9341. 'And from the wilderness even to the River' means from delight belonging to the sensory level even to good and truth belonging to the rational level. This is clear from the meaning of 'setting the boundary' as the full range, dealt with immediately above in 9340; from the meaning of 'the wilderness' as a place where no one lives and nothing is grown, so that when it applies to the spiritual matters of faith and the celestial aspects of love 'the wilderness' is a place where no good nor any truth resides, as is the situation with the level of the senses (that this is what the sensory level of the human mind is like, see end of 9331), for no celestial good nor any spiritual truth exists on the sensory level, only delight and pleasure having a bodily and worldly origin exist there, which being so 'the wilderness' means this outermost level of mind in a member of the Church; and from the meaning of the Euphrates, to which 'the River' refers here, as good and truth belonging to the rational level. The reason why the Euphrates has this meaning is that Assyria lay there, and Assyria or Asshur means the rational level of the mind, 119, 1186.

[2] This rational level is meant by 'the Euphrates' where the words 'from the wilderness to the Euphrates' occur, and also 'from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates', as in Joshua,

From the wilderness and Lebanon even to the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea, the going down of the sun, will be your boundary. Joshua 1:4.

And in Moses,

To your seed I will give this land, from the river of Egypt even to the great river, the River Euphrates. Genesis 15:18.

Similarly in David,

You caused a vine to journey out of Egypt. You sent out its shoots even to the sea, and its little branches to the River. Psalms 80:8, 11.

'A vine out of Egypt' stands for the spiritual Church represented by the children of Israel; 'to the sea' and 'to the River' stand for interior truths and forms of good. The like occurs in Micah,

They will come to you from Asshur and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt even to the River, and from sea to sea, ¹ from mountain to mountain. Micah 7:12.

[3] But something different is meant by 'the Euphrates' when, from the middle of the land of Canaan as the standpoint, it is seen to be the furthest limit of the land on one side or that which encloses it on one side. In this case that river means the last and lowest level of the Lord's kingdom, that is, the last and lowest level of heaven and the Church in respect of rational goodness and truth. The fact that the boundaries of the land of Canaan, which were seas and rivers, meant the lowest things in the Lord's kingdom, see 1585, 1866, 4116, 4240, 6516. 'The Euphrates' therefore meant the kinds of truths and forms of good on the sensory level that were in agreement with truths and forms of good on the rational level. But since the sensory level of the human mind lies next to earth and the world and receives its impressions from them, 9331 (end), it does not acknowledge anything as good except that which delights the body, nor anything as truth except that which lends support to that delight. In this sense therefore 'the River Euphrates' means pleasure which is attributable to self-love and love of the world, and falsity that supports it with reasonings based on the illusions of the senses.

[4] These things are meant by 'the River Euphrates' in John,

A voice said to the sixth angel, Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates. They were released, and they killed a third part of mankind. Revelation 9:14-15.

'The angels bound at the Euphrates' stands for falsities which arise through reasonings based on the illusions of the senses, and which lend support to pleasures attributable to self-love and love of the world. In the same book,

The sixth angel poured out his bowl over the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way of the kings who were from the rising of the sun. ² Revelation 16:12.

Here 'the Euphrates' stands for falsities from a similar origin. 'Dried up water' stands for those falsities after they had been removed by the Lord; and 'the way of the kings from the rising of the sun' stands for the fact that at that time the truths of faith were seen by and revealed to those governed by love to the Lord.

'Waters' are truths and in the contrary sense falsities, see 705, 739, 756, 790, 839, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 7307, 8137, 8138, 8568, 9323.

'The way' is truth that has been seen and revealed, 627, 2333, 3477.

'The kings' are those with whom truths exist, 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 5068, 6148.

'The rising' or 'the east' is the Lord, also love from Him and to Him, 101, 1250, 3708.

'The sun' has the same meaning, 1529, 1530, 2440, 2495, 3636, 3643, 4060, 4696, 5377, 7078, 7083, 7171, 7173, 8644, 8812.

[5] In Jeremiah,

You have forsaken Jehovah your God at a time when He led you in the way. For this reason what have you to do with the way of Egypt, that you drink the waters of Shihor, or what [have you to do] with the way of Asshur, that you drink the waters of the River? Jeremiah 2:17-18.

