Personal Experience of a Physician Part 3

"Although Gentiles are not in genuine truths during their life in the world, they receive them in the other life from a principle of love."

"The Church of the Lord exists with all in the universe who live in good according to their religious principles, and acknowledge the Divine Being; and they are accepted of the Lord and go to heaven."

The above is in strict accordance with all that Swedenborg has written; for he says:--

"In the spiritual world to which every man goes after death, it is not the character of your faith into which inquiry is made, nor of your _doctrine_, but of your _life_, whether it has been of this character or that; for it is known that such as a man's _life_ is, such is his faith--nay, more, such is his doctrine; for life forms its doctrine and faith for itself." (_D. P._ 101.) "For the good of life according to one's religion contains within it the affection of knowing truths, which such persons also learn and receive when they come into the other life." (_A. C._ 455.)

"Evils which belong to the will, are what condemn a man and sink him down to h.e.l.l; and falsities only so far as they become conjoined with evils; then one follows the other. This is proved by numerous instances of persons who are in falsities, and yet are saved." (_Ibid._ 845.)

"It has been provided that every one, in whatever heresy he may be as to the understanding, can still be reformed and saved, provided he shuns evils as sins, and does not confirm heretical falsities in himself; for by shunning evils as sins the will is reformed, and through the will the understanding, which then first comes out of darkness into light. There are three essentials of the Church: the acknowledgment of the Divine of the Lord, the acknowledgment of the holiness of the Word, and the life which is called charity. According to the life, which is charity, every one has faith; from the Word is the knowledge of what the life must be; and from the Lord are reformation and salvation. If the Church had held these three as essentials, intellectual dissensions would not have divided but only varied it, as light varies its colors in beautiful objects, and as various diadems give beauty in the crown of a king." (_D. P._ 259.)

Here, then, we have a broad spirit of charity which acknowledges every man as a brother who believes in a Supreme Being, shuns evils as sins, and strives to live conscientiously and honestly according to the light he possesses.

As many who will be likely to receive this pamphlet may know little, if anything, in regard to the claims which Swedenborg makes, that he was the human instrument chosen by The Lord through whom to reveal to the world the truths of a New Dispensation, even of the Second Coming of the Son of Man, it may be well to allow this chosen servant to speak for himself as to his mission. He says:--

"I have been called to a holy office by the Lord Himself. I can sacredly and solemnly declare that the Lord Himself has been seen of me, and that He has sent me to do what I do, and for such purpose has opened and enlightened the interior part of my soul, which is my spirit, so that I can see what is in the spiritual world and those that are therein; and this privilege has now been continued to me for twenty-two years. But in the present state of infidelity, can the most solemn oath make such a thing credible or to be believed? Yet such as have received true Christian light and understanding will be convinced of the truths contained in my writings, which are particularly evident in the book of 'Revelations Revealed.' Who, indeed, has. .h.i.therto known anything of importance of the spiritual sense of the Word of G.o.d, of the spiritual world, or of heaven and h.e.l.l; the nature of the life of man, and the state of souls after the decease of the body?

Is it to be supposed that these, and other things of like consequence, are to be eternally hidden from Christians?"

Again, in the "True Christian Religion," at a later date, toward the close of his life in this world, he says:--

"I foresee that many who read the relations after the chapters, will believe that they are inventions of the imagination; but I a.s.sert in truth that they are not inventions, but were truly seen and heard; not seen and heard in any state of mind buried in sleep, but in a state of full wakefulness. For it has pleased the Lord to manifest Himself to me, and to send me to teach those things which will be of His New Church, which is meant by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation; for which end He has opened the interiors of my mind or spirit, by which it has been given me to be in the spiritual world with angels, and at the same time in the natural world with men, and this now for twenty-seven years."

