form of his spiritual body is determined by the quality of his love in his works. In such works is the whole man: in a word, the Writings say, "all things of a man and his spirit are contained in his deeds or works."* Therefore they are identified with the formation and appearance of the spiritual body. And is not this the real, living body in which we gradually come to see and know a man even in this world? Do we not see his loves and affections, his intentions and thoughts, in his deeds and works, in his expressions and mannerisms? And are not these the things which we love and according to the quality of which we form our attitudes towards him? "By their works ye shall know them"; that is to say, those works which are the extension and form of the thought and love.
     * HH 473.
     These are the man, the spirit, that rises into life. These are William Whitehead, who is now fully conscious in the spiritual world, being welcomed by angels, renewing acquaintance with family and friends, being introduced into the conditions of life in the other world and about to enter into a period of preparation for a life of use and joy in some society.
     At this time our thoughts are on the things of life-the real and eternal things which are without end.

507

We therefore find no necessity to recount the acts, works and accomplishments of our friend-as if the memory of these things was all of him that continues to live with us; but rather to dwell upon the qualities evidenced in his acts, works and accomplishments. The works of a man in themselves are temporal and in time for the most part are forgotten, but the ideals, the loves and intentions from which he performs them continue and are the man himself. These and their effects upon others are the man's use; his peculiar contribution to the good of his fellow man, to society in general, and especially to the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth. This essential use of man increases when the body is put off, and not only with those in heaven but also with men still on earth.
     Through his teaching Dr. Whitehead influenced for good generations of New Church men. Today many ex-students all over the world are sharing our honoring of him, recalling, along with the things of real worth received from him, the clever witticisms which enlivened his classes and become, when repeated, evidence of the affection and respect of his students.

     His genius extended far beyond the classroom, for his love was to see the application of the doctrines to life in all its phases.
     The literature of the Church is full of his papers, addresses and sermons. He edited the Journal of Education and was the first editor of the Bulletin of the Sons of the Academy. As New Church Life commented: "The Journal has never been more ably edited; and the Bulletin is sparkling with his quiet humor."
     He was a founder of the Sons of the Academy. He served for years as Secretary of the Council of the Clergy and of the Joint Council and in many other capacities in the General Church and the Academy.
     He was in great demand as a lecturer and a banquet speaker. For along with his learning and keen penetration of a subject he had a quick and clever wit that enlivened his speeches and made it a pleasure to listen to them.
     As said before, we recount these activities and qualities as evidence of the loves and sincere intentions which are the essential William Whitehead. As the Writings say, they give form to the essential man and present him to view. Through them we know him and in them we see him. Therefore they are the sole source of man's spiritual body, or the body of his spirit; that is, it is formed solely out of the things that a man does from his love or will. "In a word, all things of man and his spirit are contained in his deeds or works."*
     * HH 475.

508

While William Whitehead will no longer be present with us in external works, yet his loves and intentions given form by them will be present with us, especially with those who are carrying on the same external uses, inspiring and encouraging them in their performance of those works. For all our thoughts and affections inflow from the Lord through the angels and spirits we associate with ourselves throughout our lives. The work of the church will grow in interior development by this mutual association. This is involved in the teaching that the New Church will grow and increase according to the increase of the New Heaven. Amen.
ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH 1973

ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH 1973

     Enrollment for 1973-1974

Theological School     7
College               97
Boys School               115
Girls School          143
Total                    362

     MIDWESTERN ACADEMY

     Enrollment for 1973-1974

     LOCAL SCHOOLS

     Enrollment for 1973-1974

Bryn Athyn               332
Colchester               No report
Durban               23
Glenview               87
Kitchener               37
Pittsburgh               29
Toronto               43
Washington, D. C          19
                    575

Total reported enrollment in all schools     937

509

TRUTH IN ULTIMATES 1973

TRUTH IN ULTIMATES Rev. NORBERT H. ROGERS 1973

     The story of Samson, the Danite, is one of the most stirring in the Word. From childhood one's imagination is captivated by the heroic struggle of the man who, single-handed, opposed the domination of the Philistines, who were Israel's neighbors and most persistent enemies. And though in adult age the story may no longer exert quite the same fascination, there is still admiration at the thought of a man who refused to yield to his environment despite all adversity. Typical of the incidents in the Samson story is the one in which we are told of an almost weaponless man who boldly defied and overcame a host of his enemies. This and other things we are told about Samson are particularly affecting, because they representatively describe activities and conflicts that take place in the natural plane of the mind; and as the natural plane of the mind, especially before regeneration, is influenced by natural appetites, affections and emotions rather than by the intellect, so the whole story of Samson portrays the governance of the animus rather than that of the mens, of passions and impulses rather than of rational thought and judgment.
     As the Writings frequently teach, all are born into the natural degree of the mind. This is the degree of the mind that is first open and active; and here in this degree rests human consciousness. Even when the higher degrees of the mind are opened through regeneration, as long as a person lives in the natural world, the light and life of his spirit flow down into the plane of the natural where they are felt to a greater or lesser degree. For this reason all men are affected by what is natural, especially those who live in and from the natural only. Since only the natural is open and active with them, spiritual things as such are beyond their comprehension. They can grasp only what is natural. Such things they can understand; their consciousness can become aware of them; they appeal to their affections, causing them to be responsive to them.
     All men on earth, then, and particularly merely natural ones, become aware of this only as far as they are conveyed to them in natural terms, expressions and forms. And in so far as they are adequately described in natural terms and represented in natural forms, even abstract ideas can be conveyed to man and affect him. This is in keeping with the law that power lies in ultimates. Not that power originates in ultimates.

510

All power is from the Lord and proceeds through interiors. But in interiors power is in a sense only potential; that the power may become a fact, it must descend into the plane of ultimates and there be exerted. It is then that power becomes effective. This is the reason why the story of Samson exerts such an appeal. For in the natural terms and imagery of the story conflicts that take place in the natural mind are accurately represented and described so that they strike squarely on man's consciousness, stimulating his imagination and emotional responses.

     That the story of Samson in the internal sense has to do with the natural mind and things pertaining to it is brought out and emphasized by everything said and implied here. For Samson was a Nazarite; he belonged to the tribe of Dan; he fought against a host of Philistines: and he killed a thousand of them with the jawbone of an ass. All these things represent natural things, and the combat spoken of must refer primarily to that which takes place in the natural mind.
     Dan was the son of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaiden. He and his descendants represented, we are taught, truth in ultimates and good from the knowledge of truth. These are the most ultimate things of the church, forming its boundaries, as it were. To represent this the tribe of Dan received its portion in the very extremities of Canaan. The things represented by Dan are the most general principles relating to the good of life and the holy of faith; that is, the first truths which someone entering the church comes to know, and which form the basis upon which he may build his faith and life. And with man the lowest things of the church represented by Dan are the simple affirmative state of mind, the knowledges of good and truth, and the willingness to obey without which no one can enter the church. The Writings teach that

     "This general principle [concerning the good of life and the holy of faith] is the first that is to be affirmed or acknowledged before a man can be regenerated or become the church. Unless these things are affirmed and acknowledged, all other things of faith and of life cannot be received at all. . . . Affirmation and acknowledgment is the first general principle with the man who is being regenerated, but it is the last with the man who has been regenerated; wherefore 'Dan' is the first with him who is being regenerated . . . but with him who is regenerated . . . 'Dan is the last. . . . The reason `Dan' represents the first boundary, and also the last one, is that the affirmative of good and truth is the first of all things when faith and charity begin with a man, but is the last when man is in charity and thence in faith."*
     * AC 3923: 1, 8.

     In a higher sense, "Dan" represents judgment and righteousness; in fact, the very name "Dan" means "judgment."

511

This is in keeping with the other representations of Dan; namely, truth in ultimates and good from the knowledge of truth. All judgment has to do with what is ultimated in some way or other; for all judgment is exercised according to established laws, that is, according to ultimated principles; and no just judgment can be passed on what is merely an intention that has not taken on a perceptible form, that has not been ultimated in the form of an act, or a word, or a thought. Only when an intention has been ultimated can its worth be determined, and this according to formulated principles of righteousness and justice.
     Samson, being a Danite, takes on all the representations of his tribe. And it is significant to note that something judicial can be seen in his actions; for Samson acted in accordance with the laws of Israelitish justice which were based on the principle of retaliation: he burned the crops of the Philistines because his Philistine father-in-law had given his wife to another man*; he smote the Philistines hip and thigh with great slaughter to avenge the murder of his Philistine wife and father-in-law**; and, according to this story, he slew a thousand Philistines because they had come up against him with evil intent and had mocked him.***
     * Judges 15: 1-S.
     ** Judges 15: 6-8.
     *** Judges 15: 9-15.

     Samson also represents the ultimate things of the church, and so, too, the man of the church as to the natural which receives these ultimate things, because he was "a Nazarite unto God from the womb."* Nazarites were set apart from others and consecrated as it were to God by solemn vows. During the days of their separation, whether few or many, they were forbidden, among other things, to shave the hair of their heads. Their long hair was the sign of their Nazariteship and sanctity. We are taught that the hair of Nazariteship represented the ultimates of good and truth, or what is the same, good and truth in ultimates, in which all power and strength reside.* Because of this, Nazarites represented the Lord as to the Word in ultimates,** that is, the Lord as to His Divine natural, which is the external of the Divine Human.*** Thus Samson, because of his Nazariteship, represented in a supreme sense the Lord as to His Divine natural; and in a lower sense, he represented the man of the church as to the natural. As a consequence, his struggle with the Philistines in the supreme sense is representative of the Lord's combats against the hells; and in a lower sense the conflict of temptation in the man of the church.

512

     * Judges 13: 5.
     ** AC 9836.
     *** SS 35.
     **** AC 6437.
     The Lord fought against and subjugated them from His natural as to truth. He had assumed an infirm human from Mary for this purpose. That infirm human was the plane upon which He could meet the hells and by this they could he made to feel His Divine power. In other words, the Lord's Divine power was ultimated in His natural and exercised by means of it. And so Samson, because of the representation of his Nazariteship, was endowed with super-human strength.
     The Philistines have an evil representation. In general they represent the hells against which the Lord fought. More particularly, however, they represent the false principles which attack the man of the church. In general they represent the evils of the loves of self and the world in which is the life of the unregenerating natural man. More particularly they represent the principle of faith without charity which is eternally the most persistent and subtle enemy of every church.
     The distinction between the Danite and the Philistine is a fine one, but it must be clearly drawn; for the one is becoming a man of the church, and the other is not. Both are natural men: but the one is affirmative to the things of the church, while the other is opposed. Both are in natural knowledges; but the one uses them to arrive at clearer concepts of spiritual and celestial things and to form doctrinals for himself, while the other is merely in the knowledge of the knowledges of good and truth.* The Philistines, we read.
     * AC 1201.

     "are such as learn the knowledges of faith from others, and know and retain then in the memory, with no other end in view than such as they have in learning other things which they care nothing about except merely to know them, and except for the reason that they may thereby be advanced in honors, or some other such reason. So distinct is this mere memory knowledge of knowledges of faith from the knowledge of natural things, that they have scarcely anything in common. . . . Such being the character of the 'Philistines,' they cannot but pervert even the knowledges of faith by reasoning from them, and thence to form for themselves false doctrinals."*
     * AC 1198.

     By the weapon Samson used against the Philistines something external is again represented. For the jawbone of an ass signifies scientifics, and in Samson's story ultimate natural truths from the Word which are the scientifics of faith. For scientifics are like bone in that they are hard and have little life, and yet they form a base and support for a living spiritual faith. And scientifics are like an ass in this that they are suited for service.

513

The feat of repulsing the Philistines with a jawbone of an ass exemplifies the use of these bony scientifics from the Word as a weapon against evil and falsity; it is representative of the way the Lord overcame the hells. As will be recalled, when the devil tempted Him in the wilderness, the Lord answered him in the words of the Scriptures-the very ultimates of Divine truth-the scientifics of faith, against which the very hells are helpless. These considerations shed light on the teachings of this story: "And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith." All who are not yet men of the church but stand on its threshold are, like Samson, Danites who have taken, as it were, the vows of Nazariteship and are beset by the Philistines. They are still predominantly natural men with whom the church consists in broad general principles and knowledges of truth which are not clearly understood, and whose application to life is but dimly perceived. And yet these broad principles and knowledges enable them to judge and to determine for themselves the end for which they wish to strive. It is to attain that end that they have separated themselves as Nazarites, as it were, calling themselves New Church men.

Many are the exigencies that confront the regenerating man, taxing his fortitude and strength. Every time we renew our vows by learning some new truth and endeavoring to confirm it, or by trying to make better application to life of known principles, the Philistine hosts in our natural arise against us to mock and to destroy us. By specious reasonings false friends further becloud our dim understanding of truth-the inclinations of our natural man induce us to regard religious truth as inapplicable to life. Further effort is discouraged by the multitude of evils and false principles that we see surrounding us, weakening our determination by their mockery, as it were. How can we in the face of worldly ridicule continue to flaunt our distinctive principles which are the signs of our Nazariteship? How can we hold fast to the few truths we have when our proprial inclinations tauntingly accuse us of hypocrisy? We could not unless the Lord gave us the power to endure. We could not unless we permit the Lord's Spirit to inspire us with militancy against evil and falsity. We could not unless we secure for ourselves the weapons we need against our foes.
Victory in temptation is ours if we are faithful to the Divine injunctions. But to be faithful means that we must search the Word of the Lord for the new ultimate truths we constantly need to preserve our spiritual life in every emergency. We must make the effort to put forth our hand and take up those ultimate truths, using them in combat against our spiritual foes. If we make this effort, as of ourselves, being true to our vows and to the responsibilities we have taken upon ourselves by baptism and confirmation-if we are true to our determination to become truly New Church-the Lord will endow us with invincible spiritual strength.

514

These are the words of the Lord: "One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the Lord your God, He it is that fighteth for you, as He hath promised you."*
* Joshua 23: 10.
"IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME" 1973

"IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME" Rev. MORLEY D. RICH 1973

     Although it is at first both inarticulate and unobserved, all people whatsoever are born with an inner predisposition and longing to worship the Divine. This is indeed one of the innumerable blessings and gifts which the Lord sets before men on His great table. For it is one of the principal means given by which man may be uplifted to the only Rock that is higher than himself, and by which his spirit may be elevated and opened to receive unlimited happiness and joy.
     The truth of this is shown and confirmed by many small and even outward things which are commonly unobserved or not thought about. It may be observed in the natural, instinctive delight of little children in the sights and sounds, even the odors and feel, of religious, ritualistic things, whatever the forms may be. It is evidenced in the sensations of hushed dignity-the feelings of an inner order and truth in any worship-which may come to the people; in the instinctive desires of men to fit into that worship even as to their dress, general appearance and outward deportment. It may be detected in the feelings of safety and security that come to them in the performance of external worship; in the perceptions of the underlying Divine law and order involved in worship; in the pleasure-producing contrasts between this and the heat and cold, the dust and clamor, the confusion and uncertainties and the doubts and griefs of the streets of life from which they have escaped momentarily; in the calmness and serenity, the peace and pleasantness, of contemplating one who "amid all change, changeth not," whose "rod and staff" are ever-present constants in the midst of the inconstant and temporary.
     The words which the Lord spoke to His disciples in instituting His Supper are a part of His eternal effort to impart this blessing to men by means of specific signs, ceremonies and rites. For when He told them, "This do in remembrance of Me."

515

He was referring not only to the to-be-established sacrament of the Supper but to all the forms of worship by which He seeks to communicate with men and by which they may enter into communion with Him. He also conveyed to the human race that these forms of worship are not only the special means of intercommunication; they are, or may be, the very signs by which men may express their inner charity, that charity which consists of love to Him and toward the neighbor. Therefore the Lord caused Swedenborg to write most explicitly that "the signs of charity are all things of worship."
True charity is a matter of man's spirit; and if in his spirit man has this charity, it will inevitably seek expression, especially in all things of the worship of the Lord. This spirit will seek and even invent signs, significant actions and words, and even material objects by which to express itself. Furthermore, the forms which the spirit of charity may find and adopt will vary a great deal. The forms themselves are not the important thing. They may be the rigid and detailed forms of the Jewish Church, as in the past. They may be the free forms of the most ancients who, when they were moved to worship God, simply walked by families up into the mountains, there to worship the Lord with song and loving conversation. Or they may take the forms of the essentials of worship as outlined by the Lord while He was in the world-the bread and wine of Communion, the water and words of baptism; the dress and deeds of weddings; simple and single acts, such as the opening of the Word to signify the truth that the Lord has given this Word so that all men may enter into its spirit and life with understanding and prayer on the knees, especially His Prayer.

Genuine worship can be experienced, indeed, and its uses can be seen, even in outward earthly events such as a journey to the moon. As with worship, little children are fascinated by the wonder of such a journey, and reflective adults may be affected far beyond the mere external sensation of it; for within the actual happenings and actions and words can be seen inner meanings and significances in relation to creation and human life itself. Far beyond the merely physical benefits conferred, above the external miracle of it, the mind and heart may be stirred to humble exaltation by such profound reflections as that if man does not reach out for the moon and stars, the "works of God's fingers," he cannot begin to conquer the mud underfoot. It need not be that men seek to become "as God," but that they seek to approach the Lord in even their earthly aspirations, to see further the wonder of His creation, and so to "worship at His footstool." It can he a part of that kind of vision without which the people perish, without which the human spirit starves and dies in a dusty desert.

516

     For a man can look upward and outward to infinity from that perspective, can contemplate the vast creation, can understand time as but humanly devised measures of eternity. He can look back upon his earthly home with a deeper, more understanding affection, as the scene of his preparation for eternal life. He is enabled to look about him at all his fellow-travelers with a new eye of discernment and love.
     What is this but worship itself, which provides expression for man's inner charity or love to the Lord, and gives opportunity for that communion with his fellows which is charity toward the neighbor? So it is, likewise, that by this we may be enlightened as to the uses which are performed to the human spirit by true worship.

