3) ia dad He
4 ¥ you can enjoy the sun and
MY
RELIGION
Helen, Keller
i Copyright by
Doubleday, Doran & Co.
5 amie ng Se Sn,
flowers and music where there
is nothing except darkness and
fl silence you have proved the
Mystic Sense—Helen Keller
4 Cam RA a
WNU Service
(Continued from last week.)
CHAPTER II
..
My impressions of my first contact
with the writings of the great Swed-
ish seer of the Eighteenth Century,
which came about thirty years ago,
will seem without meaning unless I
go back to my first questionings about
God. As a little child I naturally
wanted to know who made everything
in the world and I was told that Na-
ture (they called it Mother Nature)
had made earth and sky and water
and all living creatures. This satis-
fied me for a time, and I was happy
among the rosetrees of my mother’s
garden, or on the bank of a river, or
out in the daisy-pranked fields, where |
my teacher told me true “Arabian
Nights” tales about seeds and flowers,
birds and insects and the fishes in
the river. Like other children, I be-
lieved that every object I touched |
was alive and self-conscious, and I
supposed we were all Mother Nature’s
children. But as I grew older, I be-
gan to reason about the parts of
Nature I could touch. Obviously, I
am using mature words and the ideas
of later years to make intelligible the
groping, half-formed, ever-shifting
impressions of childhood. I noticed a
difference between the way human
beings did their work and the way
the wonders of Nature were wrought.
I saw that puppies, flowers, stones,
babies, and thunder-storms were not
just put together as my mother mixed
her hot cakes. There was an order
and sequence of things in field and
wood that puzzled me, and at the
same time there was a confusion in |
the elements which at times terrified
me. The wanton destruction of the
beautiful and the ugly, the useful and
the obnoxious, the righteous and the
wicked by earthquake or flood or tor=:
nado I could not understand. How
could such a blind mass of irrespon-
sible forces create an keep alive, al- |
ways renewing what was destroyed,
and keep up an unfailing succession
of spring, summer, autumn, and
winter, seedtime and harvest, day and
night, tides and generations of men?
Somehow I sensed that Nature was
no more concerned with me or those
1 loved than with a twig or a fly, and
of God, Himself a Spirit everywhere
at once, the Creator dwelling in all
the universe
out over continents and seas to
Greece, despite a blind, deaf, and
stumbling body, sent another exulting
emotion rushing over -me. I had
broken through my limitations and
found in touch an eye. 1 could read
the thoughts of wise men—thoughis
which had for ages survived their
mortal life, and could possess them
as part of myself. If this were true,
how much more could God, the un-
circumscribed Spirit, cancel the harms
of nature — accident, pain, destruc-
tion, and reach out to xis children.
Deafness and blindness, then, were of
no real account. They were to be
relegated to the outer circle of my
life. Of course I did not sense any
such process with my child mind; but
I did know that I, the real I, could
leave the library and visit any place
I wanted to, mentally, and I was
happy. That was the little seed
from which grew my interest ir
spiritual subjects.
I was not at that time especially
enthusiastic about the Bible stories,
except the story of the gentle Nazar-
ene The accounts of creation and the
driving out of Adam and Eve from
Eden for eating a particular fruit,
the Floed and all the wrath and ven-
geance of the Lord seemed to me very
similar to the Greek and Roman
myths I had read—and there were
very few gods and goddesses I could
i admire.
I was disappointed not to find in
the Bible that my good aunt held up
to me as a Divine Book, a likeness of
the Being whose face shone so benign,
beautiful, and radiant in my heart.
She told me tales out of the Apoca-
lypse, and still I felt a void I could
not explain. What could I see in a
war between God and dragons and
horned beasts? How could I asso-
ciate the eternal torture of those cast
into the lake of fire with the God
whom Christ declared to be love?
Why, I wondered, should one particu-
lar City of God be described with
pavements of gold and walls of pre-
cious stones when heaven must be full
of everything else just as magnifi-
cent—mountains, fields, oceans, and
the sweet, fruitful earth, restful to
the feet? The touching story of
Christ,
healing the sick; giving new light to
the blind and speech to mute lips
stirred me to the depths; but how
could I worship three persons—the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost?
Was that not the sort of false wor- |
ship so terribly punished in Old Testa-
ment days?
Such were the bewildered, dissatis-
fied thoughts on the Bible which
possessed my mind when there came
into my life one of the friends I
loved most, Mr. John Hitz, who had
for a long period held the position at
i Washington of Consul-General for
this awoke in me something akin to !
resentment—*“the fine inneuendo by
which the Soul makes its enormous
claim,” and declares that it has a
prerogative of control over the course
of events and things.
Turning away from Nature, I in. |
quired about God, and again I was
baffled. Friends tried to tell me He
was the Creator, and that He was
everywhere, that He knew all the
needs, joys, and sorrows of every
human life, and nothing happened
without His foreknowledge and provi-
dence. Some with a generous dispo-
sition said He was merciful to all, and
caused His sun to shine on the just
and the unjust alike. I was drawn
irresistibly to such a glorious, lo#-
able Being, and I longed really to
understand something about Him.