In a letter to the King of Sweden, with characteristic simplicity and boldness, he says:--

"When my writings are read with attention and cool reflection (in which many things are to be met with hitherto unknown) it is easy enough to conclude that I could not come to such knowledge but by a real vision and converse with those who are in the spiritual world. I am ready to testify with the most solemn oath that can be offered in this matter, that I have said nothing but essential and real truth, without any admixture of deception. This knowledge is given to me by our Saviour, not for any particular merit of mine, but for the great concern of all Christians'

salvation."

When asked why a philosopher was chosen to this office he replied:--

"To the end that the spiritual knowledge which is revealed at this day might be reasonably learned and naturally understood; because spiritual truths answer unto natural ones, inasmuch as these originate and flow from them, and serve as a foundation for the former."

To the Swedish clergymen who visited him a short time before his death, and who urged him to recant what he had written if it was not true, he replied, with great zeal and emphasis:--

"As true as you see me before you, so true is everything that I have written, and I could have said more had I been permitted. When you come into eternity you will see all things as I have stated and described them, and we shall have much to discourse about with each other."

Here, then, we have in this ill.u.s.trious seer the unparalleled instance of a man, not in the enthusiasm of youth, but at the mature age of fifty-six years, standing among the first in the philosophical world, with reputation unsullied, high in office in his native country, with proffered promotion, giving up all, and proclaiming to the world that he was called by the Lord to the important office of revealing new truths of vast moment to his fellow-men--even the truths of a new dispensation, or of the second coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Now, I appeal to you, one and all, Clergymen of the Christian Church, of every name, to obtain and read his writings. In the good Providence of the Lord, three among his most important works can be obtained without money and without price by the clergy and theological students of our country, by simply ordering them and sending the postage--as will be seen on the second page of the cover of this pamphlet.

Swedenborg does not require or desire you to believe anything contained in his writings on his simple declaration, but you are to believe the statements made, and doctrines proclaimed, in his writings, only as you perceive them to be true, and in strict accordance with the Sacred Scriptures. What have you to lose by reading his writings? Thousands of laymen and clergyman testify to you that they have found the greatest help and strength from reading them, even where they may not have read enough to fully recognize his claims.

Canon Wilberforce, of Southampton, England, one of the most distinguished clergymen of the English Church, visited this country a few years ago; and while he was here, being a prominent temperance man, the National Temperance Society gave him a reception, during which some one introduced me to him as a believer in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Stopping a moment, and looking steadily at me and those in the immediate vicinity, he exclaimed, most emphatically: "Emanuel Swedenborg has done the Christian Church an immense service! an immense service!! especially in his explanation and ill.u.s.tration of the doctrine of the Lord." These words were spoken manfully and boldly in the presence of members and clergymen of his own and other Churches. The doctrine of the Lord is the chief corner-stone of the New Jerusalem now descending from G.o.d out of Heaven. Let that doctrine be accepted by our Churches, and their creeds, so far as they are based on a tri-personal G.o.d, will need no revision; they will disappear.

"All things," says a great authority, "are of G.o.d, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that G.o.d was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespa.s.ses unto them." (2 Cor. v: 18, 19)

The late Professor George Bush and a large number of distinguished scholars and clergymen, after a most thorough and careful examination of Swedenborg's writings, a.s.sure us that in them they find the truths of a New Dispensation, even of the Second Coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven. The light of a New Day is s.h.i.+ning. Christian brethren, will you close your eyes against it?

Was there ever any greater need of a new revelation from G.o.d to teach men anew that, if they would reach heaven and happiness, they must repent and shun evils as sins against G.o.d, and strive to live a life according to the commandments? Look at the fearful evils which prevail in our beloved country; the love of rule, civil and ecclesiastical; the miserly love of money, selfishness, vanity and sensualism, in their worst and most degrading forms! Customs and habits prevail which threaten the extinction of at least the Protestant portion of the community in large sections of our country. A Catholic bishop stated, a few years ago, that one quarter of the inhabitants of New England are Catholics, and that one-fourth of the population give birth to 70 per cent. of the children born in New England.