     All genuine worship brings to men two general states-humiliation and glorification. The state of humiliation includes the elements of humility, even anguish, repentance and amendment of life; and the state of glorification includes praise, thankfulness, exultation, exaltation, high joy and celebration. According to their true correspondence and harmony the forms of worship-the words and actions-serve as channels through which the Holy Spirit may move to stir the hearts and minds of those participating; so that, if they are receptive, they may see and feel spiritual things which they had not sensed before.
     These uses are performed and these states brought to man, however, in the measure of his own state of life and preparedness for them; and two general elements enter into this state of life and thereby perfect, intensify, and make more effective with him the uses of worship. These two things are the remaining affections and knowledges from his childhood, and his own reciprocation and self-discipline in worship.
     Thus, whatever may be the particular forms of worship of the Divine with which he may have been brought up, it is around and with these forms that his affectionate feelings of childhood have been built and stored in his mind. So when he senses and participates in these forms in adulthood, the remaining affections of childhood are aroused and come powerfully into play, which, of course, much increases with him the states of humiliation and glorification. This alone would underline the great importance to children of public and private worship.
     The need of as-of-self discipline for the uses of worship to be effected with man is almost too obvious to be remarked upon. For this is man's part in the work; it is his basic response and reciprocation of the Lord's love reaching out to him. He cannot be moved by the Lord's spirit coming through the channels of worship if he does not participate in it. His heart cannot be softened for communion with the Lord and his neighbor if he never partakes of the Holy Supper.

517

He will but rarely be moved, be specifically directed, to humility, reflection and exaltation of God, if he does not participate in the specially devised and chosen forms of that worship which is directed to Him. He cannot enter fully into worship except in so far as he has prepared himself for it by forethought, care and reflection.
     Many of these truths about worship can be seen illustrated in human societies. We may note that the word, worship, is related by its root with the word "culture." And we may observe that the culture of various civilizations has derived largely from their religions and forms of worship. Also, it has evolved in conditions of order, of relative peace and industry, and has included desires among men to act with gentility toward their fellows, and feelings of love, mercy, compassion and sympathetic understanding. Therefore it is not too much to say that where there is not that spirit of worship, of personal humility, then, to the extent that it is lacking or is present only in artificial and false forms which contain no inner sincerity, that society will be inwardly uncultured and uncivilized. It will be savage and cruel in its spirit, vengeful and unforgiving and fearful, however excellent and fair-seeming may be its outward appearances. It will lack and it will attack, a "decent respect for the opinions of mankind." For it will contain a hideous, hidden atheism which, indeed, is said to lie at the heart of the former Christianity; and its forms of worship will be dead and hollow within. They will not be the signs of charity of which the Writings speak. Men will participate in its worship while at the same time cherishing the most virulent feelings of contempt, ill-will, hatred, savagery and cruelty toward various segments of mankind.

     Because of various and conflicting factors, even true worship by itself may not always bring these exalted uses to a man. Yet its forms were devised, and its basic elements outlined, by the Lord to give every man a start, if he wills it, on the road of regeneration, of which repentance is the first step. The basic elements have been glorified and made holy by the Lord: prayer and praise, instruction and reciprocation by offerings, the water of baptism, the bread and wine of His Supper; though the forms in which these may be used are not sacrosanct, and may be changed to harmonize with the perceptions and states of each age of man.
     Because of its high uses, therefore, it behooves us to beware of and to understand and reject those states which would detract from or diminish the uses of worship. Thus, carelessness in worship can be a sign of unrealized contempt. Indifference and neglect may betoken coldness and contempt to and for this Divinely-given means of salvation; or they may betray ignorance of the blessings and functions and uses of worship for the church.

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Non-participation may indicate an absence of the inner spirit of charity. Hard feelings toward others may keep a man from worship. An aggrieved attitude toward life or human society takes away some of the desire for and delight in worship.
So it is that we are sometimes not as inspired by or delighted with our worship, for a variety of reasons and causes. Yet our disciplined faithfulness toward it will nonetheless betoken our over-all continuing inner love and desire; and its uses will continue to be effected in us.
All these points in relation to worship and its uses show why the Writings teach that "worship is the first thing of the church with man." As with the Holy Supper, so in all worship, the Lord gently commands us, "This do in remembrance of Me," as a reminder needed by every human spirit.
TWELFTH PEACE RIVER DISTRICT ASSEMBLY 1973

TWELFTH PEACE RIVER DISTRICT ASSEMBLY MERLE HENDRICKS 1973

      (Continued from Page 486.)

Church backgrounds, touched on a variety of viewpoints. Musical entertainment was provided by the Harry Friesen family. Juste Hendricks also enriched the program with guitar and song. Mr. J. L. Sonmor from Saskatchewan said a few words on behalf of the Convention Summer Camp and invited us to their Convention at Edmonton on July 19. After the banquet open house was held at the homes of Mr. and Mrs. Dave Friesen and Mr. and Mrs. Ed Friesen.
     Family Worship was held and the sacrament of the Holy Supper administered on Sunday morning at 11 o'clock. The Bishop spoke to the children on the meaning of the Lord's Prayer. There were 105 people present including 25 children. After the service everyone attended a picnic luncheon at "Friesen Acres." This was under the convenorship of Mrs. William Esak. A beautiful day enabled all to visit, play ball, eat heartily, and conclude the Assembly in a pleasant manner.
     MERLE HENDRICKS
SOURCES OF THANKSGIVING 1973

SOURCES OF THANKSGIVING 1973

"Thanksgiving" is said of Divine truth; for man gives thanks from and through it (Apocalypse Revealed 372e).
"Thanksgiving" is predicated of the reception of Divine good, for thanksgiving is made in the heart from good (Apocalypse Explained 466e).

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SOWING IN TEARS, REAPING IN JOY 1973

SOWING IN TEARS, REAPING IN JOY Editor 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.
Published Monthly By

THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
BRYN ATHYN, PA.
Editor               Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager          Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications, should be sent to the Business Manager.
Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.
     TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$5.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 50 cents.
     "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy," says the Psalmist. "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him" (Psalm 126: 5, 6).
     Most commentators on these verses contrast the time of sowing as one of anxiety with the harvest as a period of achievement, satisfaction and joy. This fits in with that series of the internal sense in which the psalm treats of those who have been in spiritual captivity and are delivered; for tears signify grief of mind on account of falsities and from falsities, grief of thought and understanding such as are experienced by those in spiritual captivity.
     Yet it is possible that tears of joy are meant also. The psalm is one in which the Lord is celebrated and worshiped, and a new church in place of the former is spoken of; and while the preceding verses treat of the joy of the nations with whom it will arise, the verses quoted teach that the new church will be instructed. To sow signifies to be instructed in truths, and we are assured in the Word that there will never be lacking to man the sowing of seed from the Lord.
     This month we give thanks to the Lord for the bounty shown in the fruits of the earth. May we not also give thanks for the bounty shown in His giving of the seed which produced those fruits, and even more for the spiritual seed provided in the Word? If we go to the Word for instruction with rejoicing, as it were weeping tears of joy, we may be certain that we will rejoice in the harvest; for he who loves the means loves the end, and in it will know the fullness of rejoicing.

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     ETERNAL LIFE

     The Lord said: "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent" (John 17: 3). The use of the present tense here emphasizes that eternal life is here and now. What is spoken of is a certain quality of life-the life of love and faith involved in the idea of knowing, which is without reference to time, place, or circumstance. We are not to live now so that when time ends for us we may be given eternal life, but are to enter into that life now; and if we are to enter into it at all we must begin while we are in this world.
     Man is so created that as to his internal he cannot die. Therefore all men live to eternity, but those only receive eternal life who are conjoined with the Lord and are thus in heaven. Eternal life must therefore be received, and if we would receive it we must prepare ourselves here on earth. For that life is not infused immediately. It is given mediately, and it cannot be received without spiritual combat. No one can receive eternal life who does not love that life and its delight; and no one can come into that love and its delight who does not believe that evils are sins and therefore does not will them, and also looks to the Lord. Indeed we are taught that man has eternal life according to the uses of his affections, and that these uses must become spiritual if he is to receive it.

     Today man is surrounded by sensuous spirits, and we are taught that in order to be uplifted from them he must think about eternal life. Now it is true that he must do so from a determinate idea and that this is difficult for him, since man cannot apprehend eternity except as an eternity of time. However, we may abstract time somewhat if we will consider that the Lord alone is eternal and that man lives to eternity by perpetual reception of His life. In the Lord's sight there is no past and no future. All is present, and for those who receive the Lord there is not an eternity of time but an eternal present, in which is all the past and all the future.
     Nor is that present static; it is one of increasing perfection that has no end. With this idea from which to think, and as the mind is affected by it, we may be led to prepare ourselves for the love of eternal life from which is all spiritual freedom, and which is a leading characteristic of the New Church. Such an idea will lead us to think from what is eternal and to value what is eternal, even in connection with what is temporal; for it will lead us to believe that the eternal alone is because it never ends, and to love what we believe.

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     CONFLICT AND HEALING

     A teaching which seems to have some bearing on the Women's Liberation movement is found in Conjugial Love, no. 291. There it is said that after the first states of marriage have passed, rivalry may spring up between husband and wife as to right and power: as to right in that according to the institution of marriage there is equality between them and each has dignity in the duties of their function; as to power in that men insist that superiority belongs to them because they are men, and inferiority to women because they are women-an attitude now commonly referred to as male chauvinism.
     These things are said to be "well known," and to be matters of observation. However, the cause can only be revealed, as it is in this number, which says that such rivalries flow from no other source than a lack of conscience respecting truly conjugial love and a lack of sensible perception of the blessedness of that love. Lust then takes the place of that love and from it there flows a striving for power on the part of both husband and wife. Men who are in this striving and who eventually obtain the dominion, reduce their wives to the status of possessions; but if the wives gain command, they reduce their husbands to an equality of right with themselves.
     However, the word, equality, is not quite correct, for the affection that is active is from the proprium, and the proprium recognizes no one and nothing as its equal. What is being spoken of here is a relentless battle which looks to the subjugation of one by the other; and from this we can see that the conflict between the sexes has much deeper causes than is generally supposed, and that it can be resolved truly only by regeneration-and regeneration takes a long time! Yet this does not mean that there can be no amelioration of the situation, no healing of the wounds that are caused, without regeneration.

     Those who are in evils and falsities cannot be healed by the Word. If they read it at all, they are not influenced by it. But if they have a strong judgment they can be healed by rational truths, can be led to think soundly and to act becomingly.
     So the men and women of the church-realizing that both sexes are at fault, and that they themselves can be healed only by the spiritual truths of the Word-can perhaps learn how to be most useful when they enter into discussion of the issue with those outside the church. Without presenting them as dogmas they can offer the truths within doctrine as rational principles, realizing that men and women will react to them differently; and in that way perhaps help to bring healing.

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LOCAL SCHOOLS DIRECTORY 1973

     1973-1974

Local schools report the following teaching staffs for 1973-1974:

BRYN ATHYN:     Rev. Kurt Asplundh          Principal

     Mr. Carl R. Gunther               Assistant to the Principal
     Miss Eleanor Cranch               Kindergarten
     Mrs. Thomas Redmile               Kindergarten
     Mrs. Robert Alden                    Pre-Grade 1
     Mrs. Edward Cranch               Grade 1
     Mrs. John Acton                    Grade 1
     Mrs. Grant Doering               Grade 2
     Miss Charis Dunlap               Grade 2
     Mrs. Bryon Odhner                    Grade 3
     Miss Rudaina Abed                    Grade 3
     Mrs. Robert Johns                    Grade 4
     Miss Rosemary Wyncoll               Grade 4
     Mrs. Barbara B. Synnestvedt          Grade 5
     Miss Heather Nelson               Grade 5
     Mrs. Christopher Simons               Grade 6
     Miss Wadad Abed                    Grade 6
     Mrs. Gina T. Rose                    Grade 7
     Miss Claudia Bostock               Grade 7
     Mrs. Dan Echols                    Grade 8, Girls
     Mr. Yorvar E. Synnestvedt          Grade 8, Boys
     Mrs. Hyland Johns                    Art
     Mr. Richard Show                    Music
     Mr. Gale Smith                    Physical Education
     Mrs. Lillian Bruckerl               Physical Education
COLCHESTER:     Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen     Headmaster
DURBAN: Rev. Peter M. Buss               Headmaster
     Miss Ruona Karen Hendricks          Grades 1-3
     Miss Joan Kuhl                    Grades 4-7
GLENVIEW: Rev. Alfred Acton II          Headmaster
     Mrs. John Barry                    Kindergarten
     Mrs. Jaikoo Lee                    Grade 1
     Mrs. Donald Alan                    Grade 2
     Mrs. Kenneth Holmes               Grade 3
     Mrs. Bergen Junge                    Grade 4
     Mrs. Ralph Synnestvedt, Jr.          Grade 5
     Mr. Richard Acton                    Grade 6
     Miss Gertrude Hasen               Grades 7 and 8
KITCHENER: Rev. Frank S. Rose               Principal
     Mrs. Erwin Brueckman               Kindergarten

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     Miss Louise Junge                    Grades 2 and 3
     Miss Susan Parker                    Grades 4-6
     Mr. Stewart Eidse                    Grades 7 and 8
MIDWESTERN ACADEMY: Rev. David R. Simons     Principal
     Mr. Gordon McClarren               Grade 9
     Mr. Dan Woodard                    Grade 10
PITTSBURGH:     Rev. Donald L. Rose          Principal
     Mrs. Robert Kendig               Grades 1 and 2
     Miss Karen Junge                    Grades 3 and 4
     Mrs. John Schoenberger               Grades 5 and 6
     Mr. Dirk van Zyverden               Grades 7-9
TORONTO: Rev. Harold C. Cranch          Principal
     Mrs. Keith Frazee                    Kindergarten
     Mrs. Desmond Holmes               Kindergarten
     Miss Sylvia Parker               Grades 1-3
     Mrs. Norman Hiebert               Grades 4 and 5
     Mrs. Leigh Bellinger               Grades 7 and 8
WASHINGTON: Rev. Frederick L. Schnarr     Headmaster
     Mrs. Frank Mitchell               Grades 1-3
     Mrs. Fred Waelchli               Grades 4-7
     Mrs. Dean Smith                    Grades 4-7

     Part-time teachers are not included. The teaching staff of the Academy of the New Church is listed in the Catalog Number of The Academy Journal, pp. 3-5.
FEASTS OF HARVEST 1973

FEASTS OF HARVEST 1973

It is to be noted that although the Lord works all things, and man nothing of self, yet His will is that man should work as if from self in all that comes to his perception. For without man's co-operation as if from self there can be no reception of good and truth, thus no implantation or regeneration. For to will is the Lord's gift to man; and because the appearance to man is that this is from self He gives him to will as if from self. Such being the signification of harvest [the implantation of the church in particular and in general] two feasts were instituted with the sons of Israel, one of which was called the feast of seven weeks, which was that of the harvest of first fruits; and the other the feast of tabernacles, which was the feast of ingathering of the fruits of the earth. Of these the first signified the implantation of truth in good, and the other the bringing forth of good, thus regeneration. But the feast of unleavened bread, or the Passover, which preceded, signified deliverance from the falsities of evil, which is the first thing in regeneration (AE 911: 17, 18).

524

Church News 1973

Church News Various 1973

     CARYNDALE, ONTARIO

     The Post Office Department is delighted to announce Caryndale's fourth address change. In six years we have run a dizzy course from R. R. #1, Blair, to R. R. #3, Preston, to R. R. #3, Preston (Cambridge), to R. R. #2, Kitchener, without budging an inch! You are advised to ignore the succinct postal in- formation contained in our last report and change at once all Caryndale addresses to R. R. #2, Kitchener, Ontario, N2G 3XV5. If this proves to be the last straw that breaks those address books afflicted with overcrowded pages and unsightly erasures, we recommend for the future noting all Caryndale addresses very lightly in pencil, on a good erasable bond paper if at all possible. The suspicion persists that this new game of post office has yet to run a spell. Although R. R. #2, Kitchener, alone will reach us, the Post Office would like us also to use house numbers and street names. This should not over-boggle the postal mind as there are only three streets in Caryndale at present: Biehn Drive, named after an early area settler and the main road in from town; Chapel Hill Drive, Caryndale's main and most populous street; and Evenstone Drive, which intersects both of the former and is named after the Evens family, previous owners of this section of Caryndale and donors of the several acres of land on which the church building stands. The Post Office does not recognize the name Caryndale, but it is quite widely known and used by the public.
     During the long Canadian winter the Carmel Church calendar is crowded with a full program of supper-classes, socials, meetings and special events. Then, from about mid-June to mid-September, the calendar is emptied of everything but Sunday services, special events and essential executive functions. People climb into old clothes; visitors on their way to and from Maple Leaf Academy pop in and out; vacationing friends come and go; vegetable and flower gardens are full of luscious things; houses are cleaned and painted; students return from the Academy; and schools let out. It is a thoroughly lovely time of year, reminding us that Mr. Rose once said that useful and charitable day-to-day life is true worship; formal Sunday worship, a form of recreation.
     Weatherwise, this summer has been almost perfect. We had a showery spring
-splendid for gardens. The newly levelled sports area in front of the manse is seeded and growing well. For the most part the two summer months were warm and sunny. At the end of August we had ten sizzlingly hot days, wonderful for cottagers and campers; and to keep things interesting, a tremendous thundershower in July flooded ditches and overflowed culverts, doing some interesting erosional damage to roads and shoulders. City crews made prompt repairs. They poured gravel and patched asphalt, then very nicely tarred and topped Biehn Drive down to Huron Road, which means that we now have smooth sailing all the way into Kitchener-a great relief as the old gravel surface was like the Plains of Abraham after the battle.
     Going up on newly-paved Biehn Drive is Caryndale's thirty-fourth house, home-to-be of Ted and Pat Kuhl and family who recently moved here from Sarnia. This was also the first summer in Caryndale for the residents in houses thirty- two and thirty-three; Denis and Sandy Kuhl moved in after Christmas and Desmood and Martha MeMaster came from Montreal in April. It is a pleasure to have them all here.

