curse them; and he prophesied of the Saviour besides. The same law which ruled in these and some similar cases was exhibited in a perverted shape in some cases of demoniacal possession; for did not the demons speak through the poor demoniacs, saying, "My name is Legion, for we are many"? Men who are divinely enlightened speak from their own consciousness, and according to the measure of the wisdom that is given to them. Inspiration and enlightenment are exemplified in the Gospels and in the Epistles of the New Testament; and, with some corrections, in the Law and the Prophets, and the Hagiographa, of the Old. The evangelists were inspired; the epistolary writers were enlightened. Divine wisdom flowed into these, but flowed through those. The Epistles, therefore, express all that they contain; the Gospels contain immeasurably more than they express. Those who have no idea of inspiration but that of enlightenment, may find it difficult, on any ground but that of opinion, to draw the line which separates canonical from uncanonical writings, and may be inclined, with the author of "The Catholic Church," to say that "if people would reason without prejudice, they would see that, on the one hand, if not external evidence, but a general feeling of inferiority, or superiority, with regard to such and such books were allowed to determine their admission or non-admission into the canon, it would be a great chance if the epistle of St. James were not excluded, and the epistle of St. Clement of Rome admitted." The true canon of Scripture does not include books which were written by enlightened, but only those which were written by inspired men. Those books which are uninspired may be judged by their merits, as more or less enlightened productions of the human mind, as having in them more or less of the Spirit of God dwelling in the writers as personal gifts, and as the graces of faith and love.

As thus simply stated, the subject of Inspiration may seem to be purely theoretical and arbitrary. But there is a philosophy of the subject which commends it to the highest reason, by bringing it into harmony with that light which shines in every human mind-the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and which is from that same Word which inspired the prophets and evangelists. Inspiration is not a merely mechanical operation. The sacred penmen, though they do not write from their own intelligence enlightened or exalted by the Spirit, are not mere automatons. The nature of man, from its created relationship with the nature of God, can be brought into such a temporary correspondence with the Divine, that it yields

to the plastic force which is exerted over or within it without any sense of constraint or feeling of violence, but with the pure consent and highest exercise of its powers; and man speaks or vrites without any of that mental effort which the highest intelligence has to make in giving his thoughts to others; because in inspiration the Divine thought does not express itself by human thought, but by the forms and results of it.

Inspiration, as distinguished from enlightenment, may be compared to God's miraculous as distinguished from his ordinary operation in nature. One is the Divine power acting instantaneously, and producing effects which are ordinarily the results of gradual increase and development. Yet both these effects are produced by the same Divine power acting through the same powers and upon the same substances of nature. A miracle is no violation of the natural laws, but is only an instantaneous instead of a gradual operation by them. Inspiration is no violation of the law of influx, but is only an extraordinary instead of an ordinary operation of the Divine Spirit upon the human mind. But we have perhaps said more than enough on this subject, of which the author, who is evidently acquainted with the writings of Swedenborg, must already have some knowledge. The subject is an important one. The divinity of the Word runs parallel with the divinity of Christ. The Church can no more exist without the one than without the other.

(To be continued.)

66

ON REVERENCE AND COURTESY.

To touch upon themes that have not been already touched upon, or to give utterance to thoughts not heretofore uttered, would indeed be a 'new thing under the sun;" but as each generation comes into being with the selfsame needs and the selfsame tendencies (modified as these may be by the influence and progress of civilization during the ages preceding), and with a stronger attraction to the wrong than to the right, the same Divine Voice-that of the Divine Truth spoken at the beginning either in the language of encouragement, exhortation, remonstrance, or denunciation, is to the full as much a necessity at the present day as it was when uttered for the first time, and will continue to be so long as man continues to turn a deaf ear to the Divine injunctions, or hearing, disobeys them. Hence the necessity of "line upon line," "precept upon precept."

If we could read the ages aright we should without doubt find that each one, or at any rate each grand division of the world's history, was marked by the prevalence of certain virtues and certain vices, consequent on the prevailing idea of the then time among mankind, which, whether recognized or not, must ever have its rise as its root in the religious belief of the time, or the want of it, and which would as a consequence permeate and influence the institutions, morals, and manners of society in its various grades, from the highest to the lowest ; in witness of which we have only to open the pages of history for the past (although it is said that for the mass of men history has been written in vain), and to open our eyes and look about us for signs and confirmations in the present; and wherever we look we shall find in all mental things the operation of the same principles that are ever operative in outward nature, viz. action and reaction-"extremes always having a tendency to produce extremes" in the universe of spirit as in the universe of matter.