More recent inquiries, it is stated, show that the average number of children in a family among the Canadian French settled in New England, averages 5; whereas among the native New Englanders the average number of children in a family is 1-1/2. It is not difficult to see by whom the land of the Puritans will be ruled within the next quarter of a century. Seventy years ago, the average number of children to a family among New Englanders was fully equal to the number among the French to-day. Why this change?

Fas.h.i.+onable habits of dress--tight lacing, which is worse to-day than ever before--has, to a large extent, destroyed the ability of the New England and other native American women to bear healthy and well-developed children, and to properly nurse them after they are born. Among our present deformed women, child-bearing is attended with much more danger and suffering than among well-developed, symmetrical, and beautifully formed women. No man who desires peace, health, and happiness in his home, and desires to leave children behind him, and to thus perform the most important use which can be performed in this life, should ever think of marrying a small-waisted woman.

Then again, to have a good family of children is thought not to be fas.h.i.+onable, among those who are led by fas.h.i.+on, as it interferes too much with one's selfish pleasures, they think; most dearly do they pay in after life, if they live many years, for their folly. Children are a blessing; and yet the most unnatural and injurious measures are adopted to prevent bearing children, even to the destroying of the unborn. The Catholic Church, through the confessional, holds some restraint over Catholics; but what restraint do our Protestant Churches hold over their members in regard to such evils? Look at the miserable caricatures of the female form printed in our fas.h.i.+onable magazines, and even in our daily papers, and sent forth and freely spread before our young girls, for them to pattern after, and thus deform themselves.

Look at the drunkenness, the leaden and congested faces of our steady drinkers of intoxicating drinks, and the innumerable deaths and the wretchedness and sorrow which follow such drinking; and remember that the chief support of such drinking at this day is the use of the drunkard's cup instead of "the fruit of the vine" as a communion wine in so many of our churches, and the example of so many of our clergy, backed up by the prescribing of such drinks by so many of our doctors. Do away with these two chief supports, and prohibition would be enacted and enforced throughout our land within five years.

Look at the use of tobacco, which is to-day recognized as one of the most deadly poisons, which when used by the young prevents the development of the human body, and at all ages causes innumerable diseases and deaths and an inability to withstand the encroachment of other causes of disease; and the smoke and saliva from the nostrils and mouths of those who use it, which are so unpleasant and disagreeable to those who are not accustomed to them, but who yet are so frequently compelled to breathe a polluted atmosphere. Please read the following and tell us whether to thus prevent the development of the body and lessen one's ability to withstand the causes of diseases should be shunned as a sin against G.o.d or not:--

SMOKING AND PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT.

From the records of the senior cla.s.s of Yale College during the Past eight years, the non-smokers have proved to have decidedly gained over the smokers in height, weight, and lung capacity. All candidates for the crews and other athletic sports were non-smokers. The non-smokers were 20 per cent. taller than the smokers, 25 per cent. heavier, and had 62 per cent.

more lung capacity. In the graduating cla.s.s of Amherst College of the present year, those not using tobacco have in weight gained 24 per cent.

over those using tobacco, in height 37 per cent., in chest girth 42 per cent., while they have a greater average lung capacity by 8.36 cubic inches.--_Medical News._

Just see the countenance which is given to this habit by too many of our clergymen--the example which they set! Yes, in many of our denominations, young men who are known to be smokers, or chewers of tobacco, with their breaths smelling of this filthy, poisonous weed, are deliberately licensed and ordained by Clergymen, when it is known that they will go in and out before young and old, setting them an example which will unquestionably do untold injury to the rising generation, and confirm old smokers and chewers in their injurious and destructive habits, and thus be instrumental in destroying many lives. What are the fathers and mothers in our churches thinking about when they consent to such an example being set before their children? Is it not time that they awake to the importance of choosing and introducing into office their own ministers, instead of entrusting this duty to the clergy? Swedenborg has given us the true signification of ordination by the laity. In speaking of the ordination of the Levites by the laity he says: "By the sons of Israel laying their hands upon the Levites was signified the transference of the power of ministering for them, and the reception of it by the Levites, thus separation."--A. C.