525

     It was an extra special summer for two of Caryndale's early settlers and much respected members, the Rev. and Mrs. Henry Heinrichs. July 22, 1973, was the 50th anniversary of Mr. Heinrichs' ordination. Calling him a valued friend and wise counselor, Mr. Rose made him a present of a stereo set at the Nineteenth of June banquet-a gift from the Society. After Mr. Heinrichs had spoken his gratitude be was given a moving and heartfelt standing ovation, a testimonial to his fifty years of service to the church in Denver, in the Canadian west, in Kitchener and among the isolated in Ontario. Henry Heinrichs was born in 1897 in that part of the Northwest Territories now known as Saskatchewan. He attended the Academy as a young man, frequently stopping off in Kitchener en route. After his ordination in 1923 he returned here, and on August 21 married Ruona Roschman. There followed many years spent in Denver as resident pastor and visiting minister to the Canadian West. Mr. Heinrichs served his country in both World Wars. Returning here from England after the Second World War, he entered the Post Office Department, and raised his large family of ten children on a small farm near Kitchener. For forty years he assisted the pastors of the Carmel Church. In later years Mr. Heinrichs suffered dreadfully from rheumatism. Even then he conducted occasional services with the aid of two walking sticks and a plentiful supply of courage. Happily, a hip operation started him on the road to recovery, and his family reports that his health improved daily from that time to this. One of the most cheery sights in Caryndale is a glimpse of Mr. Heinrichs working in his garden or tinkering in his garage, straight-backed, slender, and unaided by walking canes. In his retirement this sweet, gentle man enjoys studying and talking about the Writings with all comers. He reads and follows sporting events. He talks with fondness of his children; two of whom are active pastors in the church, one teaches in the Academy and one in the Bryn Athyn Church School; others are nurses and businessmen. All but two of their children and thirty-seven of their grandchildren were in Caryndale in August to celebrate the Heinrichs' 50th wedding anniversary. They had an out-of-doors family dinner, a party of skits and entertainment arranged by the grandchildren, and on the evening of the 21st the Society was invited to an Open House to visit and offer congratulations. Many happy returns of the day to these friends in the church!
     Theological student Glenn Alden his wife Mary and their two children were here for eight weeks of the summer to gain experience. Mr. Alden gave four Wednesday classes, took the entire service twice, and preached three times with Mr. Rose on the chancel. It was lovely getting to know them; we wish them well, and will watch with pleasure the growth of the two trees they gave us as a parting gift.
     There is now a nip of fall in the air. The corn growing on our unoccupied land is ripe and ready for harvest. It's windy, and the clouds scudding over Caryndale carry a hint of winter greyness around their edges. But it was a lovely summer. Refreshed, we go on, trusting always that Caryndale's visible growth and vitality reflect in some measure what is going on within us.
     BARBARA WIEBE

     THE SWEDENBORG SOCIETY

     After nearly thirty years in office, Dr. Freda Griffith relinquished the duties of Honorary Secretary at the end of September. The post of Honorary Secretary will lapse for the time being. Dr. Griffith's duties will be divided between Miss Madeline G. Waters, now Secretary, and Mr. Kenneth Campbell. Dr. Griffith will continue as Secretary of the Advisory and Revision Board and will remain on the Council. Members and friends of the Swedenborg Society in the General Church will join with the Chairman of the Council in recognizing that "The Society owes an enormous debt of gratitude to Dr. Griffith for the quality of her leadership. Throughout this long period of entirely voluntary service, she has combined a clear vision of the objects of the Society with executive ability of a high order."

526

     THE CHURCH AT LARGE

     General Convention. The Annual Meeting of the General Convention was held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. A summary report, the presidential address, the Convention sermon and reports all appear in the New-Church Messenger. According to the report, President Martin focused his address on the dissention within Convention, calling for acceptance of differences in theological interpretation, and actions and purposes "within the fellowship of shared belief and conviction in the General Convention." Among other things Convention approved, approximately 4-1, the possibility of ordaining women into the ministry; endorsed the Council of Ministers policy statement regarding dissention in the church; heard a report from Dr. Horand Gutfeldt on plans for a 1980 World Assembly in North America and indicated a very positive response. The Council of Ministers recommended abolition of the office of General Pastor, the duties to be assigned to other offices.
     The Messenger also reports that Mr. Roland Patzer has been named President of Urbana College. He is a former Dean of Students at the University of Vermont.

     Denmark. At the recent General Convention, the Rev. Gudmund Boolsen of Copenhagen, formerly a priest of the General Church, was accepted as an Authorized Candidate for the ministry for one year, to serve in Denmark under the supervision of the General Pastor of the Continental Association.

     The "Lord's New Church." The Rev. Harry Barnitz of Yonkers, N. Y., a pastor in the "Lord's New Church," died suddenly on September 1, while vacationing at Peconic, Long Island. A memorial service was conducted on September 5, in the Chapel of the Lord's New Church by the Right Rev. Philip N. Odhner.

     GENERAL CHURCH

     The Sound Recording Committee announces that Mrs. Joseph (Mollie) McDonough is training to become office secretary. Mrs. George (Cecilia) Kelly is now librarian.
WHAT MAN SHOULD KNOW 1973

WHAT MAN SHOULD KNOW 1973

Moreover, of what consequence is it for a man to know how the seed grows, provided he knows how to plow and harrow the ground, to sow the seed, and when he reaps his harvest to bless God? (Apocalypse Explained 1153e)
VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

527

CORRECTION 1973

     Announcements

     Confirmation

     Wyncoll.-At Colchester, England, February 11, 1973, Mrs. Geoffrey Graham Wyncoll (Kathleen Sylvia Rose), the Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen officiating.
     This was announced incorrectly because of insufficient information.

529

Title Unspecified 1973

[Frontpiece: The Reverend William Whitehead, Ph. D.]
DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS 1973

DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS Rev. VICTOR J. GLADISH 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. XCIII
DECEMBER, 1973
No. 12.
     "And I will commove all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts." (Haggai 2:7)

     The burden of the book of the prophet Haggai is the rebuilding of the Lord's house. He proclaimed an urgent and burning message that the broken remnant of Israel, returned from Babylon to Jerusalem, should build another temple to replace the magnificent house of the Lord dedicated by Solomon. Moreover, the word came by Haggai: "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former, saith the Lord of hosts."*
     * Haggai 5: 9.
     The house or temple of the Lord with which the eternal message of the Word is concerned is not some building, whether erected by Solomon, by Zerubbabel at Haggai's urging, or by any other man. It is the church of the Lord, not erected by human hands but built by the Lord in the hearts of those who received Him, first in pre-historic times, then among the sons of Israel in merely representative form, and then at the first and second comings of the Lord. But the supreme representation of the temple spoken of in the Word is the Divine Human of the Lord, to which the pre-advent churches looked in prophetic anticipation, and in which alone the churches since His coming may see and worship the Everlasting Father.
     That this is the supreme meaning of the "temple' the Lord teaches plainly in the Gospel of John. To the Jews, asking, "What sign showest Thou unto us, that Thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt Thou raise it up in three days?

530

But He spake of the temple of His body."* In these words He foretold that they would inflict death on the body of His assumed human, but that on the third day He would rise in the purely Divine body of His glorified Human. Of the same kind was the meaning of the prophecy given in the last book of the Old Testament Word: "Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in."**
     * John 2: 18-21.
     ** Malachi 3: 1.

     Thus in the inmost sense, which treats of the Lord, this "latter house" to be "filled with the glory of Jehovah' is one and the same with the "desire of all nations" which would come, as He promised by the prophet Haggai. The "desire" or the "chosen" of all nations does not mean that the determination of the Messiah was a matter of the choice of the people and nations of earth. By "nations" here are meant all men who are in goods and truths therefrom. For such the Divine truth incarnate in which is the Divine love was and is the desire of their hearts, toward which their spirits yearn. With them the Divine Human was the chosen, the elect, because this was the choice of the Divine love, by which alone salvation might be brought to fallen men. The Lord in His Human, the Messiah, was He toward whom all the prophetic things of the Word had looked from the time of the fall of the Most Ancient Church. Throughout the ages, the hope of His salvation was that on which the expectations of the seekers among all peoples had turned with increasing intensity until the very night of the Israelitish Church, out of which He rose like the dawn. Concerning this it is written in Hosea: "After two days Jehovah will revive us: in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight. . . . His going forth is as the dawn."*
     * Hosea 6: 23.
     But in order that this "desire of nations" might come, the prophecy teaches that the Lord must shake, "or commove, all nations." In the words preceding our text it is written: "Yet once, it is a little while, and I will commove the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will commove all nations, that the desire of all nations may come." There must be a judgment from inmosts to outmosts. The judgment in the spiritual world without which the Lord could not make His Human Divine, and without which He could not restore order in both worlds and raise up a new church, is described by "I will commove the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land"; "heavens and earth" meaning all interior things of the church, and "sea and dry land" all exterior things of it.*
     * See AE 400: 12.

531

     Some aspects of the spiritual judgment which were a necessary accompaniment of the Lord's coming were visible upon earth; as when He denounced the scribes and Pharisees for the hypocrites they were, although they had taken for themselves "Moses' seat" as their right and prerogative; and also after His crucifixion and resurrection, when an external judgment came upon the Jewish nation, the Romans decimating them with slaughter, famine and fire, and laying proud Jerusalem in the dust. But the internal judgment upon this earth was worked out more slowly. At the same time as the new Christian era began to rise among a remnant of the Jews and a few from nearby pagan nations, more and more among other peoples of the globe were brought to see their need-their ignorance of spiritual things and their lack of a known, a visible, God. But in the spiritual world the internal judgment and the visible transformation of the world of spirits, the heavens and the hells was effected more quickly.

     At the time of the Lord's advent all who had entered the spiritual world from the time of the Flood were to be brought into their true order. The good and the evil of that entire period had not yet been allotted their final places in heaven and hell. While the interiorly good had been gathered into a heaven adjoining that of the Most Ancient Church, and the interiorly evil were kept in a temporary hell, the intervening space was occupied by both good and evil spirits who had not yet been separated and judged, who were not yet fully vastated and thus prepared for heaven or hell. The result of this mixed condition was that for the most part the wicked persecuted the good and subjected them to their power, securing high places for themselves while they enslaved the upright, in like manner as the simple good on earth were held in subjection by their leaders. This state of things upon earth was a picture of the world of spirits before the judgment, where the evil, who were free to roam abroad, had formed spurious heavens on high, thrusting the more worthy into lower places; casting them into prisons from which they were released only by the Divine judgment, that judgment of which the Lord spoke when He said: "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me."*
     * John 12: 31, 32.
     At the time of the Lord's advent many simple good spirits whose ignorance and oppressed condition on earth had made them a prey to the cunningly evil had been detained for ages in what is called the "lower earth" on the borders of hell.

532

This was a place of bondage, and often of punishment at the hands of the evil, though it is said that some lived "cheerfully enough, in worship of the Lord,"* and in a hope of deliverance, being ignorant of the hells nearby and protected from them. Many, however, suffered frequent infestation at the hands of evil spirits, even to despair of release, which could come only at the judgment. Such did, indeed, long for the "desire of all nations"-the long-promised Messiah and Savior, who could bring redemption to mankind only after He had shaken "the heavens and the earth, the sea, and the dry land." But as He fulfilled the judgment, bringing order but subjection to the evil and order and freedom to the good, He was seen in the spiritual world to be manifesting the prophecy of Isaiah: "to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God."**
     * AR 843.
     ** Isaiah 61: 1,2.

     It was known in ancient times that the Lord's advent would bring a release of the innocent from spiritual prisons and the casting of the guilty into bonds, thus the reward of the just and the punishment of the wicked, in reality a mercy to both; and because this fact was known in the Ancient Church it became a custom for kings, when they came to the throne, to order a release of prisoners. This is spoken of several times in the Word, where we read also that Pharaoh made a feast on his birthday and released the chief butler from prison.* The same custom is referred to in the prophecy of the Lord's coming: "Behold, thy King cometh unto thee; He is just and having salvation. . . . As for thee, I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit where there is no water. Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope; even today do I declare that I will render double unto you."** The same Divine mercy was signified by the "year of release" which the Jews were commanded to observe, namely, that in every seventh year debts were to be released, and servants set free if they wished it.*** It was signified also by the year of jubilee: "Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land, and unto all inhabitants thereof."****
     * See Genesis 40: 20, 21.
     ** Zechariah 9: 9, 11-1?.
     *** See Deuteronomy 15.
     **** Leviticus 25: 10.
     But in the time just before that very jubilee itself which was the release of the Lord's coming, the power of the Lord's love to save human souls could not effectively reach mankind as a whole. In that night of evil the day of celestial men had departed to the vanishing point and the man of the spiritual age could no longer be reached, even such as were in the faith of charity, until the Incarnation with its great redemptive power, by which the Lord united His Human to His Divine and the Divine to His Human, and thus glorified Himself.

533

"For," as it is written in the Heavenly Doctrine, "the Supreme Divine itself could no longer reach to the human race, which had removed itself so far from the celestial things of love and the spiritual things of faith, that men no longer even acknowledged them, and still less perceived them. In order therefore that the Supreme Divine itself might be able to come down to man in such a state the Lord came into the world and united His Human to the Divine in Himself; which union could not be effected otherwise than by the most grievous combats of temptations and by victories, and at length by the last, which was that of the cross. Hence it is that the Lord can from His Divine Human illumine minds, even those that are far removed from the celestial things of love, provided they are in the faith of charity. For the Lord in the other life appears to the celestial angels as a Sun, and to the spiritual angels as a Moon . . . whence comes all the light of heaven. This light of heaven is of such a nature that when it illumines the sight of spirits and angels it also illumines their understanding at the same time. This is inherent in that light, so that in heaven one has as much of internal light as he has of external, that is, as much of understanding; which shows wherein the light of heaven differs from the light of the world. It is the Lord's Divine Human which illuminates both the sight and the understanding of the spiritual; which would not take place if the Lord had not united His Human essence to His Divine essence; and if He had not united them, man in the world would no longer have any capacity of understanding and perceiving what is good and true, nor indeed would a spiritual angel in heaven have any; so that they would have had nothing of blessedness and happiness, consequently nothing of salvation. From this we can see that the human race could not have been saved unless the Lord had assumed the Human and glorified it."*
* AC 2776: 2, 3.
In this manner alone could be effected the coming of the "desire of all nations"; only in this wise could the Lord of hosts fill with glory that "house" which was the temple of His body. As men received Him in that coming there could he built another house of God, and, as He foretold by the prophet Haggai, "the glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former." The "former" house was the Human Divine, the manifestations of the Lord through the angel of Jehovah. This was adequate to the men of the genius of the Ancient Church, but as the integrity of the church decayed throughout the various lands-Babylon, Egypt, Ethiopia and others-until only some glimmerings of light remained, chiefly with the "sons of the East" in Syria, then the Lord must take to Himself a new power of reaching and saving men, and to do this He "bowed the heavens and came down."

534

     In True Christian Religion it is said: "There are many reasons why God could redeem men, that is, could deliver them from damnation and hell, only by means of an assumed Human; which reasons shall be set forth in the following pages. Redemption consisted in subjugating the hells, restoring the heavens to order, and after this re-establishing the church; and this redemption God with His omnipotence could effect only by means of the Human, as it is only by means of an arm that one can work, and indeed His Human is called in the Word the 'arm of Jehovah.' Nor can anyone attack a fortified town and destroy the temples of its idols except by means of intervening agencies. Thus it was by means of His Human that God had omnipotence in this Divine work, as is also evident from the Word. For in no other way would it he possible for God, who is in the inmost and thus in the purest things, to pass over to outmost things, in which the hells are, and in which the men of that time were; just as the soul can do nothing without the body, or as no one can conquer an enemy without coming in sight of him, or approaching and getting near to him with proper equipment. . . . It is impossible for Jehovah, such as He is in Himself, by His omnipotence to get in contact with any devil in hell or any devil upon the earth, and restrain him and his fury and tame his violence, unless He be in things last as He is in things first. Because He is in things last in His Human, He is called in the Word the 'First and the Last,' the 'Alpha and the Omega,' the 'Beginning and the end.'"*
     * TCR 84.

     That in the fullness of time the Lord would take to Himself this power in lasts as in firsts is what is meant by the promise that He would "commove the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land, that the desire of all nations might come." This promise indeed is inwardly contained throughout the prophets, especially the Minor Prophets, such as Haggai. There are some historical things, such as this in Haggai about the building of a second temple, but for the most part the shorter prophecies are so completely filled with the burden of the prophecies of the Lord's advent and the judgment then that the literal sense yields little pertinent meaning unless this, their prevailing message, be borne in mind. But the power and office of the Minor Prophets are such that it was especially through them that there was demonstrated to the servant of the Lord in the crowning revelation that function of each verse of the Word of communicating with some society in heaven.

535

Thus it is that by the light of the Heavenly Doctrine a restoration may be effected, so that these prophets of the Old Testament may no longer be regarded chiefly as zealous political reformers, as has come to be the case in the first Christian Church. We may look to the internal message of spirit and life, of which the men themselves may have known and understood little or nothing. For in the spiritual sense the continual burden of the prophets is the "day of the Lord"; not some time of a restored nation in Israel, but that great day of the Lord when He came as the Light of the world.
     "It shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him . . . we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation."* Amen.
     * Isaiah 25: 9.

     LESSONS:     Haggai 2: 1-19. John 2: 1-21. AC 4180: 5-7.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 544, 598, 523, 525.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 102, 119.
FREDERICK EMANUEL DOERING TRUST 1973

FREDERICK EMANUEL DOERING TRUST 1973

     Applications for assistance from the above Fund to enable male Canadian students to attend "The Academy of the New Church" at Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., for the school year 1974-75 should be received by one of the Pastors listed below before March 15, 1974.
      Before filing their applications, students should first obtain their acceptance by the Academy, which should he done immediately as dormitory space is limited.
     Any of the Pastors listed below will be happy to give any further information or help that may be necessary.

The Rev. Harold C. Cranch
Two Lorraine Gardens
Islington, Ontario, M9B 4Z4

The Rev. Frank Rose
58 Chapel Hill Drive. R. R. 2
Kitchener, Ontario, N2G 3W5

The Rev. Christopher R. J. Smith
1536-94th Avenue
     Dawson Creek, B. C., V1A 1H1

536

CHRISTMAS PROMISE 1973

CHRISTMAS PROMISE Rev. THOMAS L. KLINE 1973

     An Advent Talk to Children

     Have you ever wished you could have seen the Lord when He was born on the first Christmas? Imagine what it would have been like to go to the manger and give your presents to the Lord. Do you remember how happy the shepherds were when they saw the Lord, and do you remember how the wise men traveled many miles so that they could give their presents to the newborn Lord? To see the Lord when He was born on earth would be one of the most wonderful things you could ever do.
     Did you know that there is a story in the Word about a man who was told that he would see the Lord soon after the first Christmas? This man's name was Simeon. Many years before the first Christmas, Simeon was given the promise by the Lord that he would never die until he had seen the Lord born on earth. This one promise was the greatest joy in Simeon's life, and even when he was very old he was still looking for the day when he would finally see the Lord.
     Now the Lord was born in Bethlehem at Christmas. When He was only forty days old, still a small baby, Joseph and Mary took Him to the temple in Jerusalem to give thanks for His birth. When Mary and Joseph and the Lord were at the temple, an angel suddenly appeared before Simeon and told him to go to the temple. The Lord was keeping the great promise He had made to Simeon. As soon as Simeon saw the Lord his heart was filled with joy. Simeon took the small baby in his arms, and gave thanks to the Lord. And he said: "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace . . . for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." Simeon was a very old man and very close to death. But now that he had seen the Lord he was not afraid to die; the promise that he would someday see the Lord had been fulfilled.
     This was a very great promise the Lord had given to Simeon, but did you know that He makes this same promise to each one of you? The Lord wants each one of you to be able to see Him someday, just as He showed Himself to Simeon. Now Simeon saw the Lord when he was in the temple, but where do you think you will be able to see the Lord when He shows Himself to you? The Lord tells us that He will show Himself to you in His Word.