Then I met Phillips Brooks, and he
helped me, with his simple soul-stir-
ring words, to grasp the central truth
that God is Love, and that His Love
. is the “Light of all men.”
But I could not form any clear idea
of the relation between this Divine
Love and the material world. I lost
myself many times in shadows and
uncertainties, wandering back and
forth between the Light which was
#80 ineffably reassuring and the chaos
and darkness of nature that seemed so
real as not to be gainsaid. One day
I was made radiantly happy and
brought nearer to a sense of God
when “I watched” an exquisite but-
terfly, just out of its cocoon, drying
its wings in the sun, and afterward
felt it fluttering over a bunch of trail-
ing arbutus. Someone told me how
the ancient Egyptians had looked
upon the butterfly as an emblem of
immortality. I was delighted. It
seemed to me as it should be, that
such beautiful forms of life should
have in them a lesson about things
still more lovely. Nevertheless, the
same buzz-saw continued to worry me
until one day a sudden flash of intui-
tion reevaled an infinite wonder te
me.
I had been sitting quietly in the
library for half an hour. I turned
to my teacher and said, “Such a
strange thing has happened! I have
been far away all this time, and I
haven't left the room.” “What do you
mean, Helen?” she asked, surprised.
“Why,” I cried, “I have been in
Athens.” Scarcely were the words
out of my mouth when a bright,
amazing realization seemed to catch
my mind and set it ablaze. I per-
. ceived the realness of my soul and
its sheer independence of all condi-
tions of place and body. It was clear
to me that it was because I was a
spirit that I had so vividly “seen” and
felt a place thousands of miles away.
Space was nothing te spirit! In that
néw consciousness shone the Presgnes.
Switzerland in this county. After-
ward he was superintendent of the
Volta Bureau in Washington, which
Dr. Bell founded with the Volta
Prize money he received for invent- |
This bureau was ! C ¢
{ dead. But his noble philosophy and |
|
|
ing the telephone.
established for the purpose of collect- |
ing. and distributing information
about the deaf, and publishing a !
magazine in their behalf, The Annals
ef the Deaf, which is now called The
Folta Review.
I met Mr. Hitz first in 1893, when
I was about thirteen years old, and
that was the beginning of an affec-
tionate and beautiful friendship which
1 cherish among the dearest memories
of my life. He was always deeply
interested in all I did—my studies,
my girlish joys and dreams, my
struggle through college and my work
for the blind. He was one of the few
who fully appreciated m_ teacher and
the peculiar significance of her work
not only to me, but to all the world.
His letters bore testimony to his af-
fection for her and his understand-
ing of what she was to me—a light
in all dark places. He visited us often
ip Boston and Cambridge, and every
time my teacher and I stopped over
in Washington on our way to or from
my southern home, we had delight-
ful trips with him.
After my teacher and I settled
down in Wrentham, Mass., he spent
six weeks with us every summer un-
til the year before he died. He loved
to take me out walking early in the
morning while the dew lay upon grass
and tree and the air was joyous with
birdsongs. We wandered through
still woods, fragrant meadows, past
the picturesque stone walls of Wren-
tham, and always he brought me
closer to the beauty and the deep
meaning of Nature. As he talked, the
great world shone for me in the glory
of immortality. He stimulated in me
the love of Nature that is so pre-
cious a part of the music in my silence
and the light in my darkness. It is
sweet as I write to recall the flowers
and the laughing brooks and the shin-
ing, balmy moments of stillness in
which we had joy together. Each day
I beheld through his eyes a new and
charming landscape, . “wrapped in
exquisite showers” of fancy and
spiritual beauty. We would often
pause that I might feel the swaying
of the trees, the bending of the fiow-
ers, and the waving of the corn, and
he would say, “the wind that puts all
this life into Nature is a marvelous
symbol of the spirit of God.”
On my fourteenth birthday he pre-
dented me with a gold watch he had
worn for more than thirty years, and
I have never been separated from it
since, except one time when it was
gent ‘to Switzerland: for some parts
that were worn out. Curiously enough,
it was not made for the blind in the
first place. It once belonged to a
German ambassador who had it fixed
#0. that he could keep jmportant ap:
simultaneously. The" |'
fact that my little soul could reach
comforting the sorrowful, :
pointments exactly. He was obliged
to call upon a high dignitary of the
Kaiser, and it was not etiquette to
look ‘at the watch, nor was it eti-
quette to stay too long. So the Am-
bassador went to a jeweler and gave
him instructions about making the
watch so that he could slip his hand
into his pocket and “feel” the time.
It has a crystal face, and a gold
hand on the back, which is connected
with the minute hand, and goes with
it and stops with it. There are also
gold points around the rim of the
watch which indicate the hours. I
wear it always against my heart, and
it ticks for me as faithfully as my
friend himself worked for me and
loved me. He whose love it keeps
ever before me has been gone nearly
twenty years, but I have the sweet
consciousness that each tick is bring-
ing me nearer and nearer to him.
Truly a treasure above price, link-
ing time and eternity!
