Divine imputation, though, in reality, all truth and good are the Lord's.

66

It is a lamentable fact, that while the "worldly wise" are wise in their generation,-wise in pursuing diligently what they (though unwisely) deem their chief good; wise in thinking continually how they may compass their ends; wise in devising and seeking to adapt effectual means in order effectually to attain their ends; while viewing them as thus wise in their "generation," that is, apart from the ends which distinguish their "generation;" while viewing their activities, so well adapted to secure their ends; how true it is, that the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light!" For look at the children of light, who believe that they have a great work to do on earth, in order to enter into heaven. This work they believe to be, the real seeking, in the FIRST place, of God's kingdom and righteousness. It is herein they are to " work out their salvation with fear and trembling." With such an idea of the real Christian present to our minds, as a man engaged, with all his heart and soul, and mind and strength, in making to himself friends of the mammon of unrighteousness;—with this idea present, and applying it to the multitude of those who call themselves Christians, into what phantoms of all that is truly Christian do they become converted! Contrasted with the reality, they appear as-nothing! Where do we find, even in the New Church, the zeal, the mental application, the devotedness, the diligence, and thence the skill, so palpably perceptible in the children of this world? And what is the chief cause of this contrast? It is because the love of gain for the sake of gain is not mortified as it should be. It is because this base principle, which has desolated the social, moral, and religious world, is allowed by the man of the church to lay waste within his soul the Lord's inheritance. Failing to profit by the literal sense of the Lord's teaching, the breach of the spiritual sense follows as a necessary consequence.

Our beloved instructor, Swedenborg, appears, like his Divine Master, as if he could scarcely find language strong enough to describe his idea of the baseness of the love of "filthy lucre," that is, of the love of gain for the sake of gain; or, as if language were inadequate to describe the horrors which await those hereafter who confirm this sordid principle by practice, while they, nevertheless, call themselves Christians, and therefore whose sin remains, because, like the Pharisees of old, they say, "We see."

Immediately the Lord had said (v. 13.) "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon," we are informed that "the Pharisees also, WHO WERE

COVETOUS, heard all these things, and they derided him!"-They heard the solemn words of unquestionable truth, but instead of allowing them to work conviction, they turned them into derision. And yet they had "justified themselves (or made themselves to appear righteous) in the sight of men;" they were no doubt highly respectable characters, enjoying the estimation of their like; but what was so "highly esteemed amongst men" in their case, was abomination in the sight of God!" He knew their hearts, he knew that in their hearts there reigned supreme, as lord over all,-the love of filthy lucre! The Pharisees were "covetous."

Is it not an awful idea that a professor of religion should deride and hate the teacher who warns him of the danger of misapplied riches! And yet this is a case which would be more frequent, were it not that the minister, foreseeing what would be the fate of his well meant endeavour, is not so often as he should be faithful in admonishing and reproving those who are esteemed great because of their wealth! "They derided Him." And yet they professed to be religious! How base, immeasurably base, does the heart of that man become, who, while he professes the self-renouncing religion of the Cross, gives himself up a prey to the " deceitfulness of riches"! Every nobler impulse becomes hushed! The false prophets in his understanding, call evil good and good evil. He greedily adopts every suggestion to keep; and artfully evades every obligation to "distribute." His heart becomes harder than the nether millstone; his ear becomes deaf to the calls of humanity; he becomes capable of doing acts of heartless oppression without compunction; infatuating himself all the while with the idea, that his acquisition of wealth is a mark of Divine favour,-and that his chief duty to God, as the Giver,-is, to take great care of it! The greatest of sins in his eye is—to waste it,—that is, to comply with the Apostle's exhortation where he says,-" To do good, and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." Alas! such is his infatuation, that what is good in his eyes is "abomination in the sight of God." To God he gives the services of his creed; to Mammon, the devoted worship of his heart! And is it possible that this portrait can ever suit the character of any professing member of the New Church? It is possible! And great indeed must be his condemnation, if he repent not.

He who in his

But one word in respect to the service of Mammon. trade or ordinary business shuns evils as sins, shuns the love of gain for the sake of gain, for this is a most deadly evil, and the practice of it a most deadly sin. While, then, he desires gain, he desires it for

the sake of use; and proceeding consistently with the love of use, as his ruling end (grounded in the love of the neighbour), he takes care to yield some use in his daily calling, as an equivalent for his gain. As a shopkeeper, artisan, merchant, or manufacturer, his use lies in the exchange of commodities, and the supply of things beneficial to the community. He rejoices in the performance of this use more than in the gain which it brings to him. He seeks God's kingdom and righteousness in the first place. He cannot engage in speculations, or gambling transactions, because, in doing so, no use is rendered in return for the gain received; but, on the contrary, the community is injured by an unnatural disturbance of the market, and by an increase in the difficulty of obtaining supplies. Every trading transaction in which no use is rendered, or sought to be rendered, in return for gain realized, belongs to the service of Mammon, and not to the service of God! Here is a criterion by which it may be known whether we are “in haste to be rich," seeking gain for the sake of gain, or whether, in just reliance on Divine Providence, we are seeking gain for the sake of use. "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."-" Having food and raiment, (says an Apostle) let us be therewith content. But they that will to become rich, fall into temptation, and a snare, and many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all evil; which, while some coveted after, they have wandered from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called." (1 Tim. vi. 9.) To do this is Christianity. And when the danger, to the rich man especially, of falling short of it is considered, we are almost inclined to quote the Lord's words literally, and say," Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God."