537

The Lord's Word is just like a letter that He has written to you, telling you all about Himself. Have you ever had a friend or a relative write you a letter, and when you read the letter you learned more about that friend and what he was doing? It is the same with the Lord's Word. When you read the Word, you learn more about the Lord, and the Lord becomes a good friend. You learn what kind of a person the Lord is; you will see how the Lord loves you, and how wise He is.
     But there is something even more special in the Word than just reading about the Lord. The Lord tells you that if you continue to read His Word and try to obey His commandments, someday, when you are grown up, something very special will happen. The Lord promises you that someday your spiritual eyes will be opened, and you will suddenly see the Lord much as Simeon saw Him in the temple. He promises that someday you will see Him just as the angels see Him. This is the great promise the Lord has made.
     Now Christmas is a very happy time. It is a time when we meet our friends, when we celebrate, and when we give gifts to the people we love. But you should remember that the real reason we are happy is because on the first Christmas the Lord came into the world so that all men might be able to see Him. The Lord was born on earth so that each one of you could someday see Him. The Lord was born on earth so that He could keep the great promise He has made. At Christmas time you should read the Lord's Word and turn your minds to His teachings. Each Christmas, as you grow up, the Lord promises that you will learn a little more about Him. And, just like Simeon, you should always look forward to that day when you will truly see the Lord in His Word. It is for this reason that you should be happy at Christmas and that you should thank the Lord for the great promise He has given. Amen.

     LESSON:     Luke 2:1-39.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 522, 526, 533.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. C6, C12.
VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1973

538

GATES AND KEYS OF THE KINGDOM 1973

GATES AND KEYS OF THE KINGDOM Rev. DONALD L. ROSE 1973

     (Delivered at the Charter Day Service, October 19, 1973.)

     "In the spiritual world there are houses and chambers, there are doors through which there is entrance, and locks and keys by which they are opened, and every one of these things signifies such things as are with man." (Apocalypse Explained 536: 2)
     "The gates and doors of the heavenly societies are visible to those only who are prepared for heaven; others cannot find them." (Heaven and Hell 429)

     It may sound surprising at first to hear that there are doors in heaven with locks and keys. But we need not trouble ourselves with the thought that the locks are to keep anyone out! They are symbolic things. Indeed keys and doors are among the most significant objects on earth or in heaven. They have reference to the whole world of thought and feeling, which is the human spirit, and the kingdom of heaven itself.
     In the highest sense a gate or a door is the symbol of the Lord Himself, who said in so many words, "I am the door," and who presented Himself after His glorification as the one who has the keys.* At the top of the Academy banner the Lord is represented as a lion with a key.
     * Revelation 1:18.
     When we acknowledge that we do not have a life of ourselves but that life flows into us from the Lord, then the symbol of entering in-a door, a gate, a key-becomes of paramount importance. Today our procession was undertaken, not as the most efficient way to get from one place to another, but to represent deliberately our allegiance and dedication; and part of that procession was to walk through a door and to enter into a temple. Swedenborg beheld a temple in heaven, a temple not described for us until the last published work of the Writings, True Christian Religion. Each particular of that church or temple represented something of the New Church, and the first of those particulars to be explained to us is the door. The door itself shone forth with meaning in relation to entering into the church of the Lord. And it was above that door that the inscription appeared: "Now it is permitted to enter with understanding into the arcana of faith."*
     * TCR 505.

539

     The doors in this cathedral are fashioned with great care for the sake of beauty and representation. The keys are not made merely to turn locks, but are fashioned as beautiful objects. Here in my hand is the exquisite key to the door through which we entered this morning.
     At this particular gathering we have a wide range of ages, and a wide range of different experience. Among people who regularly read the Writings there will be some to whom an aspect of doctrine is presently delightful and inspiring, while to others it is as a door which they have not yet seen opened, a door which they have perhaps not even yet seen. Relating this to those attending school: there are fields of study which to some are doors not opened or even seen, but which to others are exciting parts of their mental life. "No one can be learned unless he knows something for certain, and makes progress in it, as a man makes progress in walking step by step, till he gradually attains to wisdom."* (Our Charter Day ritual of a procession walking forward may be thought of as aptly representing true learning according to this teaching.)
     * TCR 333: 4.
     Again, take a question. Do we live after the death of the body? The so-called learned or educated approach is to have ever more sophisticated ways of saying that perhaps we do, and perhaps we don't. But the Academy is dedicated to the entrance into the knowledges revealed about that life after death.
     The Writings specifically relate the it-is-so as contrasted with whether it-is-so to doors. Take the question of whether there is really an internal sense in the Word.

     "The learning of the present day scarcely passes the point of debating whether a thing has any existence, and whether it is thus, or thus; the result of which is that men are shut out from the understanding of truth. For example: he who merely disputes whether there is an internal sense of the Word can never see the innumerable, nay, illimitable things that are in the internal sense; and, again, he who disputes whether charity is anything in the church . . . remains in complete ignorance of what charity is. The like is the case with the life after death. . . . They who merely debate whether these things exist stand meanwhile outside the doors of wisdom, and are like persons who merely knock, and cannot even look into wisdom's magnificent palaces. And yet, strange to say, such men believe themselves to be wise in comparison with others, and that they are wise in proportion to their ability to debate whether a thing he so, and especially to prove that it is not so."*
     * AC 3428.

     The Writings also relate this to those who merely reason whether the Divine Providence is in all things or not, or those who reason "whether it is possible for anyone to be in good." "These do not even see, much less touch, the first threshold of wisdom."* Those who merely "dispute whether it be so" do not come even to the first boundary of heavenly light. 0
     * AC 3833e.
     ** AC 2715: 6.

540

     The peaceful affirmation, "it is so," is a kind of celestial gift, and each one of us may wonder how much we have received it. We are sometimes in doubt about the Divine Providence, and sometimes we stand outside the door and "cannot even look into wisdom's magnificent palaces." Sometimes we do not touch the threshold of wisdom or even see it. Each one of us was brought to the threshold in early childhood. For the Lord gives in early innocence a childlike trust. "It is so."
     But the Lord does not intend that we should touch the threshold only as children, and then as years go on recede from that threshold and even lose sight of it. He intends that we may go even beyond that state of childhood acceptance. We are told that truths are believed in simplicity in childhood. "The state of innocence favors them and adapts them to the memory, but places them only at the first threshold."*
     * AC 5135: 2.
     As we progress in learning the teachings of the Lord, He invites us beyond the threshold that we may see within the palaces. "Now it is permitted to enter with the understanding." Innocence is not confined to childhood states, nor to states of innocent old age.

     We are told of doors in the spiritual world that do not appear until individuals are ready for them. Is it not true that as you go through life, when you are ready, new things are opened up to you which did not occupy your interest or attention before? One can speak specifically of subjects-a specific field of mathematics or literature. One can think of what happens with us through the years as we read the Writings. Things we do not understand at one stage later opened up to us as most enlightening. Things we thought we understood later are opened up to be understood in new ways. (And most of us can testify that there were matters of faith that simply did not interest at one stage which became a source of delight, almost as if a key had been turned.) And there are more subtle openings day by day. In the classroom there come moments when we get a new angle not only of understanding but also of affectional commitment.
     Just take the meaning of Charter Day itself. Some of the people sitting here today have attended many such ceremonies. They can remember sitting as high school students, and they can remember watching sons and daughters file in procession. But to some the whole concept can be a little bit like an unopened door. One can vaguely regard this as a colorful ceremony that is not relevant to oneself.

541

One can even have the facts straight-the dates, and the people, and the charter that was granted-but not yet take in the implications in a meaningful way. After all, if you have only lived for seventeen years and have known about the Academy for as long as you can remember, you do not feel that the Academy's coming into being is dramatic or revolutionary. But at some point it can dawn on you as an individual that this is a unique institution upon the face of the earth, and that of all the people in the world you have a unique opportunity and responsibility.

     Let us think of the uniqueness of the Academy as an institution of learning, and let us relate it to the concept of a door. Is it not true that in the world of learning one expects to approach certain subjects with a kind of academic detachment? The most obvious example is the study of religion. One expects, of course, in an institution of learning to study comparative religion. One learns that "some people think this, and some people think that." "This might be so, and that might be so." And it is the mark of learning to have many knowledges and to discuss them without accepting any of them as true. Or take the matter of marriage. What would we expect as an approach to this subject in an institution of learning? Some anthropologists say this, and some say that. Some peoples have practiced monogamy, and some have not. Perhaps marriage will continue in human society, and perhaps it will not.
     Not coming to a conclusion is, to some, the very hallmark of learning. The cry in the spiritual world, "Oh, how educated"-"O, quam eruditi," was being applied to people who were ready to discuss a subject endlessly without ever coming to a conclusion, like people marking time instead of walking forward. But finally it was said to them:

     "You are anything but learned, because you are able to think only whether a thing is so or not and bandy it from one side to the other. How can a man he learned unless he knows something for certain, and makes progress in it, as a man makes progress in walking step by step, till he gradually attains to wisdom."*
      * TCR 333: 4.

     Although we have passed through doubts, and there is much that we do not understand, can we not now with a full heart say "it is so" to wonderful things?
     The teaching concerning conjugial love is by no means a teaching likely to be affirmed in a cynical academic sphere. "I know that few will acknowledge that all joys and all delights from first to last are gathered into conjugial love."* But can we not, from what we have so far been given to see, say in our hearts: "It is so. There is a love truly conjugial the delights of which are myriad."

542

And when it is said that there is a Divine Providence, that the Lord is present, and that He will permit only what may be bent to good, may we not say, "It is so"? And when it is said that those we love who have departed this life are now living in the spiritual world and that we will see them again, can we not say, "It is so"?
     * CL 69.
     Let it not be thought that this affirmation means that the Academy, among the institutions of the world, is one in which you are not supposed to think. The Writings do not invite us to blind faith. When we do not understand something our legitimate request is, "Cause me to see it." I will believe it when I am given to see that it is true.*
     * F 4.
     But there is another aspect here, and it is not an intellectual one. It is pictured on the Academy banner as the slaying of the dragon. This is the war against selfishness, the shunning of evils as sins against God. We cannot pretend that the real seeing of truth can come about merely as a detached exercise of the intellect. The most adept person at discussing doctrine does not by this come into the affirmation, "it is so."

     "With those who are merely in doctrinal things, and not in the good of life, the interiors are closed so that the light of truth from the Lord cannot flow in and give them to perceive that it is so; whereas with those who are in love to the Lord the interiors are open, so that the light of truth from the Lord can flow in, affect their minds, and give them a perception that it is so."*
     * AC 3427: 4.

     To those who doubt that they can have that inner seeing of truth called faith, the Writings say, "Shun evils as sins, and come to the Lord."* The concept of the Academy involves a call to an inner combat against the love of self. This is a strange concept indeed to the natural man, for it is natural to believe that the love of self is what provides the motivation for human enterprise. The love of self
     * F 12.

"is believed in the world to be the very fire of life by which man is stimulated to seek employment and to perform uses. . . . It is asked, who has ever done any worthy, useful and distinguished deed except for the sake of being praised. . . . And can this be from any other source than the fire of love for glory and honor, consequently for self? For this reason it is unknown in the world that love of self, regarded in itself, is the love that rules in hell and constitutes hell in man."*
     * HH 555.

     If the love of self is gone, what is there left? In us of ourselves there is nothing, but far more than we can realize we are at the gate of heaven. And that means that love from the Lord Himself can motivate us and can give us a greater joy in unselfish service than the love of self could ever give. As we become aware that this is so, we are as Jacob arising from the obscurity of sleep and saying: "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not . . . this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

543

     If all there is in life is the love of self, we live in a world of little hope. But there is a love to the neighbor, and it can flow into each one of us. For He who is the source of light to our minds is also the source of the love that can move us.
     The Academy is a call to what is higher than self. And for each of us it is both a prayer and a celebration when we say in the words of the Psalm: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors. And the King of glory shall come in."
     And with each new reception of truth among us it is as if the Lord said: "Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven."*
     * Matthew 16: 18, 19.
MOST ANCIENT CHURCH 1973

MOST ANCIENT CHURCH JULIE CONARON 1973

     (Prepared as a lecture for the British Academy Summer School, this article is based mostly on Arcana Coelestia, vols. 1 and 2. Before her marriage, Mrs. Conaron was for several years a student at the school.)

     To understand something of the nature of the men of the Most Ancient Church we need to have a clear understanding of the distinctions between the celestial, the spiritual and the natural man.
     The celestial man is in the likeness of God. He perceives and believes celestial and spiritual truth and good, and acknowledges no other faith than that which is based on love, from which he acts. The ends which influence him look to the bard and thereby His kingdom, and eternal life. He is not in combat, and when assaulted by evil and falsity he condemns them and is therefore called a conqueror. He is apparently unrestrained and free. The restraints upon him are perceptions of good and truth.
     The spiritual man is in the image of God. He acknowledges spiritual and celestial good and truth. He does so from a principle of faith, which is the basis of his actions, but this is not from love. His ends regard eternal life, and thereby the Lord. He is engaged in spiritual combats, but is always victorious. He is restrained by conscience.
     The dead or merely natural man acknowledges nothing to be true and good but what belongs to the body and the world, and this he loves.

544

His ends regard only corporeal and worldly life, and he does not know what eternal life or the Lord is. If he does know, he does not believe. When in spiritual combat he always yields, and when he is not in it evils and falsities have dominion over him and he is their slave. His only restraints are external ones, which he values for their own sake.
     The Most Ancient Church was in the land of Canaan, which land extended from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates, so that it was much larger than it is today. The quality of the men of that church is utterly unknown at the present day, their genius* being altogether different from our own. They were celestial men, and their inmost was love. From this love they had faith so that their faith was love. That is, from good they had truth. (The celestial angels and angelic spirits, too, are of this genius, and the following statements apply to them also.)
     * Genius: nature (LJ Post. 270)-inclination.
     As the Most Ancient Church was celestial its people were not allowed ever to think on any matters of faith under the influence of sensual and scientific things, otherwise they would descend from the celestial to the spiritual life. Instead of faith they had a perception of love or good, so whatever is of faith they derived from love and charity. From this perception they knew instantly whether a thing was so or not.
     They had this perception by means of immediate revelation from the Lord, through consociation with spirits and angels, and also by visions and dreams. The general ideas formed as principles from this revelation were every day strengthened and confirmed. Whatever was not in agreement with these ideas they perceived was not true; whatever was, they perceived to be true.

     To understand the celestial more fully one needs to know about the mind-the will and the understanding. Love or good belongs to the will, faith or truth to the understanding. In the Most Ancient Church love ruled the whole mind and made it a one. Because of this, any falling away from truth and good was attended by the most serious consequences, since their whole mind would become so perverted as to make a restoration scarcely possible in another life.
     In the most ancient times mankind was distinguished into houses, families and tribes. This was so that the church might be preserved entire, and that all the houses and families might be dependent on their parent, and so remain in true love and worship. Each house had a peculiar genius, distinct from every other, and in order to preserve this, and prevent confusion of their nature, qualities and dispositions, it pleased the Lord that they should dwell in this manner. For the same reason they also married within their houses and families.

545

     The Most Ancient Church had internal respiration, but no external respiration except what was tacit. So the men of that church did not converse so much by words as afterwards. Like the angels, they conversed by ideas, which they expressed by changes of countenance and movement of muscle fibers, especially those of the lips, which cannot be used today. They could express far more in this manner than can be expressed today. They could never lie or simulate affections, as all feelings were shown in the face. (There are still people today who converse in this manner, but they live on other planets.) Because the Most Ancient Church had this kind of respiration it enjoyed the most profound ideas of thought and perception.
     As the Most Ancient Church was angelic its men were internal men. They were aware of the external things relating to their bodies and the world, but they did not care for them. In every sense object they perceived something Divine and heavenly. Whatever they saw with their eyes gave rise to some heavenly idea, so that all things were as if living. Their Divine worship was therefore entirely internal, and in no respect external.
     Outside the Most Ancient Church there were many doctrines and heresies separate from it which had their own names. These involved much more profound thought than any at the present day, because of the peculiar genius of the men of that time.

     However, as the Lord foresaw that the human race could not continue in the state of the Most Ancient Church, and that it would separate faith from love to the Lord and make it a doctrine by itself, it was~ provided that the will and the understanding should be separated. But this was so done that by faith or its knowledges men might receive charity from the Lord; neighborly love and mercy would thus be granted by the Lord, and a new will would be formed in the understanding. This charity would be inseparable from faith, and be the chief thing of it, so that in place of the perception of the Most Ancient Church conscience succeeded. (This separation of the will and the understanding took place at the time of the flood, when the descendants of the Most Ancient Church-the Nephilim-perished.)
     The churches after the flood were of this character, namely, spiritual, and were regenerated by conscience. In this respect also the spiritual angels are distinguished from the celestial.
     When the posterity of the Most Ancient Church became corrupt the internal respiration that they had enjoyed disappeared. But the real reason these Nephilim became extinct, we are told, was that they could no longer respire with the angelic heaven, and so could not survive.

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(Without conjunction with heaven all life on this earth now would perish. This is why the Lord provides a new church when the existing church becomes corrupt.)
     After the flood direct communication with heaven ceased, and external respiration and the language of words succeeded. The genius or state of the succeeding people was entirely different. Unless the Lord had reduced the human race to this new, spiritual state no man could possibly have been saved.
     The cessation of communication with heaven was caused by perception ceasing. When the Most Ancient Church was on the decline men only perceived what was worldly from objects of sense. At length, in the last posterity before the flood, they lost even this perception, and recognized nothing in objects of sense but what was worldly, corporeal and terrestrial, and so heaven became separated from man.
     The Nephilim were entirely destitute of remains because of their dreadful and abominable persuasions respecting all things. This was because of their self-love, which made them believe they were gods. This kind of persuasion has never existed either before or since; it was suffocating and fatal.
     Consequently, the hells of this posterity of the Most Ancient Church are such that they cannot be associated with any other spirits, and they are separated from the other hells. Their terrible phantasies and persuasions are such as to produce a profound stupor on other spirits, so that they do not know if they are dead or alive. These wicked spirits deprive others of all understanding of truth, so that they cannot perceive anything. Because they could not associate with others as men, they were all destroyed in the natural world, and the Lord induced other states on the succeeding people.
SAVIOR WHO IS CHRIST THE LORD 1973

SAVIOR WHO IS CHRIST THE LORD 1973

That the Lord was Jehovah is also meant by the words of the angel to the shepherds: Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. He is called "Christ" as the Messiah, the anointed King; and "Lord" as Jehovah; "Christ" in respect to truth, and "Lord" in respect to good. One who does not closely study the Word could not know this, for he would think that our Lord and Savior was called Lord like others, from the common title of reverence; when yet He is so called because He was Jehovah. (Arcana Coelestia 2921: 6)

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REFLECTIONS ON THE ASSEMBLY: A STUDY OF FRIENDSHIP 1973

REFLECTIONS ON THE ASSEMBLY: A STUDY OF FRIENDSHIP STEPHEN G. GLADISH 1973

     (Continued from the November issue.)