10,023. It will be seen that it was not Aaron the priest who laid his hands upon the Levites when they were introduced into the office of the priesthood, but the laity, or the children of Israel; and we can all see how appropriate and significative the ceremony was; and it was strictly in accordance with republican usages of this day. It does not exalt the officer above the office which he fills.

Is there a race of men on earth to-day who stand in greater need of light on spiritual subjects, and of the services of good, earnest, clean, pure-minded Christian Missionaries, who shall call men and women to repentance, and by precept and example lead them to shun the fearful evils named above, and many others, as sins against G.o.d, more than the people of the United States? Look at our children, many of whom, if they live at all, grow up with crooked legs and spines, delicate muscles and irritable brains, imperfectly developed jaws and consequently crowded teeth, which commence decaying and torturing the young before they are twenty years old, instead of lasting during life as they should; all of which results princ.i.p.ally from feeding children with starvation bread, or superfine flour bread, cakes, and puddings, instead of the "full corn in the ear," or unbolted flour or meal, as the Lord has organized it in the kernel of grain. Many years ago scientific investigation demonstrated the fact that the portions of the grain which nourish the brain, muscles, and bones is princ.i.p.ally confined to the dark, hard portion of the kernel immediately beneath the hull; this is not easily pulverized or rolled into superfine flour, and if it were the flour would not be white; but it goes princ.i.p.ally into, the second and third runnings or as ca.n.a.l, shorts, and bran, and is fed to the horses, cattle, and hogs, causing them to be well developed, strong, and healthy, while our children, for the want of it, are half starved. Even a dog, it has been found by experiment, will starve to death on superfine flour bread, but will live well enough on Graham or unbolted flour bread. I have seen a child come near starving to death on such bread, and only rescued her from impending death by mixing mashed potatoes with the flour from which the bread was made. The little girl thought she could eat no other food but such bread, and if she ate anything else she threw it up. And yet, strange to say, I have known in one or more inst.i.tutions under the care of physicians, which were devoted to the treatment of deformed and crippled children, superfine flour bread to be given them to eat.

It is fas.h.i.+onable and customary to use superfine flour bread; and as a physician, and an employer of men, I know how difficult it is to induce or persuade fathers and mothers, even for the sake of their children, to use Graham or unbolted flour bread, cakes, and puddings, which will give nourishment to the brain, muscles, teeth and bones, and all the fat and heat-producing material they need, instead of superfine white flour bread, cakes, and puddings, which give comparatively little more than fat and heat-producing material.

I remember very well when my wife and myself were traveling in Egypt up the Nile, and were at ancient Thebes, mounted on donkeys, going to the tombs of the kings, the young Arab girl, with a vessel of water upon her head, balanced by the ends of the fingers of one hand, who ran beside us over the sand, stones, and hills; for she was one of the most beautiful and symmetrical female forms I have ever seen. There was no contracted waist or humped shoulders, but a beautiful female figure, full of life, with splendid teeth and sparkling eyes. And on a visit to the house of our Arab dragoman, or guide, we saw how the flour or meal was made upon which that young girl was fed. In the court-yard two women were grinding at a mill as they ground thousands of years ago. There were two circular mill stones, perhaps 20 inches in diameter, standing in a basin; through the centre of the upper stone there was an opening through which the wheat was poured, and upon two sides were erect wooden handles, by which the women turned the stone round and round, and back and forth, and the meal escaped into the pan at the circ.u.mference. I said to our dragoman: "We have not had a bit of good bread in Egypt. We have been stopping at hotels where they think they must give the Americans and Englishmen white bread. Now, I wish you would bring me some bread made from that flour to-morrow morning;" and he brought us some bread, and it was by far the best bread that we had in Egypt.