'Leading in the way' stands for teaching truth. 'What have you to do with the way of Egypt, that you drink the waters of Shihor?' stands for, What have you to do with falsities arising through a perverse use of factual knowledge? 'What have you to do with the way of Asshur, that you drink the waters of the River?' stands for, What have you to do with falsities that arise on account of reasonings - reasonings which are based on the illusions of the senses and lend support to pleasures attributable to self-love and love of the world?

[6] In the same prophet,

Jehovah [said] to the prophet, Take the girdle which you have bought, which is over your loins, and arise, go away to the Euphrates, and hide it there in the cleft of a rock. He went away and hid it by the Euphrates. Afterwards it happened at the end of many days, that Jehovah said, Arise, go away to the Euphrates, take from there the girdle. Therefore he went away to the Euphrates and dug, and took the girdle from the place where he had hidden it. But behold, the girdle was spoiled; it was profitable for nothing. Jeremiah 13:3-7.

'The girdle of the loins' is the outward bond that holds within itself all things of love and consequently of faith. 'Being hidden in the cleft of a rock beside the Euphrates' means in a place where faith dwells in obscurity and is rendered no faith at all by falsities that are the product of reasonings. 'The girdle that had been spoiled, so that it was profitable for nothing' stands for the fact that then all the things of love and faith had been broken apart and scattered.

[7] When Jeremiah was to tie a stone to the book written by him and to throw it into the middle of the Euphrates, Jeremiah 51:63, the meaning was that the prophetical part of the Word would be destroyed by like falsities. In the same prophet,

The swift will not flee away, nor the strong man escape. Northwards on the bank of the River Euphrates they have stumbled and fallen. But Jehovah Zebaoth takes revenge on His adversaries, for the Lord Jehovah Zebaoth holds a sacrifice in the land of the north beside the River Euphrates. Jeremiah 46:6, 10.

Here also 'the River Euphrates' stands for truths that have been falsified and forms of good that have been adulterated by reasonings based on illusions, and therefore stands for factual knowledge which lends support to self-love and love of the world.

Footnotes:

"Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God." Psalm 20:7

Additional readings: Isaiah 31, Matthew 11:1-19, Psalm 19, Psalm 66, Psalm 67

It is good for a nation or for nations to set aside a specific day for remembering those who have given their lives for their country on the battlefield and for united thought of the ideal of human brotherhood and peace and of the means by which this ideal is to be attained. It is an ideal which has been before the world since the beginning of human life on the earth. All religions past and present, as revealed in their sacred books, rise to the plane upon which mankind is thought of as one.

The Christian Scriptures are above all clear and definite on this teaching. "One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren" (Matthew 23:8). If this ideal should be realized, the threat of war would be removed, and not only would nations cease to fight each other but they would not "learn war anymore" (Isaiah 2:4, Micah 4:3).

At the close of the last world war the people of all nations, and especially of the victorious nations, were hopeful that the peoples of the earth could unite in a firm bond of peace; but today the leaders everywhere have great misgivings, and the masses of the people are uneasy, fearing some new and frightful world catastrophe. This fear comes from a lack of belief in any power, human or, divine, which can prevent another global war, and which can control the use of nuclear energy in the interest of mankind. Modern man has left his Father's house and like the prodigal son has wandered into a far country, believing that he could find happiness and security in the things which technology has put into his hands. He can see the possibility of plenty and security except for one things his new power may be made destructive through selfishness, greed, and the lust for dominion in the human heart. Even if international agreements are made, what is to guarantee that the agreements will be kept? Will they be more than scraps of paper? So, the advances of science generate among us growing tensions, suspicions, and hatreds.

We have never been afraid to face the test of battle, but we are filled with fears and misgivings in the face of the task of controlling ourselves, that we and our neighbors may live together in peace. And again, we are being told that our only safety is in the force of arms and in the old formula of the balance of power. Since the dawn of history these devices have failed, and wars of increasing destructiveness and violence have occurred. These devices simply do not work. Surely we should not trust them again.

The problem is not with the advances of science and technology. There is nothing in atomic power that necessarily leads those who possess it to use it for the destruction of other people. The problem is the soul of man, in the evils within him which his education, secular and religious, has so far failed to eradicate. In the Writings of the church we find this statement: "Where men know and think according to doctrine, there the church may be, but when men act according to doctrine, there alone the church is."