     Worse than the selfish man, worse than the flatterer, is the man filled with self-hatred or self-contempt. Erik Hoffer, in The True Believer (Mentor Books, 1951), his report on the psychology behind mass movements and the modern fanatic, comments: "The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race, or his holy cause" (p. 23). Further he adds: "A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business. . . . This minding of other people's business expresses itself in gossip, snooping and meddling, and also in feverish interest in communal, national and racial affairs. In running away from ourselves, we either fall on our neighbor's shoulder or fly at his throat" (p. 23). This, of course, includes the housewife, as well as generally including any elements in our societies susceptible to such temptation. I suspect that the Writings overwhelm us with their entirety, leaving many with a feeling of guilt, inferiority or inadequacy at not having mastered more of their ideals.
     The occasional animosities that plague our church societies may well be what Hoffer calls an expression of a desperate attempt to suppress an awareness of our inadequacy, worthlessness, guilt and other shortcomings of the self. Self-contempt is transmuted into contempt for others, mask it as we might try, and we do try (p. 88). We read: "There is a guilty conscience behind every braven word and act and behind every manifestation of self-righteousness" (p. 89). If we, even in our minds, have wronged a person, a people, then that truth which blames us and convinces us of our faults brings about the guilty conscience. In order to absolve ourselves of self-contempt, we learn to hate that truth and the person or people we have wronged. Then to wrong further those whom we hate merely adds fuel to our hatred. I mention these aspects of non-friendship because recently I have been struck with the frequency of the remark: "Yes, but that is such a tough society"-applied to all too many of our societies!

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Think of the difference a few new and true friendships could make in each society.
Dr. Harris, in I'm OK-You're OK, explains that the most common attitude in our country is the "I'm Not OK-You're OK" position, an attitude our church unconsciously fosters perhaps by too much stress on the proprium and what is wrong about man. This attitude encourages the desire to show constantly one's superiority over another through material possessions, games of wit, demonstrations of social or even spiritual prominence. They are all empty assertions. Emerson said it long ago: "Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles" (Self-Reliance). He adds: "A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends. For every friend he loses FOR TRUTH he gains a better."

Emerson and Thoreau have written, to me, the most lofty and inspirational essays on Friendship in history. Both championed Transcendentalism. This philosophic and literary movement believed in such things as 1) the unity of all things-"The Universe is composed of Nature and Soul"; 2) the concept of man (in reaction to empiricism and rationalism) with triple nature: not just animal-with ideas coming through the five senses; not just rational-with ideas coming through the power of reasoning; but spiritual and thus transcendent-with ideas intuitively coming through revelation from God, or inspiration from Him, or from His immanent presence in the spiritual world, also symbolized in nature; 3) nature as the transcendentalist's Bible; 4) the independent yet God-reliant existence of the soul of man; 5) the reality of conscience, the religious aspirations, the knowledge of right and truth, the love for beauty and holiness, in man, which gave him the option to disregard external authority, tradition and government (p. 26ff in Charles Ellis, "An Essay on Transcendentalism," in Perry Miller's The American Transcendentalists, Doubleday Anchor Books, 1957). In so many ways we can see the influence Swedenborg had upon them (and we do know Emerson read Swedenborg's revelations carefully; exactly how many of the Writings we do not know). Emerson begins: "Friendship, like the immortality of the soul, is too good to be believed" (p. 107, Harvard Classics: Essays and English Traits). . . . "Our friendships hurry to short and poor conclusions, because we have made them a texture of wine and dreams, instead of the tough fibre of the human heart. The laws of friendship are great, austere, and eternal, of one web with the laws of nature and of morals. . . . We snatch at the slowest fruit in the whole garden of God, which many summers and many winters must ripen" (p. 109). He continues: "We seek our friend not sacredly, but with an adulterous passion which would appropriate him to ourselves.

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In vain. . . . Almost all people descend to meet . . . What a perpetual disappointment is actual society, even of the virtuous and gifted!" (p. 109).
     Yet he rhapsodizes: "Our intellectual and active powers increase with our affection" (p. 165). "Delicious is a just and firm encounter of two, in a thought, in a feeling. . . . The more we indulge our affections, the earth is metamorphosed: there is no winter and no night; all tragedies, all ennuis vanish" (p. 106). "The sweet sincerity of joy and peace which I draw from this alliance with my brother's soul is the nut whereof all nature and all thought is but the husk and shell" (p. 110).

     In a more instructive vein, he goes on: "There are two elements that go to the composition of Friendship. One is Truth. A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. . . . Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person hypocrisy begins. We parry and fend the approach of our fellow man by compliments, by gossip, by amusements, by affairs. We cover up our thought from him by a hundred folds" (p. 111). "The other element of Friendship is Tenderness. We are holden to men by every sort of tie, by blood, by pride, by fear, by hope, by money, by lust, by hate, by admiration, by every circumstance and badge and trifle. Why can't we believe that so much character subsists in another that we are drawn and held by love? Cannot another be so blessed and we so pure that we can offer him tenderness" (p. 112). He says of Friendship: "It is fit for serene days and graceful gifts and country rambles, but also for rough roads and hard fare, shipwreck, poverty, and persecution"-embellished in all cases by "courage, wisdom, and unity" (p. 113). Yet he admonishes: "It is better to be a nettle in the side of your friend than his echo"; and stressing self-reliance he teaches: "The condition which high friendship demands is the ability to do without it" (p. 114). He concludes: "Friendship demands a religious treatment. . . . We talk of choosing our friends, but friends are self-elected. Reverence is a great part of it. Treat your friends as an inspiring spectacle" (pp. 114, 115).
     Ending on an elevated transcendental level, Emerson asks: "Should not the society of my friend be to me poetic, pure, universal and great as nature itself? . . . A message, a thought, a sincerity, a glance from him I want, but not news or pottage. Ought I to feel that our tie is profane in comparison with yonder bar of cloud that sleeps on the horizon?" (p. 115). He adds: "It is thought a disgrace to love unrequited. But the great will see that true love cannot be unrequited. True love transcends the unworthy object and broods on the eternal." (p. 118). A final summation: "The essence of friendship is entireness, a total magnanimity and trust. It must not surmise or provide for infirmity" (p. 119).

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     Thoreau's masterful eloquence rises above all others while the ring of truth still sweetly sounds. He begins: "Friendship is evanescent in every man's experience, and remembered like heat lightning in past summers." "The friend is some fair floating isle of palms eluding the mariner in Pacific seas" (pp. 371, 372 in "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers," in Walden and Other Writings, Modern Library Edition, 1950). He reminisces: "After years of vain familiarity, some distant gesture or unconscious behavior, which we remember, speaks to us with more emphasis than the wisest or kindest words. We are sometimes made aware of a kindness long passed, and realize that there have been times when our friends' thoughts of us were of so lofty and pure a character when they treated us not as what we were, but what we aspired to be" (p. 369). Later, he enlarges on this: "A friend is one who incessantly pays us the compliment of expecting from us all the virtues, and who can appreciate them in us" (p. 376). It sounds parallel to the teaching to seek out and encourage the good in another found in the Doctrine of Charity. Such an idea of friendship was immortalized in Jay Gatsby's smile:

     "He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced-or seemed to face-the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey."*
     * F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Scribner's, 1953, p. 48.

     Thoreau deals with the real as well as the ideal. He exclaims: "We never exchange more than three words with a friend on that level to which our thoughts and feelings almost habitually rise" (p. 375). This is shocking, but reflection often confirms it. He continues: "To say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy. Most contemplate only what would be the accidental and trifling advantages of Friendship. . . . Such services are particular and menial of associates and confidantes merely" (pp. 376-8). Returning to the inspirational, he begins: "My friend is one whom I can associate with my choicest thought" (p. 380). He invites: "Let our intercourse he wholly above ourselves, and draw us up to it. The language of Friendship is not words but meanings" (p. 381). To support this, he says: "It is one proof of a man's Friendship that he is able to do without that which is cheap and passionate. A true Friendship is as wise as it is tender" (p. 382). It is possible between, and among, the sexes.

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     Thoreau clarifies the ideal further: "I make an infinite demand on myself, as well as on others. . . . For a companion, I require one who will make an equal demand on me with my own genius. Such a one will always be rightly tolerant" (pp. 386, 387). Yet "the least unworthiness [in a Friendship], even if it be unknown to one's self, vitiates it." He holds out for the possibility that "perhaps there are none charitable, none disinterested, none wise, noble, and heroic enough, for a true and lasting Friendship" (p. 385). Yet he speaks convincingly of Friendship: "The parties to a Friendship should be equal, not as to their person, but in all that respects or affects their Friendship. The ones love is exactly balanced and represented by the other's. . . Between whom there is hearty truth there is love; and in proportion to our truthfulness and confidence in one another, our lives are divine and miraculous, and answer to our ideal" (pp. 377, 379). Here is the joy of Friendship; here we can feel inspired and hopeful: think on it-how much have you been missing in the contemporary plasticity of human relations?

     Opening the wider hope (appropriate for Assembly time and its aftermath) Thoreau instructs: "The more there are included by this bond of Friendship . . . the rarer and diviner the quality of the love that binds them. Indeed, we cannot have too many friends: the virtue which we appreciate we to some extent appropriate . . . thus we are made at last more fit for every relation of life. A base Friendship is of a narrowing and exclusive tendency, but a noble one is not exclusive; its . . . dispersed love is the humanity which sweetens society" (p. 384). In contrast to the contemporary fashion of being suave and aloof, Thoreau writes: "Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without. There may be courtesy, there may be even temper, and wit, and talent, and sparkling conversation, there may be good will even-and yet the humanest and divinest faculties will pine for exercise. Our life without love is like coke and ashes" (p. 391). A quiet confidence and mirroring of the teaching that all good is from God and that all love of the neighbor is love of the Lord, can be seen in Thoreau's glittering conclusion: "Surely my Friend shall forever be my Friend, and reflect a ray of God to me" (p. 392).
     At this point, it is my hope that we all realize the virtually untapped sources of joy, blessedness, attainment and peace residing in each New Church human being living within our circle of love. Emerson and
     Thoreau, Harris and Hoffer, Plutarch and Fromm, Swedenborg and Christ, have thrown out among you many nets of Friendship. Perhaps with them you will find fishes to feed multitudes.

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APPLICATIONS FOR ADMISSION TO THE ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH COLLEGE 1973

All Students:
     Requests for application forms for admission to The Academy College for the 1974-1975 school year should be made before January 15, 1974. Letters should be addressed to Dean E. Bruce Glenn, The Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania 19009, and should include the student's full name and address, the name and address of the school he or she is now attending, and whether the student will be a day or dormitory student. Please see the Academy catalog for information about dormitory requirements.
     Completed application forms and accompanying material should be received by Dean Glenn's office by March 15, 1974.

     BOYS SCHOOL AND GIRLS SCHOOL

New Students:
     Requests for application forms for admission to the Academy Secondary Schools should be made for new students before January 15, 1974. Letters should be addressed to Miss Sally Smith, Principal of the Girls School, or The Reverend Dandridge Pendleton, Principal of the Boys School, at The Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania 19009. Letters should include the student's name, parents' address, the class the student will be entering, the name and address of the school he or she is now attending, and whether the student will be day or dormitory. Please see the Academy catalog for dormitory requirements.
     Completed application forms and accompanying material must be received by The Academy by March 15, 1974.

Old Students:
     Parents of students attending the Girls School or Boys School during the 1973-1974 school year should apply for their children's re-admission for the 1974-1975 school year before March 15, 1974. Letters should be addressed to the Principal of the school the student is now attending.

553

CHURCH IN THE WORLD 1973

CHURCH IN THE WORLD Rev. FRANK S. ROSE 1973

     (Report on the Fourth Session of the Twenty-sixth General Assembly, Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 14, 1973.)

     In the Fourth Session of the Assembly we were able to practice what Bishop King had been preaching to us in the Third Session when he talked of response. After a brief introduction, the Session broke up into thirty-four groups, twenty-two of them led by priests and twelve by laymen. They met for about an hour and a half to discuss "The Church in the World," and each group provided the Session Chairman with a written report.
     As the people gathered for lunch, I sensed a delightful spirit of lively discussion. Although each group was different, and some were better than others, in every one of them there was a feeling that the experience was really worthwhile. The importance of the Session lay in what was happening at that time. People were sharing ideas about the responsibilities of the church in the world, and in that sharing seemed to have a joy in recognizing a common love of the church, and felt a unity of purpose in serving the Lord. The afternoon panel discussion and this account are as different from the experience itself as the write-up of a concert is from hearing a live performance.
     The topic was kept very broad so that each group could pursue the aspect that most interested it. There was some discussion of the world within us and the world outside of us, and of distinctiveness versus exclusiveness. One group talked about the organization of the General Church and in particular of the Bryn Athyn Society. Another devoted its time to the place of women in the church. Mostly the discussion was on evangelization, considered as to its purposes, attitudes, techniques and problems. It was interesting in reading the reports to see how many of the groups discussed the related uses of education and evangelization. Quite a few were interested in considering how our New Church communities help or hinder this use. It seems that about half of the groups mentioned the missionary value of funerals and weddings. The names of Otho Heilman and Karl Alden kept coming up, as also that of Douglas Taylor. The Assembly had just been told of the formation of a new Extension Committee for the General Church under the Rev. David Holm, and this announcement had quite a bearing on the line of discussion.

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It seems that a high percentage of groups referred in one way or another to the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, indicating that whether we agree with their methods or not, these organizations are at least making themselves known!
     There was discussion on the problem of distinctive terms, and indication of a need for a simple glossary for newcomers. People suggested which doctrines should be stressed, and the unity of God, the internal sense of the Word and the doctrine of use were mentioned most frequently. A good deal of consideration was given to the role of young people as missionaries and as potential receivers. For the rest, I must be content to quote from the reports as handed to me (with a minimum of modification for the sake of clarity).

     Definitions. Evangelization is the "spreading of the glad tidings of the Lord's truth."
     It is the effort "to give the most people possible the opportunity to learn the truth."

     Where To Start. "Reading is essential, but there is no one way to read the Writings. Some may read a little each day-some may read a lot one day and not much the next."
     "External evangelization and self-evangelization go together."
     "Start evangelization with ourselves."
     "Confront our own New Churchness and become at ease with it."
     "We ought to make sure the church is in our life and evangelization will follow."
     "In order for the church to grow from without, it must first be strong from within."
     "We should live the doctrines before we try to spread them."
     "If we lived rightly we couldn't keep people away."

     Looking Outward. "Although we ought to focus on strengthening the church from within first, there is a growing need for us to look outside the church and to attempt to appeal to others."
     "Don't we need to curtail our hectic internal activities so that there is some time left for external activities?"
     "The church is somewhat cloistered. It needs evangelization. It needs to be more outgoing."

     "Think of ourselves as centers of communication-for people in the world."
     "We fail to give any sense of our confidence and joy. We should accept ourselves as personal envoys of the Lord."

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     It Is His Use. "We don't make the church grow. We are instruments of the Lord."
     "It is God's work. Live it!"
     "We should remember that we are being used by the Lord."

     Considering Others. "In our appeal to others we must be considerate of their beliefs and feelings. We must recognize that we can only appeal to those who express some interest."
     "The New Church is a lot bigger than we are. Let's be warmer to the whole world."

     How To Go About It. "Try to find out what appeals most to people you are trying to interest."
     "Evangelization should be directed to life and not to intellectual discussion.
     "We are all in the church for a reason. Talk about something that really means something to us-the aspect of the church that means the most to us-our enthusiasm, affection and delights, is communicated to them."
     "Our challenge is that we do not convert but appeal to a rational doctrine. Our main responsibility is to maintain purity of life from doctrine."
     "We all have basic principles on which we base our life and thought. The difficulty is to communicate what we now take for granted."
     "Our primary purpose should be to perform our use to the best of our ability. In human relationships consider each person as a human soul, a child of God, not just as a problem of some sort."
     "Our job is to look for 'searchers after another belief' and aid them."
     "Learn to judge other people's sincere interest. We need sensitivity to tell people."

     Internal Barriers. "To spread the church we have to be known in some way-to go out. Do we really want it to spread?"
     "We don't know how to handle the question: `What is your church? What does it teach?' All felt uncomfortable with this question when asked."
     "Do we really want every Tom, Dick and Harry in the church or only the 'right' people?"
     "Some of us do not even mention our religion because we feel people are not interested."
     "We need to make more of an effort to welcome new members and visitors."

     Training Is Needed. "Our greatest evangelization is through our educational system."

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     "Teach our young people to express our beliefs."
     "Institute programs of communication technique."
     "We should be using our college as a missionary tool."
     "We need an educational program to prepare adults and young people for presenting our religion to outsiders."
     We need a book that "does for missionary work what Growth of the Mind did for education."

     Remember. "The church organization is not what we should be recruiting people for. If we have enabled them to see the Lord, to any degree, more clearly, then we have really accomplished something."

     Practical Points. "Establish committees to contact those who have drifted away."
     "Encourage young people to go out to smaller societies."
     "We've got to have more material for our laymen to do good missionary work."
     "We must make use of the materials we already have."
     "Make books available at book stores, universities, public places near centers, reading rooms."
     "We aren't using modern media in evangelization sufficiently; there's enough talent, all we need is organization." (Radio, TV, cassettes, films, plays, etc., were mentioned.) (Some groups doubted this.)
     "Stake out long-range experiments in missionary work that would be continued and not dropped too soon."
     "We hope that the Committee will be able to try a number of different things."
     "We have tried a lot of ineffective methods."
     "Let's not use methods that haven't worked in the past."
     "Don't start a campaign unless you can really follow through with interest and understanding."
     "Need to sink money into something real."