To understand the age in which we live is an endeavour worth the making, although no easy task when we consider the complications that the ages bring with them. Seen from the standpoint of the ultra-conservative, whether he looks at religion, morals, or politics, the time seems to him times subversive of everything that is orderly and right, innovation and destruction being its "signs," instead of reform and reconstruction, recognized and hailed by men of opposite principles and convictions; but in some things the former may not be so far wrong as the latter imagine. There is always a tendency, as we have said, in human nature to rush into extremes, and in "rooting up the tares" there is often great danger "of rooting up the wheat also." 1

One of the characteristics of the present age is, as it is well known, its want of reverence for old institutions and old authorities, which as a consequence shows itself in manners as the "outward and visible sign" of inward spiritual convictions, if not of "inward and spiritual grace." The stately courtesies of even the last century, when men of the same rank gave place to each other in the most punctilious ceremony, are fast disappearing, while from the lower classes of society little comparative respect is paid to the middle, of which abundant illustration might be given if needed, while among some of the middle ranks themselves the "courtesies" are often lamentably deficient,

1 For more than one phase of the present age see "Swedenborg the Man of the Age," a pamphlet by the Rev. J. Hyde.

while the term "fast" is a recognized badge of a certain class; with such, wherever these may be found, the principle of reverence must of necessity be wanting, both towards the Lord in Heaven and parents, His delegates on earth, together with the respect due to elders and other God-appointed leaders and authorities. That these authorities have been stretched to a point never intended by God, and power usurped by man over man to a degree unwarranted either by Religion or Reason, is a fact patent to all men, while to resist and throw off such trammels is the right as well as the duty of all men. But in thus throwing these off let each man take heed not to enslave himself in trammels of another kind no less injurious to his soul's best interests, and which are the homage and reverence of himself, and which cannot fail to draw man down into a lower pit than that from which he has emerged; for of all idolatries the worship of the intellect removes man the further from his God. That young men should oftentimes fall into the snare is perhaps more to be deplored than to be wondered at. With the really intelligent time works its cure, and men truly such are apt to blush at the remembrance of the arrogancies and presumptions of their youth: the larger the mind the greater is ever its degree of humility, while small minds as a natural consequence entertain enlarged ideas and notions of their own powers and capacities to the end of the chapter.

No doubt the institutions, both without and within the New Church, for developing and strengthening the mental powers and minds of the young are alike useful and necessary, more especially as human reason is proudly lifting its head and voice against Religion and Revelation. But in fostering the worthy endeavour to do battle with and defeat the enemy without, let us not blind ourselves to the danger of shutting an enemy within not so easily seen and recognized. Truly the "trail of the serpent is over us all," and one of the signs of the self-assertions of the present time is its want of reverence in some countries and in some minds for due authorities, such as that of children to their parents, servants towards their masters, together with that of respect for age.

France with all her faults sets England an example in these things. Besides the reverence for the "hoary head" commanded in the Old Testament, the Epistles enjoin that the "elder shall not be rebuked, but treated like a father."

Are these injunctions recognised or ignored most by the young, or a portion of them, in the present generation and at the present time,

and within the precincts of the New Church? I put it as a question without any comment, except that the question is in reality a serious one, involving the best interests of the young themselves. Woe be to him who exacts obedience where it is not due, "and woe to him who refuses it where it is." If for "obedience" we read "respect" the principle is the same.

A few words more on the "courtesies" and I have done. "Politeness" has been defined as "benevolence in small things," and let us ever bear in mind the great importance of "small things," for it too frequently, perhaps generally happens that the most serious and lasting differences in families and communities spring from the most trivial causes and slight misunderstandings, oftentimes occasionally from a want of the common courtesies of life. Unrefined natures regard bluntness and rudeness as the sign-manual of honesty and sincerity, when in place thereof they are signs and indications of the want of care and consideration for the feelings and opinions of others; and although there are many people when they see they have wounded their neighbour's feelings, are perhaps sorry for it, there are very few comparatively who have the magnanimity frankly to acknowledge their error, whereas, if they only had this magnanimity, the probabilities are that a contention would be stopped on the threshold, for as "face answers to face in water, so does the heart of man to man."

In the New Church therefore, of all churches extant on the face of the earth, with Charity as her guide and leading star, should the courtesies and the amenities be studied and cultivated, the breach of them being nothing more nor less than a sin against charity; although many sin in ignorance from their innate want of refinement and good breeding, together with the want of cultivation; and it is to call attention to the subject that the foregoing observations have been put together. Courtesy without sincerity is a hollow mockery, and it is almost superfluous to say, that this is not the kind recommended for cultivation; neither does the writer mean to assume that there are no other causes of dissension between man and man than the want of politeness to each other: for manifold and grievous are the wrongs and insincerities that man sustains at the hands of his fellow-man, and which he consequently resists and resents. But that does not at all do away with the facts of the smaller things, or their important bearing on the peace and interests of families and communities, which although doubtless generally admitted as an abstract principle, do not, alas! appear to be sufficiently acted upon, either in word or deed.