Love to the Lord and to the neighbor have been taught and preached for two thousand years. Men know that peace cannot be attained by the amassing of material goods, nor by military efficiency, however great. They know that it cannot come through national advantage and supremacy, that in our own time the seeking of these things brought on two world wars. Security and peace come only from the Lord as men learn His laws and live according to them. These laws, summarized, in the Commandments, are fixed and certain in the eleventh chapter of Matthew we read concerning John the Baptist: "What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?" (Matthew 11:7, Luke 7:24).

John the Baptist is one of the representatives of the letter of the Word. The reed, shaken with the wind is a picture of the Word interpreted at man's pleasure Since in its letter it consists for the most part of apparent truths, it is capable of different interpretations and may be made to teach not only different but even opposite doctrines, as we well know.

To those who refuse to look into it more deeply the Word is a reed shaken with the wind—made to yield to the breath of current opinion. In this way man forms his God to suit his own purposes. When he desires his neighbor's land and possessions, his God is a God of war. When he is established and content with his acquired possessions, his God becomes a God of peace and righteousness. In the two world wars of our generation all nations, the aggressors and the threatened, prayed to God, and at the close of the war, every loyal and patriotic citizen of the victorious countries greeted the victory with prayer and thanksgiving. But almost before his prayers were ended new and greater fears invaded his mind. The war had been fought in vain, the ideals of the Atlantic Charter and of the Four Freedoms had been emptied of all their hope. There seemed, to be nothing on which he could base any sure reliance.

There is need of eternal truths on which to base a new faith. Men need a new set of values—a new formula by which to live. In one sense the formula Is not new. The Two Great Commandments stand unchanged. But the interpretation of them must be new. We must have a new idea of the Lord and of the neighbor, and a new idea of love. The writings of the Second Coming tell us: "The life itself of a man is his love, and such as his love is such is his life, in fact such is the whole man." "What a man loves above all things is perpetually present in his thought, as well as in his will, and makes his very life itself. For example, whoever loves wealth above all things, whether money or possessions, is continually turning over in his mind how to procure it; when he obtains any he inwardly rejoices; when he loses any he outwardly grieves, for his heart is in it. Or a man who loves himself above all things—he bears himself in mind in the least things, he thinks of himself, he speaks about himself, he acts for the advantage of himself; for his life is a life of self."

It is wrong desires that cause all conflicts and wars. For what a man desires above all things is the ruling motive of his life—it is the man himself. From good loves come all good, things and from evil loves come all evil things. Good and evil are diametrically opposed to each other and bring forth opposite results. And we are told what are the good, loves and what are the evil loves. The good loves are love to the Lord and to the neighbor. The evil loves are love of self and of the world. The first two make heaven with a man, and are the loves which reign in heaven. The latter two reign in hell and make hell with man.

There is not the slightest use of bemoaning the present state of the world and crying out for a new and better world unless at the same time we seek to eradicate from our own life and character those evils which have brought about the present condition. The world is made up of individuals and it is only so far as individuals are "made new" that there can be an improved world. If we ourselves seek to learn, understand, and keep the two great commandments, we are doing the only possible thing that will contribute to the betterment of the world.

To love the Lord and the neighbor is not "other world idealism," as many have thought. It involves above all a practical life in this world—the outward expression in our daily lives and occupations of these laws. These doctrines are called the doctrine of life, the carrying out of which will bring an end to all unrest, civil, social, national, and international. The welfare of each person is bound, up in the welfare of all. We are dependent upon each other.

The story of a self-made man is a fairy story. We are dependent upon others for most of what we have and are. The two great commandments enjoin a life of love to God and man, a life expressed in cooperation of man with man and of man with God, "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God." "And in the name of our God. we will set up our banners." The name of the Lord our God, which we are to remember and to inscribe on our banners, is the essential Divine qualities: the Divine Love, the Divine Wisdom, and the Divine Power. The Lord Jesus Christ overcame in His own strength all the powers of hell and holds all evil in subjection. History and reason unite in declaring that the only power able to overcome the forces of evil is the power of love, not the love of self but the love of others. The supreme law of Christian life is the law of love. As individuals and nations learn to live in mutual love and helpfulness, looking to the Lord instead of to self for guidance and strength, there will be peace, for peace comes from the Lord alone.