     Principal Means of Spreading the Church. "Family sphere and influence: society influence: organization, evangelization groups, Epsilon societies."
     (Other groups also mentioned our schools and summer schools.)

     Women's Part. "What role do women have in evangelization?"
     "Open the Extension Committee to lay-women, too, please."
     "Education for women should be updated. More education for evangelization."

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     Benefits. "We learn most effectively by teaching. It provides the incentive of use and makes for the right kind of humbling."
     "There are people outside the church who aren't really outside. Sometimes in going out we do ourselves more good than them!"

     Dangers. "Distinctiveness-how can we preserve its good points and yet not be unfriendly?"
     "Danger of diluting our membership could cause downfall of the church."
     "With the church embarking on evangelization programs we have to guard against watering down our ideas for numbers not quality."
     "Accommodation without compromise-to talk but not back down on beliefs."

     A Friendly Note to the Clergy. "Have more discussion."
     "In discussions people often do not need (want) to be lectured. Should be a course in Theological School on how to be brief and to the point."
     "Our ministers might be more practical with our own people as well as others. Important to be down-to-earth. Communication must produce understanding between people. Perhaps ministers should examine the level of sermons from time to time to see what they are getting across."

     Fear That We Might Only Talk and Not Do Anything. "We need to look for signs when we are ready for more evangelization. Right now there are several men who are intensely interested in evangelization. Isn't this a sign?"
     "Fear expressed that we will all forget as soon as we leave this discussion unless something practical is decided."
     "What can we do to keep our enthusiasm from dying? We have to keep something going."

     Summary Statements. A few of the groups had summary statements.
     "1. Use the personal contact.
     2. Bring people to the Writings, the Lord, rather than to the organization. Spread the church rather than make the membership grow.
     3. Don't act like we are superior. Meet states of friends.
     4. Establish a course in school or in summer school to prepare laity to enter into this use."
     "1. The most important area of extension lies within the church: i.e., New Church education and those who have had ties with the church but have drifted away. However, today we recognize the need to become aware of the extension possibilities outside of the church and devote more time to them.

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In order to appeal to those outside of the church we must emphasize the individual approach.
     2.     The use of other methods must he studied and we ought to proceed cautiously with them.
     3.     We must not encroach upon others' feelings or force our feelings and ideas on them.
     4.     New Church men must become strong within themselves."
     "1. Study the Writings concerning evangelization as thoroughly as has been done for education.
     2. Find the market, people not too set in their ways.
     3. Produce introductory material. The Writings are pretty heavy as a beginning, these materials help; find the market; use all media.
     4. Train everyone in the church to let his light shine before men."
     "1. A need to build our own confidence and understanding to meet inquiries and follow through.
     2. Evangelization connected to education closely.
     3. To be different is a part of doing effective missionary work.
     4. Missionary work could be a help to other uses of the church if done with confidence in the Lord."

     The Value of These Discussions. I asked all group leaders if they sensed a desire on the part of the group to have similar discussions at other Assemblies. All of those who replied answered, "yes." Here are some comments from the groups.
     "Request from My Group: a unanimous endorsement of this form of session for future Assemblies."
     "What we need in the church is more of this."
     "If we became really accustomed to doing this on a regular basis, what a bond we might build between us-all of us!"

     Note. The group reports are being submitted to the Extension Committee so that every point may be considered.

     Group Leaders: Bishop King; the Rev. Messrs. Alfred Acton, Kurt Asplundh, Ragnar Boyesen, Peter Buss, Mark Carlson, Robert Cole, Roy Franson, Michael Gladish, Dan Goodenough, Dan Heinrichs, Geoffrey Howard, Robert Junge, Tom Kline, Kurt Nemitz, Martin Pryke, Don Rose, Erik E. Sandstrom, Fred Schnarr, David Simons, Christopher Smith, Lorentz Soneson; Messrs. Michael Brown, Carl Gunther, Hugh Gyllenhaal, Don Hayworth, Garry Hyatt, Robert Johns, Robert Merrell, Fred Odhner, Peter Rhodes, Harald Sandstrom, Kurt Simons, Joel Trimble.
Chairman: the Rev. Frank Rose.

559

THE FIFTH SESSION

[EDITORIAL NOTE. At the Fifth Session the Rev. Frank S. Rose served as moderator of a panel discussion of questions resulting from the group discussions reported by Mr. Rose. The panelists were: the Rev. Messrs. Alfred Acton, Peter M. Buss, Donald L. Rose, Erik E. Sandstrom, Christopher R. J. Smith and Lorentz R. Soneson. As the panel discussion was informal and unrehearsed there is no report of it for publication.]
ROLL OF ATTENDANCE 1973

ROLL OF ATTENDANCE 1973

     Registration

     The Committee on the Roll reports that 368 persons from outside Bryn Athyn registered for the Assembly. Nine countries and about two-thirds of our Societies, Circles and Groups were represented.

Attendance

     Attendance figures for the Sessions are not available, but it is reported that 1,038 tickets for the Assembly Banquet were sold.
     Attendance at Divine Worship on June 15 was as follows:
     Divine Worship, 9:30 a.m.          347
     Communicants                    234
     Divine Worship, 11:30 a.m.          352
     Communicants                    245

REVEREND WILLIAM WHITEHEAD 1973

REVEREND WILLIAM WHITEHEAD 1973

It had been intended to publish the photograph of the Reverend William Whitehead which forms the Frontispiece of this issue in November. The Memorial Address for Dr. Whitehead which was delivered by the Right Rev. Elmo C. Acton, and which summarizes his career in the Academy and the General Church was published in the November issue, pp. 505-508. Dr. Whitehead, who received his doctoral degree from the Academy, was Professor Emeritus of History in the Academy at the time of his death. He had been head of the History Department and was Professor of History and Political Science at the time of his retirement in 1957. For an address by Raymond Pitcairn on the occasion of Dr. Whitehead's retirement see NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1957, pp. 455-458.

560

CLERGY REPORTS 1973

CLERGY REPORTS WILLARD D. PENDLETON 1973

     Report of the Bishop of the General Church

     September 1, 1972-August 31, 1973

     The General Assembly: The outstanding event of the past church calendar year (September 1,1972-August 31, 1973) was the General Assembly held in Bryn Athyn (June 12-15). The record of the full proceedings of this memorable occasion will be found in the August and later issues of NEW CHURCH LIFE. At our previous General Assembly, held in 1970, we celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of the Second Advent, and our thought at that time was focused upon the New Church. This year we selected as our theme the necessity for, and the uses of, the external church (See AC 1083). It proved to be a timely and useful topic in that it led to related subjects and to a reconsideration of the uses the external church is organized to perform. Apart from the addresses and discussions, the primary feature of this Assembly was the confirmation, by act of the Assembly, of the nomination of the Right Reverend Louis B. King for the office of Assistant Bishop of the General Church.

     Canadian National Assembly: On October 7 and 8 I presided over the Second Canadian National Assembly, held in Caryndale, Ontario (See January, 1973, issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE). This Assembly, which had its full share of doctrinal addresses and lively discussions, also marked the further development of the General Church in Canada. In this connection, it is to be noted that at this Assembly a meeting of the General Church of the New Jerusalem in Canada was held, and a resolution was passed admitting women to membership.

Episcopal Visits:
     Glenview: Early in November I went to Glenview for the purpose of ordaining the Reverend Louis B. King into the third degree of the priesthood (See December, 1972, issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE, p. 46). This occasion, which was well-attended will long be recalled by those who were present.
     Rio de Janeiro: Later in November Mrs. Pendleton and I made a long overdue visit to our Society in Rio. Here we were graciously received by the Reverend Jose de Figueiredo and his faithful flock (see April, 1973, issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE, p. 189).

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The doctrinal discussions, the happy social events, and the warm friendships which were formed are now cherished memories, and we hope that Providence will open the way for another visit in the next few years. What the future holds for this small but loyal group of General Church members, I cannot say, but it is my hope that the day will soon come when a young Brazilian will enter our Theological School for the purpose of serving as a pastor to this Society.
     Los Angeles: The dedication of a church building is always an inspiring occasion. One reason for this is that it involves a fulfillment of the past and a promise of the future. The dedication of our new church building in La Crescenta, California, on February 4, was an unusually joyful occasion (see May, 1973, issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE, p. 222). Not only was I impressed by the beauty and practicality of this complex of buildings and its commanding location, but I was particularly moved by the devotion of the members who had labored so successfully to adapt an existing structure to the uses and ritual of the New Church.
     Tucson: Following the dedication in Los Angeles, Mrs. Pendleton and I paid a visit to the Tucson Circle. The primary purpose of the visit was to evaluate the needs of the Circle and the District in reference to future pastoral leadership. For the past several years the District has been under the leadership of the Reverend Norman H. Reuter, who has been acting as the pastor as a special representative of the Bishop.

     Ordinations and Inaugurations: On November 11, 1972, I ordained the Reverend Louis B. King into the third degree of the priesthood at Glen- view, Illinois.
     On June 17, 1973, I ordained the Reverend Ragnar Boyesen into the second degree of the priesthood at Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania.
     On June 10, 1973, I inaugurated the following men into the first degree of the priesthood at Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania:
     Candidate Mark R. Carlson
     Candidate Michael D. Gladish
     Candidate Thomas L. Kline

     Pastoral Changes and Appointments:
     The Right Reverend Louis B. King accepted a call to become Dean of the Bryn Athyn Church.
     The Reverend Alfred Acton II has accepted a call to the pastorate of the Immanuel Church, Glenview, Illinois, effective September 1, 1973.

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     The Reverend David R. Simons accepted an invitation to become Principal of the Midwestern Academy and Assistant Pastor of the Immanuel Church, Glenview, Illinois, effective September 1, 1973.
     The Reverend B. David Holm accepted an appointment by the Bishop as Director of General Church Religion Lessons and Editor of New Church Education. He will continue to teach religion in the Bryn Athyn Church Elementary School.
     The Reverend W. Cairns Henderson has resigned as Chairman and Editor of the General Church Sound Recording Committee. He has been succeeded by the Reverend B. David Holm.
     The Reverend Morley D. Rich has announced his resignation as Visiting Pastor of the Central Western District, resident in Denver, Colorado. His resignation took effect in the summer of 1973.
     The Reverend Kurt P. Nemitz accepted appointment as Pastor of the Central Western District, resident in Denver, Colorado, effective September 1, 1973.
     The Reverend Ragnar Boyesen accepted an appointment as Pastor of the Stockholm Society and as Visiting Pastor to the Circles in Jonkoping, Sweden; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Oslo, Norway; effective September 1, 1973.
     The Reverend Mark R. Carlson has been employed by the Academy of the New Church to teach religion in the secondary schools.
     The Reverend Michael D. Gladish accepted an appointment by the Bishop as Assistant to the Pastor of the Olivet Church, Toronto, Canada, effective September 1, 1973.
     The Reverend Thomas L. Kline accepted an appointment by the Bishop as Assistant to the Pastor of the Washington, D. C., Society and Visiting Minister to the Southeastern United States District, effective September 1, 1973.
     At the Second Session of the Twenty-sixth General Assembly, the Right Reverend Louis B. King was elected Assistant Bishop of the General Church.
     WILLARD D. PENDLETON
COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY 1973

COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY NORBERT H. ROGERS 1973

     September 1, 1972, to August 31, 1973

     MEMBERSHIP

     During the year ending August 31, 1973, three young men were inaugurated into the first degree of the priesthood one minister was ordained into the second degree, one pastor was ordained into the third degree, and one pastor passed into the spiritual world.

563

At the end of the twelve month period, the Council of the Clergy consisted of four priests in the episcopal degree, thirty-seven in the pastoral degree, six in the ministerial degree, and one associate member, a total of forty-eight. Of these twelve were wholly or essentially employed by the General Church and/or the Academy of the New Church, and six were retired or in secular work.
     In addition the General Church had five priests in the pastoral degree and one in the ministerial degree in the South African Mission, besides the Superintendent. The priest in the pastoral degree in the Guyana Mission passed into the spiritual world during the course of the year.
     A directory of the General Church and of its Mission in South Africa is published in NEW CHURCH LIFE, September, 1973, pp. 425-431.

     STATISTICS

     The statistics of the Sacraments and Rites of the Church administered during the year, and compiled from forty-four reports received as of October 15, 1973, together with comparative figures for twelve-month periods five and ten years ago, are shown below:

                              1972-73     1967-68     1963
Baptisms
     Children                    116          77          158
     Adults                    34          16          40
     Total                         150          93          198
Holy Supper:     Administrations
     Public                    163          74          159
     Private                    71          15          not given
          Communicants          5,353          2,743          4,474
Confessions of Faith               37          18          31
Betrothals                         39          23          35
Marriages                         68          26          43
Ordinations                         5          0          5
Dedications:     Home               8          10          11
               Churches          1          0          1
               Other               1          1          1
Funerals or Memorial Services          51          31          44

     REPORTS OF MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL

     The Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton continued to serve as Bishop of the General Church, Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church, and President of the Academy of the New Church. The full text of his report appears on p. 560.

     The Rt. Rev. Elmo C. Acton continued to serve as Dean of the Bryn Athyn Church. In addition to his regular duties, he taught a course on The Spiritual World in the Theological School, a series of classes on Hebrew to future teachers in the College and a series of classes on Elective Religion to a co-ed class of Seniors in the Academy of the New Church. He also dedicated the addition to the church building of the Olivet Church, Toronto, and made an episcopal visit to the Immanuel Church Society, Glenview, Illinois.

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     The Rt. Rev. George de Charms was a Teacher of Religion in the Theological School of the Academy of the New Church. He also continued to attend Board Meetings of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, the Academy of the New Church and the Bryn Athyn Church as an honorary member. In addition he preached twice in Bryn Athyn at morning and evening services, and once at a family service, addressed the Commencement Exercises of the Academy Schools, the Annual Meeting of Theta Alpha, and the Home and School Association, gave ten College Chapel Talks, and conducted four evening group classes held in various homes.

     The Rt. Rev. Louis B. King served as Pastor of the Immanuel Church, Glenview, Illinois, Headmaster of the Immanuel Church School, and President of the Midwestern Academy. Since June 13, 1973, he has also served as Assistant Bishop of the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

     The Rev. Alfred Acton II was assistant Pastor of the Immanuel Church, Glenview, Illinois, Assistant Headmaster of the Immanuel Church School, and Principal of the Midwestern Academy of the New Church.

     The Rev. Kurt H. Asplundh served as Assistant Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Society in the capacity of Principal of the Bryn Athyn Church Elementary School.

     The Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen, Pastor of the Colchester Society and Headmaster of the Colchester Society New Church Day School, also served as Visiting Pastor to the Groups in Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh, and Letchworth. In addition he acted as Headmaster of the British Summer School.

     The Rev. Ragnar Boyesen was Assistant to the Pastor of the Olivet Church Society, Toronto, a teacher in the Olivet Church School, and Visiting Minister to the Montreal Circle. In addition to his regular duties he preached twice and gave one doctrinal class at Carmel Church, Kitchener, and preached once at Purley Chase in England. He also taught at the British Academy Summer School.

     The Rev. Peter M. Buss served as Pastor of the Durban Society, Westville, Natal, and the Principal of Kainon School. In addition to his regular duties he preached once each in Bryn Athyn, Washington, D. C. and London. He preached twice and gave two doctrinal classes in the Transvaal Circle, and he also gave a class to the Group in Cape Town. He also delivered the June Nineteenth Address in Bryn Athyn.

     The Rev. Geoffrey S. Childs continued as Pastor of the Detroit Society, Troy, Michigan.

     The Rev. Robert H. P. Cole served as Pastor of Sharon Church, Chicago, Illinois, and visiting Pastor to the Midwestern District, including the Madison, Wisconsin, Group, the Kalamazoo, Michigan, Group and the Wilmington, Illinois, Group, Central Missouri and Rockford, Illinois. He reports an active and successful year, and that in addition to his regular duties, he continued as a Director of the Midwestern Academy.

     The Rev. Harold C. Cranch continued to serve as Pastor of the Olivet Church Society, Toronto, Headmaster of the Olivet Church Day School, Visiting Pastor to the Muskoka area, and Executive Vice President of the General Church in Canada. Besides his regular duties, he reports having worked closely with the Pastor of Carmel Church, Kitchener, and notes the development of communications between all members of the General Church in Canada.

565

     The Rev. Roy Franson served as Pastor of the Miami Circle and Visiting Pastor to the Groups in Lake Helen and St. Petersburg, in Florida, Atlanta, Georgia, Birmingham, Alabama, and to the isolated members in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.

     The Rev. Alan Gill was retired and had nothing to report.

     The Rev. Victor I. Gladish, although retired, continued to conduct services at Sharon Church, Chicago, Illinois, once a month or as needed. He also gave assistance when called upon in Glenview, the Madison Circle, Wisconsin, and elsewhere.

     The Rev. Daniel W. Goodenough, Instructor of Religion and History at the Academy of the New Church, reports that in addition to his regular duties he conducted Secondary School Chapel during the Fall Term and spoke occasionally in College Chapel. He also conducted evening worship in Glenn Hall once a week, gave a series of four doctrinal classes to the Bryn Athyn Society, and preached at the services on one Sunday in Bryn Athyn. In August he led a group of fourteen New Church young people on a series of backpack explorations in northwest Wyoming. He reports he was struck by the religious and moral values that were fostered by the group's close association during the month-long expedition in the wilderness, and is convinced that similar undertakings should play a wider part in New Church social life, especially among young people.

     The Rev. Daniel W. Heinrichs served as Pastor of the Ohio District which includes N the North and South Ohio Circles. He preached forty-three times, gave forty-five regular doctrinal classes and held one hundred and thirty-one religion classes for children. He also made thirteen visits to the isolated and exchanged pulpits with the Pastor of the Detroit Society. He notes that in the course of his duties he drove approximately 28,000 miles.

     The Rev. Henry Heinrichs was retired and had nothing to report.

     The Rev. Willard L. D. Heinrichs served as Superintendent of the General Church of the New Jerusalem Mission in South Africa, and Visiting Pastor to the Transvaal Circle, the Cape Town Group and the European Isolated in South Africa and Rhodesia. He also conducted services and gave classes for the Durban Society on several occasions, and gave a chapel talk to the secondary schools of the Academy of the New Church.

     The Rev. W. Cairns Henderson continued as Editor of New CHURCH LIFE and Instructor of Homiletics in the Academy of the New Church Theological School. In addition to his regular duties he preached three times and conducted one Childrens' Service in Bryn Athyn, and preached once at Lake Wallenpaupak. He also continued to serve as secretary of the Consistory and as a member of the General Church and Academy Publication Committees. In the spring he resigned as Chairman of the General Church Sound Recording Committee, an office he had held since 1952.