To counteract the love of gain for the sake of gain, so odious in the sight of God, the Israelites were not allowed, when they lent money to one another, to receive interest for it. (Exod. xxii. 25.) Shall not every member of the New Church, then, do wisely if he guard well against this principle, preferring to take the judgment of God concerning its quality, to hearkening to the counsels of his own naturally deceitful heart, which cannot fail to represent to him that good is evil, and evil, good?*

ANTI-PHARISEE.

Although it is a point not necessary to be noticed while keeping close to the question of the inquirers, it may be advisable here to make a remark on the words

THE FALL OF MAN.-THE GREAT EVENTS IN THE EARLY CHAPTERS OF GENESIS.

No. 3.

As the workmanship of

THAT man has fallen is a most palpable fact. Infinite Love and Wisdom, man must have been made sinless, and disposed to truth, goodness, and order. To say less would be to reflect upon the Lord our Maker, as well as to violate the law that an effect must resemble its cause. Such as the Almighty is, such must be his work. We find order still the universal law, except in the case of man. What harmony reigns in the heavenly bodies! Silently and majestically they move in their prescribed orbits, and complete their appointed movements to an instant of time. All above man is order-all within and around him is disorder; lamentable but wide-spread testimony that man has fallen, and has vitiated all nature within the reach of his sphere! The vegetable and the animal world have been disordered in all their parts. Scarcely a flower or fruit is what it ought to be;scarcely an animal is without its taint. The bodies of men are the seats of vitiated humours and perverted organical forms. These manifest their effects in the thousand diseases which prevail and afflict mankind. They make themselves felt in the death of half the race under five years of age, and in the ailments and insufficient health of the surviving half. All the malformations in the world-all the plagues, pestilences, and sudden deaths, announce that some strange influences have been introduced into the beautiful frame-work of heavenly order, and altered man from what he was intended to be; from what he was; and from what he ought to be. But when we inspect the soul, and analyse the springs of action, the universal disorder becomes more

in verse 8-" And the Lord commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely." (The word rendered " wisely" is a word that signifies craftily,-wisely, that is, according to the standard of corrupt, worldly wisdom.) The Lord commended,— not the motive but the vigour of the endeavour to carry it out, for it is quite possible that wisely-chosen means may be wasted on evil ends. Mr. Clowes understands by "the lord" who commended the steward, the Lord Jesus; others understand by the lord, the master of the steward, and they consider that this construction lessens the difficulty as to the commendation of crafty cunning; but there is this objection, perhaps, to the latter view, that concealment of the fact of the fraud from his master was essential to the success of the steward's project; for if the debtors were detected, the steward's hope of being harboured by them must fail. If his master was kept in ignorance of the project, of course he could not possibly commend it.

visible and more terrible. Of unregenerate men,

righteous; no, not one."

"there is none

"The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Self-love, evidently intended to be the lowest principle of human nature, reigns supreme. In myriad forms it meets us everywhere. As ambition, as pride, as vanity, as avarice, as prodigality, as hypocrisy, or as cunning, it is active unceasingly. In the worst men it has formed demons-and in the best, their highest triumph is by the help of the Great Saviour, and by years of perseverance, to reduce selflove to its proper position in the soul, the lowest; and thus restore the order which has been lost. Man, then, has fallen. Every thing proclaims it. His soul, his body, surrounding nature, all bear witness, in their capabilities and tendencies to order and happiness, and in their actual condition of disorder and misery, that man was entirely right in his nature by creation; but from some cause, of which revelation alone can inform us, he has fallen from his high estate, and become what we find him, selfish, ignorant, and sinful. We say revelation alone can inform us of the cause of the fall; and this is manifest, since it took place in times so remote that no merely human history contains any description of them or their events. The Word professes to give us an account of the fall, and it is the only account. Let us turn to it, and endeavour to understand it.

It

We are told, in the third chapter of Genesis, all the particulars. is said—“ The serpent was more subtil than any (other) beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat." (Ver. 1-6.) Here is the history of the fall, as given in the Word of God. But as a literal history, is it clear, conclusive, and instructive? Does it convey ideas which exalt our view of the Divine Being as our Father, or of human nature as His work? We are thus informed that the God of love planted a tree in Paradise that was of no manner of use. It looked beautiful, but only to