The fearful evils which I have hastily named in the preceding pages, and many others which cause the prevailing deformities, diseases, insanity, and premature deaths, are not to be dragged along into the Church of the New Jerusalem now descending from G.o.d out of heaven; but our race is to be purified, renovated, and developed into a healthy, n.o.ble, symmetrical, graceful manhood by the new inflowing of truths from the Lord, pointing out the evils and falses which are causing the present suffering and wretchedness, and calling on men and women to shun such evils and falses as sins against G.o.d. A reformation from worldly motives is but "skin deep,"

and generally only results in the changing of one bad habit for another.

Men and women must be earnestly called to repentance, and to the absolute necessity of shunning the evils which prevent the development of the body, impair health and reason, and so fearfully shorten the average duration of human life, as sins against G.o.d, which will tell on their eternal destiny.

The fact that individuals who drink intoxicating drinks, smoke or chew tobacco, or deform their bodies by tight dressing, sometimes live to old age under otherwise favorable circ.u.mstances, amounts to nothing. The simple question is, do such habits shorten the average duration of human life? If they do, they are a violation of the laws of G.o.d as manifested in the organization of the human body and in His Word.

CHAPTER VII.

THE WANTS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

The Christian Church at this day, first of all, needs true doctrines which are in harmony with the Sacred Scriptures, and which all men who are willing to see and obey, using the reason with which G.o.d has endowed them, can accept and see to be true.

Second, such a law or principle of interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures, that when they are interpreted in accordance with it, every man and woman who is willing to see and obey the truth will find there is actually no conflict between the Word of the Lord and His works, and no real contradictions to be found in the Sacred Scriptures.

In the writings of Swedenborg the Lord has shown us that "all religion has relation to life, and that the life of religion is to do good;" and that, if we would enter into the heavenly life, or have heaven within us, we must strive faithfully and honestly to keep the commandments, not simply in external acts, but also in our motives, thoughts, and words, as well as in act. In the writings of Swedenborg the Lord has clearly revealed Himself and has come down to the comprehension of man--G.o.d in Christ and in His Word.

The Science of Correspondences enables us to see that the first eleven chapters of Genesis are purely allegorical, and in their spiritual and true sense treat of the regeneration of man, and his fall through the seduction of his lowest or sensual nature and appet.i.tes, as men are seduced to-day; and of a flood of evils and falses, similar to the flood which threatens to overwhelm the Christian world, at least in our land, at this day; and a New Church as an ark of safety. While the Science of Correspondences shows that there are no more contradictions in the Word of the Lord than in His works, there are apparent truths and real truths in both. It is an apparent truth that G.o.d is angry with the wicked every day; but the real truth is that G.o.d is never angry, but when man disobeys His laws and brings upon himself consequent suffering, it appears to him that G.o.d is angry. So it appears to us that night and darkness are caused by the going down of the sun, but the real truth is that the sun always s.h.i.+nes and that night and darkness are caused by the earth's diurnal revolution on its axis. It will therefore be seen that if the Sacred Scriptures are the Word of G.o.d and in accordance with His works, they must contain both apparent and real truths.

No man who has ever diligently and faithfully, without prejudice, read the Sacred Scriptures in the light of the Science of Correspondences, as revealed by the Lord through Emanuel Swedenborg, has ever failed to be satisfied that the Sacred Scriptures are Divine and plenarily inspired, and that they differ as much from the writings of men as do the works of G.o.d from the works of men. At this day, when so many of our clergy and intelligent laymen are beginning to doubt the special inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures, a knowledge of the Science of Correspondences, in accordance with which they were written, is wanted above every thing else, that the Christian Church "may revive again and draw breath through heaven from the Lord."

The Lord speaks to man in parables, and "without a parable," we read, "spake He not unto them." The Lord intimates in many pa.s.sages that the Sacred Scriptures, or His words, contain a spiritual sense, as in the following: "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."