     The Rev. B. David Holm served as an Instructor of Religion in the Bryn Athyn Elementary School and in the Academy of the New Church. He also served as Chairman of the Church Extension Committee of the Council of the Clergy.

566

     The Rev. Geoffrey H. Howard continued to serve as the Pastor of the Los Angeles Society and Visiting Pastor to the San Francisco Circle and to isolated in California, He speaks of the dedication of the Society's new Gabriel Church building as a most significant event to the members of the Society and that it represented the culmination of many hours of planning and work.

     The Rev. Robert S. Junge served as Instructor in Religion and Education in the Academy of the New Church.

     The Rev. Kurt P. Nemitz continued as Resident Pastor of the Stockholm Society, and Visiting Pastor to the Circles in Oslo, Jonkoping and Copenhagen.

     The Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner was retired and had nothing to report.

     The Rev. Ormond de C. Odhner served as Instructor of Religion and Church History in the Academy of the New Church, and Chairman of the Academy's Department of History and Social Studies.

     The Rev. Dandridge Pendleton continued to serve as Principal of the Boys School of the Academy of the New Church.

     The Rev. Martin Pryke, Executive Vice President of the Academy of the New Church, notes that his Annual Report is printed in the Annual Number of The Academy Journal 1972/73. In addition to his regular duties he conducted services and preached in Bryn Athyn and in Olivet Church, Toronto.

     The Rev. Norman H. Reuter continued to serve as Pastoral Assistant to the Bishop and Acting Pastor of the Southwest District comprised of the Circles in San Diego, California, and Tucson, Arizona, and Groups in Phoenix and Thatcher-Pima, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas.

     The Rev. Morley D. Rich served as Pastor of the Denver, Colorado, Circle, and Visiting Pastor to the Fort Worth, Texas Circle, the Oklahoma Group and the Central-west District.

     The Rev. Norbert H. Rogers continued to serve as Secretary of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, Secretary of the Council of the Clergy Chairman of the General Church Publication Committee and of the General Church Translation Committee. He preached once in Bryn Athyn and conducted a small group class which met twice each month.

     The Rev. Donald L. Rose served as Pastor of the Pittsburgh School and Principal of the Pittsburgh New Church School.

     The Rev. Frank S. Rose continued to serve as Pastor of the Carmel Church Society, Kitchener, Ontario. In addition to his normal duties he preached in Toronto, Glenview and Bryn Athyn, conducted the Maple Leaf and Laurel Leaf Academies, and organized the fourth and fifth sessions of the General Assembly.

     The Rev. Erik Sandstrom served as Dean of the Theological School and as an Instructor in the College of the Academy of the New Church, and as Supervising Pastor to the Erie Circle which has been ministered to under the auspices of the Theological School. In addition, in Bryn Athyn he preached at morning and evening services on two Sundays, conducted two services, and gave one Children's Service in the Cathedral. He also gave a series of four general doctrinal classes, and regularly held a small group class in a study of the Arcana Coelestia.

567

He continued to visit a small group of elderly people in Northeast Philadelphia to give them services and doctrinal classes, twice administering the Holy Supper. And in Washington, D. C., he preached twice and gave two doctrinal classes.

     The Rev. Erik E. Sandstrom served as Pastor of the Michael Church Society of the New Jerusalem, London, and Visiting Pastor to the West Country of England, and to the Netherlands.

     The Rev. Frederick L. Schnarr continued as Pastor of the Washington Society and Visiting Pastor to the southeast area of North and South Carolina and Virginia.

     The Rev. David R. Simons served as Educational Assistant to the Bishop, Director of General Church Religion Lessons, Editor of NEW CHURCH EDUCATION, Chairman of the Visual Education Committee and of the Sunday School Committee, Secretary of the Educational Council, part-time teacher in the Academy of the New Church College, and Visiting Pastor to St. Paul, Minnesota, and Delaware. He also served on the General Church Publication Committee and the Education Department of the Academy College.

     The Rev. Christopher R. J. Smith served as Resident Pastor of the Dawson Creek Circle, and Visiting Pastor to Western Canada and to Northwestern United States of America.

     The Rev. Lorentz R. Soneson continued as Visiting Pastor to the Northeast District, resident in Milford, Connecticut. He again worked with young people at the Maple Leaf, Laurel Leaf and Pine Needle summer schools. He also participated in a panel discussion at the General Assembly in June.

     The Rev. Kenneth O. Stroh continued to serve the Bryn Athyn Society as Director of Music, and in conducting children's services and teaching religion in the Bryn Athyn Church Elementary School.

     The Rev. Douglas M. Taylor served as Pastor of the Hurstville (Sydney, N.S.W.) Society, and Visiting Pastor to the Auckland, New Zealand, Group and to the isolated in Australia and New Zealand. In addition to his regular duties he gave a weekly talk on a Sydney radio station, took part in a television religious program, and gave two talks to audiences not of the New Church.

     The Rev. Gudmund Boolsen made a Danish translation of Earths in the Universe which is now ready for the printers. He also preached at the Convention Society in Copenhagen.

     The Rev. Mark R. Carlson was engaged by the Academy of the New Church to serve as an Instructor of Religion for the 1973-74 year.

     The Rev. Jose L. de Figueiredo continued to serve as Minister to the Rio de Janeiro Society.

     The Rev. Michael D. Gladish, appointed Assistant to the Pastor of Olivet Church, reports that since his ordination in June he has preached five times in Toronto and once in Caryndale.

568

     The Rev. Thomas L. Kline received appointment as Assistant to the Pastor of the Washington, D. C. Society and Visiting Minister to the Southeast United States.

     The Rev. N. Bruce Rogers served as Instructor of Religion, Latin and Hebrew at the Academy of the New Church.

     The Rev. Jan H. Weiss was engaged in secular work and had nothing to report.

     Respectfully submitted,
          NORBERT H. ROGERS
               Secretary
SOME IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS 1973

SOME IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS 1973

Districts, Groups, Circles and Societies
     The members of the General Church are organized into districts; also into groups, circles, or societies.
     A District is a geographical area of the Church. There are two kinds of Districts:
     a. An Assembly District, which consists of two or more societies and all other members of the Church who are resident within the area. It is organized for the purpose of assembly and consideration of mutual uses within the District.
     b. A Pastoral District is an area under the direction of a pastor appointed by the Bishop.
     A Group consists of all interested receivers of the Heavenly Doctrine in any locality who meet together for worship and mutual instruction under the general supervision of pastors who visit them from time to time.
     A Circle consists of members of the General Church in any locality who are under the leadership of a regular visiting pastor appointed by the Bishop, and who are organized by their pastor to take responsibility for their local uses in the interim between his visits. A group may become a circle when on the recommendation of the visiting pastor it is formally recognized as such by the Bishop.
     A Society or Local Church consists of the members of the General Church in any locality who have been organized under the leadership of a resident pastor to maintain the uses of regular worship, instruction and social life. One becomes a member of a particular society by signing the membership roll of that society. A circle may become a society by application to the Bishop and formal recognition by him.

     Whenever possible societies of the General Church seek to establish and maintain a local school for the education of the young. (Order and Organization of the General Church)

569

REVIEW 1973

A HISTORY OF NEW CHURCH EDUCATION. Section IV. History of the Day Schools of Church Societies of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, 1880-1972. By Richard R. Gladish. Mimeographed by General Church Printing, Bryn Athyn, Pa., 1973. Pp. 180.

     This volume, focusing upon day schools, is the fourth in a series treating of the history of New Church education. The other sections, by the same author, are I) Education under the English Conference (1968); II) New Church Education in North America in the Sphere of the General Convention (1968); and III) A History of the Academy of the New Church (1967).
     Professor Gladish, who is head of the Academy's Department of Education, is well informed in this field. He notes in the Preface that the original research on this section was done for the most part in 1955, when he traveled to the various sites where schools had existed or were still in operation under the General Church. The study for more recent years was completed in the slimmer of 1 973. In addition to research in the field, much correspondence and research of documents was involved in this fascinating piece of work.
     The present section is divided into two chapters. In the first of these,
"Elementary Education under the Academy and the General Church," Professor Gladish traces the beginnings of the movement for elementary education and the philosophy which underlay it, and treats of the purpose of the elementary schools, methods and approaches, curriculum, religious education and experiences, the fundamental processes, and the emphasis placed upon knowledge of the human body, music and handwork. The second chapter consists of historical accounts of the various society schools in the United States, Canada, England, Australia and South Africa, six-teen in all, with a closing section on Summer Camps or Schools. The church schools, some of which no longer exist, are arranged roughly in chronological order. However, these accounts are much more than historical summaries. The common bond which brought them into being and still unites them is stressed, and something of the unique flavor of each school is given, so that the reader is able to enter into the pleasure and joy which Professor Gladish says he felt in re-living the lives of the various schools in writing about them.

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UNITY IN TRINITY 1973

UNITY IN TRINITY Editor 1973

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.

Published Monthly By

THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM

BRYN ATHYN, PA.

Editor                Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager           Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     All literary contributions should hr sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications, should be sent to the Business Manager. Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.

     TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION

$5.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 50 cents.
     "I and the Father are one" (John 10: 30) is a familiar passage usually taken by us as proof of the Lord's sole Divinity. Yet Christian scholars, far from being silenced by the passage, tend to interpret it differently. For the most part, they agree, the passage denies that the Lord is not God; but they say that the use of the plural rules out the idea of one person. Some point to the meaning of the original as indicating that the Father and the Son are a unit- one thing, not one person. While they see in this more than a unity of will and plan, as though they worked in harmony-oneness of Divine work and of infinite power, oneness of essence; the essence of the Son's being is seen only as openness of mind to the Father, a profound inner sense of harmony.
     If the passage is to be understood we must view it under the principle that we are to think from essence to person, not the reverse; in other words, go beyond what we usually think of as person. Divine Wisdom I teaches as the meaning of these words that in the Lord there is love and wisdom, esse and existere. Yet these are not two in Him but one, for wisdom belongs to love and love to wisdom, and from this reciprocal union there comes a one. Thus we cannot get away from the realm of philosophy, metaphysics and abstractions, even while admitting that the passage speaks essentially of relationships. Love and wisdom and the use in which they are ultimated are not shared by two or three persons. They are the three essentials which make one person. The Lord and the Father are one, and the Lord's Divine Human is the one person in whom is the Divine Trinity called in the Word Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

571

     THE LORD'S STATE AT BIRTH

     At the heart of the event marked by Christmas is the primary truth of all religion-that God was born a man in the world and took on a Human. Belief in this makes it possible for God to manifest Himself. It is not enough to believe that God is Man; it must be believed also that He came into the world as a man, and that by glorification He became in the Human the Perfect Man and the Only Man.
     All of this is involved in the Lord's state at birth, which is said to have been most arcane and difficult to comprehend. The child born in Bethlehem was like, yet unlike, all others; like in that He was born of a woman, unlike in that He was not born from a human father but from Jehovah, and of a virgin whose conception and birth of Him were both virgin. He was at once very God and imperfect man, deriving a Divine soul which is life and the source of life from Jehovah, and from the mother infirmities like those of other men which were corporeal.
     The difference between the Lord's soul and His body at birth was as that between the Divine and the human, the infinite and the finite, the uncreate and the created. Yet the Divine infilled the infant body and formed it to its own likeness, so that shepherds worshiped at the manger and wise men bowed before Him as the King they had sought. However, because the Lord's soul was Divine, it could not be otherwise than that His body, and the mind formed between the soul and the body, should become like the soul-should become Divine as it was. The maternal heredity, the infirm human, is something corporeal which is dispersed when man is being regenerated, while the paternal heredity remains to eternity. The Divine itself, which is infinite, could not have done otherwise than reject the finite which was from the mother and put on the infinite from the Father, thus the Divine.
     Involved in the Lord's state at birth, then, was the potentiality of what He became. After He had rejected that of the body which He had taken from the mother, He rose as to His body, no longer material but Divine substantial, leaving nothing of it in the tomb, again unlike every other man, who rises only as to his spirit. In the Divine Human glorified the Lord, who had come into the world as a man, became the Perfect Man and the Only Man. In Him alone there was, and is, a correspondence of all things of the body with the Divine, an infinitely perfect correspondence giving rise to a union of the corporeal things with the Divine celestial things, and of sensuous things with Divine spiritual things. With these truths in mind we can make our celebration of Christmas a celebration of the primary truth of religion.

572

     PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

     People of different traditions are variously affected as the last day of the year draws to a close. For some it is Old Year's Night: an occasion to look back fondly over the dying year, often through a sentimental haze which blurs its sorrows and failures and brings into focus only its successes and joys. For others it is New Year's Eve and an exciting time to look forward to new experiences and opportunities, challenges and responsibilities; to the prospect of opening a new volume of the book of life, unmarred by the mistakes and weaknesses of the past: to the possibility of yet becoming what they had failed to he; or of achieving at last the ambitions which were again denied fulfillment in the dying year. A fresh start with renewed hope-and the effort scarcely realized by a mind that leaps eagerly to the conclusion.
     For those in the church the end of the year should surely be an occasion for looking back on the old and forward to the new; for reflection on the past and anticipation of the future. Our lives are lived in the ever-changing present; we cannot bring back or change the past, no matter how much we may wish to do so, and we cannot shape the future until it becomes the present. But from the past we can in the present draw strength to face the future with confidence, hope and intelligence. Out of the wisdom gained in the past from the Word and from experience we can shape the future intelligently and well when it becomes the present. As we reflect upon the Lord's providential care as it may be seen in the past, and upon the opportunities for usefulness and developing character that have been presented to us, even though some came in ways that were unpleasant and sad, we may find incentive to go forward into the new year, resolved to do justly, to love mercy, and humble ourselves to walk with God.

     But of one thing we may he certain. When the future becomes the present it does not erase the past. The man who enters the new year is the same man who stepped out of the old; at any given time man is the product of his past states. This is not determinism. In every year into which we enter there is the possibility of new states-of more interior states of love and faith or of their beginnings. But it is the part of a rational man to realize beforehand-for rationality is not a noticeable feature of New Year's Eve-that instantaneous change is as impossible as instantaneous salvation. Our entrance into a new year is an earnest of the Lord's willingness to regenerate us in it; but the man with whom He, and we, must work is the man we now know ourselves to be, and the man we can better discover ourselves to be by examination.

573

PARENTS, BEWARE 1973

PARENTS, BEWARE Mrs. KENNETH ROSE 1973

Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:

     Your excellent editorial, "Parents, Beware," that appeared in the September issue recalled to mind a statement made recently here concerning parents' responsibility. I was stunned when a leader of the church at a meeting of parents of high school students offered the comment, "We must leave our children in freedom to do evil."
     The Writings do not indicate that this should be our attitude. The Arcana, in number 10225: 4, 9, states that until the age of twenty a young person cannot from himself "discriminate between truths and truths nor even between truths and falsities," and "cannot as yet by means of the rational dispel anything of falsity or evil." Is not this why he has parents to help him?
     Conjugial Love number 456, in discussing immoderate fornications, ends with the statement: "Care ought to be taken by parents that this may not be, because a youth growing up, greatly excited by lust, cannot yet from reason put the curb upon himself."
     The teaching in number 329 of Heaven and Hell concerning those who die as children is well known. Every such child is educated in heaven and becomes an angel. They apparently are not given a chance to choose hell as their eternal home. Obviously, parents on earth do not have such wisdom to guide their children unfailingly toward heaven. We are constantly besieged with the uncertainty of our methods. But surely our endeavor must be to instruct and if necessary restrain our children from indulging in their evils, encouraging self-compulsion all the while.
     Although hereditary evils are only of the thought and will* they can still be seen and resisted there-it is not necessary that they come into act to be recognized: "when a man is allowed to think the evils of his life's love, even so far as to the intention, they are cured by spiritual means, as diseases by natural means."** The same number points out that even an adult's freedom to choose evil is in his thought and will. He is free to think and will evil, but not always to do it, since many different pressures may keep him from bringing it into act. These pressures preserve order in society.
     If the freedom of adults does not properly extend to doing evil, how much more should children not be free to ultimate their evils! I would submit this as another item of which we parents must beware.
     * See AC 4317: 5.
     ** DP 281.
     MRS. KENNETH ROSE
Bryn Athyn Pennsylvania

574

Church News 1973

Church News Various 1973

     CHARTER DAY

     October 19, 1973

     Charter Day is a time for reflection on and rededication to the principles of the Academy. At this special time students, alumni and visitors have an opportunity to recognize and rejoice in the work of the school in providing a distinctive education for its young people.
     As a forerunner to the event itself, the Arts Department of the Academy, with Mr. Mark Bostock as chairman, sponsored a program which stressed all the arts in education. Following a brief resume of the offerings of the Department, Mr. Bostock directed his college chorus in three musical selections ranging from the religious to the secular. Mr. Carey Smith then briefly introduced the visual arts, after which ha invited the audience to watch demonstrations of jewelry making and ceramics. Exhibits of oil painting, design and shop work were also on display. Much in evidence on this evening was the versatility and dedication of the teachers, as well as the enjoyment and learning of the students.
     On Friday morning, in crisp and beautiful autumn weather, Corporation, faculty and students marched in solemn procession to the Cathedral, where the Rev. Donald L. Rose gave an address based on the Lord's declaration, "I am the door," written in John 10:9. To illustrate his theme, Mr. Rose held in his hand the key to the west door of the Cathedral, upon which is inscribed the words Nunc Licet. Referring also to the Academy banner and the entrance of the procession into the church, Mr. Rose likened these symbols to man's entrance into spiritual truths by means of New Church education. The address is published in this issue.
     After the Cathedral service, visitors and participants in the procession returned to Benade Hall for the traditional singing of school songs, accompanied this year by a brass quartet, led by Mr. Bostock. At the conclusion of the program the banner bearers marched off to the Field House as the quartet played appropriate music. This group of musicians did much to enhance the solemnity and dignity of the occasion.
     After an afternoon of exciting wins in cross-country and football, a formal dance in the evening provided an opportunity for all visitors to observe the growth of the school. Spread out at the Buck Road and of the Field House were cardboard models of all campus buildings built through the ingenuity of collage students. All buildings were faithfully represented except for the Dining Hall, which will soon go through extensive remodelling. As further evidence of the growth of the school, the banners were decoratively hung on both end walls of the Field House for the first time.
     A fitting climax to the weekend came with the banquet on Saturday evening. The Rev. Dandridge Pendleton presided as toastmaster and introduced the subject: Distinctiveness and Accommodation. Referring to the "gift of tongues" mentioned in Arts 2 and True Christian Religion, Mr. Pendleton offered the idea that the New Church has a challenge to communicate the Lord's truth without compromise. Then in turn he presented four speakers.
     The Rev. Robert S. Junge spoke first on the life of the church. His thesis was that as the Lord accommodates His truth through the Word for man, man in turn, by studying and practicing what the Lord says, promotes the life of the church and thereby gives forth the glow of the new revelation to all men.
     Dr. Robert W. Gladish, the second speaker, discussed the work of education, and in particular New Church education which gives meaning and inner unity to life.

