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SWEDENBORG AND THE RECORD."

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atoning sacrifice of Christ. True, he denies that the Lord's sacrifice was vicarious; but he admits to the fullest extent that it was atoning. But then he understands atonement in its true sense of reconciliation, and he understands the reconciliation effected through Christ to have been, and to be, not the reconciliation of God to man, but the reconciliation of man to God. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." How was, and how is, this reconciliation effected? Thus, Man had sinned and separated himself from God. God came into the world, and took man's sinful and separated nature upon himself by actual incarnation. That nature having been perfected through suffering, was restored to its original order and purity, and so reconciled and finally united to God, from whom it had become alienated and at enmity through sin. This, according to Swedenborg, is the atonement, the reconciliation effected by Christ. Without this reconciliation of man to God, effected first of all in the person of the Lord as the Saviour, no flesh could have been saved, for without it no man could ever have been reconciled to God. It is from or through the atoned Humanity of Christ that we can receive the atonement, and can follow the exhortation of the apostle-"Be ye reconciled unto God."

This is the one great and grand truth that the religious world needs, and that many progressive minds in the Church are now longing for and groping after. It is the great positive truth that is required to supplement the teaching of the "negative theology" on this subject, and to satisfy the minds of that increasing class who have cast off the doctrine of Atonement by Vicarious Sacrifice, but who see not the pure truth of which that doctrine is a perversion.

But are we not saved by personal righteousness? Certainly not, to "the exclusion to the atoning sacrifice of Christ." Swedenborg, like, his Divine Mastor, does indeed say "If thou wouldst enter into life keep the commandments." He also says that all our ability to keep the commandments comes from our blessed Lord, and because He, as a Man, first kept them, and that the righteousness which He thereby became is the only source of our righteousness. We never could have become righteous if our Lord had not first become righteousness. Swedenborg maintains, in common with all Christian teachers, that we are saved by Christ's righteousness. The only difference-and it is certainly a great one-is, that they believe we are saved by Christ's righteousness imputed to us through faith, while we believe that we are saved by Christ's righteousness wrought into us through obedience. W. B.

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ON THE DURATION OF THE EARTH.

THE question, Whether this earth is ever to come to an end, is a subject of much speculative interest, at least, and moreover is closely connected with the philosophy of the New Church.

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The prevailing opinion of the present day is decidedly on the affirmative side of this question. There are some philosophers, it is true, who, believing, from their knowledge of natural science, that the materials of which this globe is composed are indestructible, dissent from the orthodox opinion. But the world at large, resting their belief on certain passages in the literal sense of Scripture, is looking forward to the destruction of this earth as an event morally and religiously certain. There are, moreover, some natural and astronomical facts which appear to support that belief. Decay and death,-say they, are the order of nature. The flowers spring from the earth; and, rejoicing in their young life, inhale the vernal warmth, and glow in the light, and dance in the breeze, and show their beautiful faces to men, and pour forth their sweet incense to their Maker-all, for a little season; and then they fade, and wither, and die. The great oak rises in its strength and majesty, and stands strong and noble for a while; but at length its time comes, and it falls and crumbles into dust. Even the vast mountains slide sometimes from their height, and lay their heads with the clods of the valley. Cities are swallowed by earthquakes; islands sink, with all their people; nay, even bright stars have been put out, in the sky;why, then, should not the earth have her turn, at length, and perish also? "Yes!" say they, "out of nothing she came, and back to nothing she will return."

Such are some of the arguments, and such is the philosophy, presented in support of the affirmative of this question.

Having thus seen one side of the picture, let us now look at the other. The philosophy of the New Church is as new and grand as its theology indeed, they are completely united, and make one. That philosophy elevates us from the world of effects, into the world of causes; nay, higher still, it lifts our minds to the great First Cause Himself. It thus begins with the Beginning; and thence follows all things to their ends. Standing, as it were, upon the throne of the Creator, thence, as a centre, it looks through the universe, and sees the connection of all things,-dependent as they all are upon that central Power,-effects, all, of that great First Cause. Thus (to borrow, with a slight alteration, the magnificent idea of the poet Homer), it beholds the golden chains

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going forth on all sides from the throne of the Almighty, and, after circling the universe, returning to link themselves again to His footstool. The philosophy of the New Church begins by showing the Divine nature and character of the Creator Himself; thence it concludes what are His ends of action; and also-so far as is comprehensible to finite minds-His means of action; and, as a final conclusion, it shows the nature of that great effect which is produced from this end, by those means, viz., the creation itself. The philosophy of the New Church, therefore, proceeding, as it does, from causes, and from the First Cause, is able to comprehend all effects; and though-being for the use of man, and therefore finite and not infinite-it cannot always show how anything is, yet it can always tell why it is; for the why has reference to the end, and philosophy may know the end, for that is single and comprehensible; but the how has reference to the means, and human philosophy cannot know all of those, because they are infinite. A thousand paths may lead to one point: the paths of the Creator are numberless, and in most of them He walks alone, and unseen by any of His creatures.

Under the light of this new philosophy, let us now examine the question before us. The question is, whether this earth is ever to come to an end. In the first place, it is to be remarked that we must not attempt to form any opinion, or draw any conclusion, from effects and appearances. That is but a shallow philosophy which does so. It is no matter whether the flowers fade, or the trees fall, or earthquakes gape, or islands sink, or whether even the stars disappear from the sky; those are mere effects and appearances, and they prove nothing till the causes of them are shown; and they prove nothing, with regard to this question, till those causes are shown to be reasons for affirming or denying the proposition presented by this question.

In considering the subject philosophically, the first point will be to determine why the earth exists at all—what caused it to be—for what end was it created? The answer to this inquiry will go far to determine the main question. For it is evident that if the reason for its creation at first, and for its present existence, continues to operate, the earth will continue to exist; and it will exist until that reason ceases to operate. What, then, was the end and purpose for which the earth was created? What was the grand end of all creation?

*It is now generally held by astronomers that the stars which have disappeared are in all probability only periodic stars, which, having long orbits, recede from our sight for a time, but will doubtless return. Some have already re-appeared, and others have short and well-known periods of revolution.

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ON THE DURATION OF THE EARTH.

This is the first great question, which religion and philosophy ask together. And the answer is ready. It has been given by the Creator Himself in the revelations which He has vouchsafed to His New Church. There we are informed that the end for which the universe was created, was that there might be a heaven formed out of the human race, where they might dwell and be happy for ever. And the end of this end, or rather the cause of this end, is to be found in the Divine Nature itself. God is Love; and it is the nature of love to wish to have something out of itself which it may love, and by which it may be loved in return. This was the end for which man was created, and the material universe was created as a means to this end: the earth, therefore, as a part of the material universe, was created for the same end.

Such being the purpose for which the earth was created, it may be presumed (so far, at least, as the present argument is concerned) that when that purpose is completely answered, that end fully effected, the means will cease to exist-or, in other words, that when heaven is full, the earth, with the rest of the material universe, will be destroyed. The next question, then, to be answered is, When will heaven be full? I answer-the New Church answers-Never; not to eternity. And the reason is this,-The Creator alone is a perfect Being, and He is infinite all created beings are finite, and therefore imperfect, and it is their destiny to be for ever perfecting, for ever approaching perfection, without attaining it. Heaven, therefore, will never be full; but will be for ever perfecting, and for ever increasing in numbers; for it is the nature of heaven, as we are instructed, to become more and more perfect just in proportion to its increase in numbers. Moreover, Divine Love being infinite, never can be satisfied with any limited number of happy beings, but desires more for ever. Such being the case, it is evident that the material universe will never be destroyed, for the end being never completed, the means will continue for ever to exist.

But perhaps the idea may occur to some that, granting that heaven never will be full, and that the whole material universe never will be destroyed, yet is it not possible that certain particular worlds in that universe may perish, and this earth among them, and still the great plan go on? I answer, that it is not possible; and the reason is to be found in the existence of a certain principle, which is among the grandest that have been revealed to the New Church. This principle is that the whole universe, spiritual and natural, is one great and complete system, all the parts of which are connected together and dependent upon each other, and in which there is nothing wanting, and nothing superfluous. No one part of the system can be destroyed without

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affecting all the other parts, and deranging the whole system. In particular, moreover, we are informed that heaven itself is not a shapeless collection of angelic beings, but is in a form, and that that form is the highest and most perfect of all forms-the human form; and thus, truly and really, is heaven, like the church on earth, a body, of which the Lord is the soul. We are also further informed that the inhabitants of each earth or world in the universe correspond to some particular province in this Grand Man-heaven: and we are even told particularly what province in that Grand Man the people of our own earth correspond to. If these facts and principles be true, the conclusion is obvious, that neither this nor any other earth can be destroyed; for if it were, then that part of heaven, that province in the Grand Man to which the destroyed earth corresponded, would not be supplied with angelic inhabitants that part of the form would be defective; and as all the parts are dependent on each other, therefore the rest would be affected, and the whole system deranged, and thus heaven, with all its angels, would be thrown into disorder. Such would be the consequences of the destruction of any single earth or world in the universe.

If the argument which has been thus presented, based on the great principles of the New Church philosophy, be a correct one, then it follows that this earth is never to come to an end. I will now proceed to a second argument.

It is a fundamental law of Divine order that in the process of creation nothing stops midway, but that all things proceed on to the farthest point-to ultimates, as the term is-where they rest and are fixed. The Creator, therefore, in forming the universe, produced first the spiritual world, and from that the natural world. Matter, therefore, the earths of the material universe, are the ultimates of creation; they are the fixed and inert and dead substances of nature, on which the light, living, and changing substances of the spiritual world rest, as on their foundation. It is to be remembered that the spiritual world is not at a distance from us, but is all around us, as it were, and within us, resting and pressing upon us, and upon the globe under our feet, with all its force. In the same way, angelic minds rest upon human minds; the former are in the middle or spiritual degree, but the latter are in the ultimate or natural degree. Now, as before observed, nothing created can exist in this middle state unless it have something in the ultimate or fixed state, on which it may rest. Angels, therefore, depend on men for their very existence. Heaven rests upon the church in the world. And that is one important reason why the Lord is so careful in providing that there should be always a church existing upon the earth.

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