575

The Academy especially through its eloquence as an educational institution "gives purpose and witness to the enduring faith of the Lord's second coming."
     Mr. Lewis Nelson devoted his remarks to the layman in his occupation. He spoke of the daily opportunities the New Church man has to display his distinctiveness and of how the New Church man must use his knowledge of the church to rise above the world's problems.
     The fourth and last speaker was Mrs. Robert P. Smith (Mary Jane Heilman), whose topic, "The Challenge to New Church Women," was addressed to the difficulty of women today who find themselves coping with Women's Liberation. To Mrs. Smith, the Women's Lib appeal is like the melody of the ancient sirens which seem beautiful at first but can lure listeners to destruction. New Church women must study these "arias" which beckon to them, so that they can lead all women to see what true justice and order are.
     At the banquet's conclusion, Mr. Pendleton invited the assembled guests to rise and sing, "Our Own Academy." So ended the 96th anniversary of the granting of the Academy's charter.
     MARY LOU WILLIAMSON

     GENERAL CHURCH

     At the Annual Meeting of the Sound Recording Committee on October 30, the first meeting at which the Rev. B. David Holm presided, a new slate of officers was elected: vice chairman, Mr. Cedric F. Lee; secretary, Mr. E. Boyd Asplundh; treasurer, Miss Elizabeth Hayes; librarian, Mrs. George Kelly. Mrs. Joseph McDonough is office secretary.

     THE CHURCH AT LARGE

     Australia. At the Conference of the Association of the New Church in Australia held in Adelaide a few months ago a historic decision was made. It was resolved to establish in Australia a New Church College for the training of ministers, Sunday school teachers and interested lay people. The College has a Council, established at Conference: a library established with generous gifts from the General Conference in Great Britain, the Academy of the New Church and the Association itself; and a prospective student. The student has tutors who are preparing a syllabus under the direction of a Co-ordinator of Studies.

     General Conference. The Barnsley Society of the New Church closed down its operations at the end of September. An aging and shrinking membership, the loss of the Sunday school and of young people, and the migration of young adults led to the decision to take this step.

576

ABBREVIATED TITLES 1973

     Announcements

     The Writings
Abom-Abomination of Desolation
AC-Arcana Coelestia
Adv.-Adversaria
AE-Apocalypse Explained
AR-Apocalypse Revealed
Ath.-Athanasian Creed
BE-Brief Exposition
Calvin-Conversations with Calvin
Can.-Canons
Char.-Doctrine of Charity
CL-Conjugial Love
CLJ-Continuation of the Last Judgment.
Conv. Ang.-Conversations with Angels
Coro.-Coronis
DLW-Divine Love and Wisdom
Dom.-De Domino
DP-Divine Providence
Ecc. Hist.-Ecclesiastical History of the New Church
EU-Earths in the Universe
F-Doctrine of Faith
5 Mem.-Five Memorable Relations
HD-New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine
HH-Heaven and Hell
Hist. Crea.-History of Creation
Idea-Angelic Idea concerning Creation
Infl.-Influx
Inv.-Invitation to the New Church
Life-Doctrine of Life
LJ-Last Judgment
LJ post.-Last Judgment (posthumous)
Lord-Doctrine of the Lord
Love-Divine Love
Mar-On Marriage
PP-Prophets and Psalms
Q-Nine Questions
SD-Spiritual Diary
SD mm-Spiritual Diary Minor
Sk.-Sketch of the Doctrine of the New Church
SS-Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture
TCR-True Christian Religion
Verbo-De Verbo
WE-Word Explained (Adversaria)
WH-White Horse
Wis-Divine Wisdom

Philosophical Works
     AK-Animal Kingdom
     Br.-The Brain
     Cer.-The Cerebrum
     Chem.-Chemistry
     1, 2 Econ.-Economy
     Kingdom, Parts 1, 2
     Fib.-The Fibre
     Gen.-Generation
     Inf.-The Infinite
of the Animal
U Pr.-Lesser Principia
Misc. Obs.-Miscellaneous Observations Pr.-Principia
Psych. Trans.-Psychological Transactions
R.     Psych-Rational Psychology
Sens.-Tbe Five Senses
Trem-Tremulation
WLG-Worship and Love of God

     For lists of the Theological Works see: Tafel's Documents, Vol. II, pp. 950-1023; Potts' Concordance, Introduction; and General Church Liturgy, pp. 236-238.
     For lists of Swedenborg's earlier works see: Tafel's Documents, Vol. II, pp. 884-949; and A Classified List by the Rev. Alfred Acton.
PUBLIC WORSHIP AND DOCTRINAL CLASSES 1973

PUBLIC WORSHIP AND DOCTRINAL CLASSES 1973

GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
RIGHT REV WILLARD D. PENDLETON, BISHOP
RIGHT REV. LOUIS B. KING, ASSISTANT BISHOP
RIGHT REV. GEORGE DE CHARMS, BISHOP EMERITUS
REV. NORBERT H. ROGERS, SECRETARY OF THE CHURCH (UNINCORPORATED)
MR. STEPHEN PITCAIRN, SECRETARY OF THE CORPORATION
MR. L. E. GYLLENHAAL, TREASURER
Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania 19009, U. S. A.
PUBLIC WORSHIP AND
Atlanta, Georgia.** Monthly. Visiting Minister: Rev. Thomas L. Kline. Secretary: Mr. Robert F. Leaper, 5765 Mountain Creek Drive, N.E., Atlanta, Georgia 30328.
Auckland, New Zealand.* Visiting Pastor: Rev. Douglas McL. Taylor. Taped Service every other week. Secretary: Mr. Harry Beveridge, 3 Murdoch Crescent, Whangarci, New Zealand. Call 80254 (Mr. M. Fleming).
Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009.-Bryn Athyn Church. Pastor: Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton. Dean: Rt. Rev. Louis B. King. Assistant Pastor: Rev. Kurt H. Asplundh. Friday Class.
Chicago, 111.-Sharon Church. Pastor: Rev. Robert H. P. Cole. 5220 North Wayne Ave. 60640. Phone: Sunnyside 4-6398. Services 11 a.m. Monthly Class.
Cincinnati, Ohio (South Ohio Circle).* Class and service 4th weekend. Visiting Pastor: Rev. Daniel W. Heinrichs. Secretary: Mr. Donald P. Gladish, 7354 Samderson Place, Cincinnati, Ohio 45243. Phone: 513-561-5095.
Cleveland, Ohio (North Ohio Circle).* -Bi-monthly classes and services, 1st and 3rd weekends, at the Convention Church, Broadview Road. Resident Pastor: Rev. Daniel W. Heinrichs, 1194 Belle Avenue, Lakewood, Ohio 44107.
Colchester, England.-175-181 Maldon Rd. Pastor: Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen, 30 Inglis Rd., Coichester C03-3HU. Phone: 71526. Wednesday Class.
Columbus, Ohio (South Ohio Circle).* Monthly. Visiting Pastor: Rev. Daniel W. Heinrichs. Secretary: Mr. V. Carmond Odhner, 937 Doherty Rd., Galloway, Ohio 43119. Phone: 614-878-2442.
Connecticut.* Friday class monthly; Saturday class monthly in Larchmnont, N. Y., area. Divine Worship on 1st Sunday, Mamaroneck Women's Club, Mamaroneck, N. Y., and 3rd Sunday, Plymouth Chapel. Plymouth Court, Milford, Conn. Pastor: Rev. Lorentz P. Sonesen. 145 Shadyside Lane, Milford. Connecticut 06460. Phone: 203-877-1141. Secretary: Mrs. Hans Leding, 402 Glendale Rd., Northvale, N. J. 07647. Phone: 201-768-2445.
Copenhagen, Denmark.* Weekly service, Stellavej 14, Rddovre. Occasional visits by the Rev. Ragnar Boyesen. Call Mr. Svend Strobseck: Tel. 53 06 81. F.
Crooked Creek, Alberta. * Monthly, Visiting Pastor: Rev. Christopher R. J. Smith. Contact Mr. Edward Lemky, Crooked Creek, Alberta. Phone 403-957-2507.

DOCTRINAL CLASSES

Dawson Creek, B. C.* Pastor: Rev. Christopher R. J. Smith, 1536-94th Ave., Dawson Creek, B. C., Canada V1A 1Hl. Wednesday Class. Phone: 601-752-3849.
Denver, Colo.* Resident Pastor: Rev. Kurt P. Nemitz, 3118 5. York St., Englewood, Colon. 80110.
Detroit, Mich.-205 West Long Lake Road, Troy, Mich. Pastor: Rev. Geoffrey S. Childs, 280 East Long Lake Rd., Troy, Mich. 4808-1. Saturday Class.
Durban, Natal, South Africa.-36 Perth Road, Westville. Pastor: Rev. Peter M. Buss, 42 Pitlochry Road, Westville.
Erie, Pa.* Occasional. Visiting Pastor: Rev. Erik Sandstrom. Secretary: Mrs. Wilson J. Murray, 2736 Hrinda Dr., Erie, Pa. 16506. Phone: 814-838-7802.
Florida East Central Group, Fla.** Visiting Pastor: Rev. Roy Franson.
Contact Mr. Leonard A. Lattin, 225 Daniels St., Lake Helen, Fla. 32744. Phone: (904) 228-2219.
Fort Worth, Texas.* Regular recorded services. Pastor visits monthly. Pastor: Rev. Kurt P. Nemitz. Secretary: Mrs. Charles E. Hogan, 7513 Evelyn Lane 76118.
Glenview, Ill.-Immanuel Church. Pastor: Rev. Alfred Acton II, 73 Park Drive 60025 Assistant Pastor: Rev. David R. Simons, 2700 Park Lane 60025. Friday Class.
Hurstville, N. S. W., Australia-Dudley St. Pastor: Rev. Douglas McL. Taylor, 22 Dudley St. Peushurat, N. S. W. 2222. Phone: 57-1589.
Indianapolis (Indiana Area) .**~Monthly, third weekend. Visiting Pastor: Rev. Daniel W. Heinrichs. Secretary: Mrs. Rachel E. Heinrichs. 7149 Midesell Dr., Indianapolis, Indiana 46260.     Phone: 317-253-8190.
Jonkoping, Sweden.* Weekly service, Rosenbergsgatan 9. Occasional visits by the Rev. Ragnar Boyesen. Call Mr. Lennart Fornander. Phone: 79119.
Kalamazoo, Mich.** Pastor visits Feb., May, Oct. Saturday class. Visiting Pastor: Rev. Robert H. P. Cole. Secretary: Miss Ingrid Andreasson, P. 1. Box 450, Sawyer, Mich. 49125.
Kitchener, Ont.-Carmel Church, 40 Chapel Hill Drive. RR 2, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2G 3W5. Pastor: Rev. Frank S. Rose, 58 Chapel Hill Drive, RR 2, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2G 3W5. Friday Class.
London, England-Michael Church, 131 Burton Rd., Brixton. Pastor: Rev. Erik E. Sandstrom, 135 Mantilla Rd., Tooting, London, SW. 17. 8DX. Phone: 672-6239. Wednesday Class.

PUBLIC WORSHIP AND DOCTRINAL CLASSES

(Continued from Previous Page)

Los Angeles, Calif.-5027 New York Ave., La Crescenta. Service: 11 am. Pastor: Rev. Geoffrey H. Howard. 5114 Finehill Ave., La Crescents, Calif. 91214. Secretary: Mr. Donald E. Zuber, 23421 Gilmore St., Canoga Park, Calif. 91304. Phone: 213-883-1087. Friday Class. Church Phone: (213) 249-9163. Louisville, Kentucky (South Ohio Circle).* Visiting Pastor: Rev. Daniel W. Heinrichs. Secretary: Mr. Gordon B. Smith, 6400 Deep Creek Dr.. Prospect, Kentucky 40059. Phone 502-228-1968.
Madison, Wis.* Weekly service. Pastor visits every second Sunday except August. Visiting Pastor : Rev. Robert H. P. Cole. Call: Mrs. Charles M. Howell, 3912 Plymouth Circle, Madison 53705.
Massachusetts.** Divine Worship and class on 2nd Sunday, Convention Church, Newtonville, Mass. Visiting Pastor: Rev. Lorentz R. Soneson. Secretary: Mrs. Malcolm Cronlund, 17 June St., Weatwood, Mass. 02090. Phone: 617-769-3195.
Miami, Fla.* 15101 N.W. 5th Ave. Pastor: Rev. Roy Franson, 6721 Arbor Dr., Miramar, Fla. 33023.
Montreal, Que.* Service and classes five times a year. Visiting Minister: Rev. Michael D. Gladish. Secretary: Mr. Denis do Chazal, 17 Ballanryne Ave. So., Montreal West, 263 P.Q.
North Jersey.* Saturday class monthly; Divine Worship on 4th Sunday, Womens' Club, Morristown. Visiting Pastor: Rev. Lorentz R. Soneson. Secretary: Mrs. Edsall Elliott, Jr., 26 Fieldstone Drive, Whippany. Phone: 201-887-0478.
Oklshoma.** Pastor visits monthly, third Friday or Saturday. Pastor: Rev. Kurt P. Nemitz. Secretary: Mrs. Arthur Smith, Ree. 1, Mannford, Okla. 74044.
Oslo, Norway.* Weeklv service. Vetslandsveien 82A, Oppsal. Occasional visits by the Rev. Ragnar Boyesen. Call: Mr. Eyvind Bovesen. Tel. 26 11 59.
Paris, France.* Occasional. Visiting Pastor: Rev. Erik E. Sandstrom. Secretary: Mr. Elisee Hussenet, 50 Rue Caulaincourt, Paris 18. France.
Phoenix, Arizona.** Serviee 2nd Sunday, 4:00 p.m. Visiting Pastor: Rev. Norman H. Reuter. Contact Mr. Hubert O. Rydstrom 3640 E. Piccadilly Rd., Phoenix 85018. Phone: 95-2290.
Pittsburgh, Pa.-299 Le Roi Rd. Pastor: Rev. Donald L. Rose, 7420 Ben Hur St., Pittsburgh 15208.     Phone: Friday Class.
Portland, Ore. -Quarterly. Visiting Pastor: Rev. Christopher P. J. Smith. Contact Mrs. W. D. Andrews. P.O. Box 8839, Portland, Oregon 97208. Phone: 503-227-4144.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil-Minister: Rev. Jose Lopes de Figneiredo, Rua Desembargador Izidro 155, Apt. 202, Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro.
Rockford, Ill.** First Tuesday of each month. Monthly class. Visiting Pastor: Rev. Robert H. P. Cole. Secretary: Miss Myrtle Hedberg, 509 Shaw Street, Rockford, Ill. 61108.
St. Paul-Minneapolis, Minn.* Weekly Service. Pastor visits every third Sunday except in August. Visiting Pastor: Rev. David R. Simons. Secretary: Mrs. Lloyd Johnson, 2571 East Poplar Avenue, North St. Paul, Minneapolis 55109.
San Diego, Calit.* 2701 Meadowlark Dr. Service every Sunday. Visiting Pastor
Rev. Norman H. Reuter. Contact Mr. Robert Pollock, 4626 Bancroft Sr., Apt. 1. San Diego, Calif. 92116. Phone: 283-8712.
San Francisco, Calif. (Bay Area).* Service bi-weekly. 4 :00 p.m. Visiting Pastor: Rev. Geoffrey H. Howard. Secretary: Mr. John C. Doering, 48B Escondido Village, Stantord, Calif. 94305. Phone: 415-328-7904.
Seattle, Wash.~-Quarterly. Visiting Pastor: Rev. Christopher R. J. Smith. Contact Mr. Harold W. Kunkle, 2625 106th Place SE., Bellevue, Wash. 98004. Phone: 206-454-7787.
Spokane, Wash.* Quarterly. Visiting Pastor: Rev. Christopher R. J. Smith. Contact Mr. Carith E. Hansen, West 1324-5th Avenue, Apt. 4B, Spokane, Washington 99204. Phone: 509-747-7048.
Stockholm, Sweden.-Sockenvsgen orb Biigerstaviigen, Enskedegard. Pastor:
Rev. Ragnar Boyesen, Aladdinsvogen 27, 161 38 Bromina, Sweden. Phone: 48 99 22 and 26 79 81.
The Hague, Holland.* Occasional Visiting Pastor: Rev. Erik E. Sandstrom. Inquire of Mr. Daniel Lupker, Laan Van Meesdfvoorr 1240, The Hague, Holland.
Toronto, Ont.-Olivet Church, 279 Burnhamthorpe Rd. Pastor: Rev. Harold C. Cranch, 2 Lorraine Gardens, Islington, Ontario, Canada M9B 4Z-1. Assistant to the Pastor: Rev. Michael D. Gladish, 73 Halihurron Ave., lslington, Ontario, Canada M9B 4Y6. Wednesday Class.
Tranavaal, South Africa.* Occasional. Visiting Pastor: Rev. Willard L. D. Heinrichs. Secretary: Mr. Robert W. Cowley, 35 Craggs St., Rynfield, Benoni, Transvaal.
Tucson, Arizona.* 3056 N. Country Club Road. Acting Resident Pastor: Rev. Norman H. Reuter. 2536 N. Stewart Ave., Tucson 85716. Phone: 793-0261. Urbana, Ohio (South Ohio Circle).* Visiting Pastor: Rev. Daniel W. Heinrichs. Call Mr. Robert O. Barnirz, 609 South Main St. Urbana 43078.
Vancouver, B. C.-Quarterly. Visiting Pastor: Rev. Christopher R. J. Smith.
Contact Mr. R. Douglas Crompton, 1030 Cecile Drive, 13, Port Moody. Phone: 936-6341.
Washington, D. C.-Washington Church of the New Jerusalem, 11914 Chantilly Lane. Mitchellville, Md. Pastor: Rev. Frederick L. Schnarr, 3809 Enterprise Rd., Mitchellville, Md. 20716. Phone: 390-6157. Assistant to the Pastor: Rev. Thomas L. Kline, 7609 Riverdale Rd., 1321, New Carrollton, Md. 20784.
For services in England other than in Colchester and London communicate with the pastors of the Colchester and London societies
     * Recognized Circle     ** Group