Mr. Hitz and I corresponded for
! many years. He learned the Braille
. system so that I could read myself his
long and frequent letters.
These let- |
|
|
ters are a record of spiritual kinship
which it comforts me to read over
when I long for the touch of his hand
and the wise, inspiring words with
which he encouraged me in my tasks.
His first and last thought was to les-
sen the obstacles I encountered. He
quickly perceived my hunger for
books I could read on subjects that
particularly interested me, and how
limited were the embossed books
within my reach. For eight years he
devoted a part of each day to copy-
ing whatever he thought would give
me pleasure—stories, biographies of
great men, poetry, and studies of
Nature. When, after reading
“Heaven and Hell,” I expressed a
wish to know more of Swedenborg’s
writings, he laboriously compiled
books of explanations and extracts to
facilitate my reading. All this he aec-
complished in addition to his duties as
superintendent of the Volta Bureau
and his extensive correspondence! In
his letters he often referred to “the
quiet morning hours before breakfast”
he spent transcribing for me, and his
“joy of being in daily touch with his
innigst geliebte Tochter Helena.”
Many friends have done wonderful
things for me, but nothing like Mr.
Hitz’s untiring effort to share with
me the inner sunshine and peace
which filled his silent years. Each
year I was drawn closer to him, and
he wrote to me more constantly as
the days passed. Then came a great
. sorrow—separation from the friend I
| loved best next to my teacher. I had
| been visiting my mother, and was
; on my way back to Wrentham. As
| usual, I stopped in Washington, and
| Mr. Hitz came to the train to meet
me. He was full of joy as he em-
braced me, saying how impatiently he
was leading me from the train, he
had awaited my coming. Then, as he !
| had a sudden attack of heart trouble,
he took my hand, and I still feel his
pressure when I think of that dark |
I could not have borne the loss |
intimate and tender |
time.
of such an
friend if I had thought he was indeed
certainty of the life to come braced | who believes in God and lives right
me with an unwavering faith that we |
should meet again in a world happier
and more beautiful than anything of
my dreaming. With me remains al-
ways the helpful memory of his rare
personality.
He was a man of lofty character,
a man of rich spiritual gifts. His
heart was pure and warm, full of
childlike faith in the best he saw in
his fellow-creatures, and he was al-
ways doing for other people some-
thing lovely ‘and dear. In all his
ways he kept the Commandment,
“Love thy neighbor as thyself.” At
eighty years of age he had the heart
of an evergreen, and his inexhaustible
power of enjoyment lifted him far
above the average of humanity.
remained young with the young, He
was never old to me, and I was never
with difficulty on his fingers, and he
was so hard of hearing I had often
to repeat a sentence six times with
my imperfect speech before he could
understand me. But our love covered
a multitude of difficulties, and our
intercourse was always worth every
effort it cost us.
. As we talked thus, Mr. Hitz came
to realize fully my hunger for litera-
ture I could read on subjects that
especially interested me. He himself
had grown deaf, and that enabled
him to see the distorted angle of my
thoughts with regard to the world of
my senses, He told me that if I would
only try to put myself in the place
of those with sight and hearing and
divine their impressions of things,
they could unite their senses with
mine more and more and thus won-
outer world. - He showed me how I
could find a key to their life, and
give them a chance to explore my own
with understanding. He put into my
hands a copy of Swedenborg’s
“Heaven and Hell” in raised letters,
He said he knew I would not under-
stand much of it at first, but it was
fine exercise for my mind, and would
satisfy me with a likeness of a God
as lovable as the one in my heart. He
told me always to remember that it
is easier to see what is good than
what is true in a. difficult book. For,
as Swedenborg put it, “Good is like
a little flame which gives light, and
causes man to see, perceive, and be-
lieve.”
When I began “Heaven and Hell”
I was as little aware of the new joy
coming into my life as I had been
years before when I stood on the
piazza steps awaiting my teacher.
Impelled only by the curiosity of a
young girl who loves to read, I
‘deaf and blind to him. He spelled
derfully increase my enjoyment of -the
and passed away. Just before the end +
i
i
|
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|
i
i
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!
i
1
{
i
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i
f
and ear.
i ful longing for a fuller sense-life into
i
I
i
! at every turn.
‘ a vivid consciousness of the complete
. being within me. Each day comes to
opened that big book, and lo, my fin-
gers lighted upon a paragraph in the
preface about a blind woman whose
darkness. was illumined with ‘beauti-
ful truths from Swedenborg’s writ-
ings. She believed that they im-
parted a light to her mind which
more than compensated her for the
loss of earthly light. She never
doubted that there was a spiritual
body within the material one with
perfect senses, and that after a few
dark years the eyes within her eyes
would open to a world infinitely more
wonderful, complete, and satisfying
than this. My heart gave a joyous
bound. Here was a faith that em-
phasized what I felt so keenly—the
separateness between soul and body,
between a realm I could picture as a
whole and the chaos of fragmentary
things and irrational contingencies
which my limited physical senses met
I let myself go, as
healthy, happy youth will, and tried
to puzzle out the long words and the
weighty thoughts of the Swedish sage.
Somehow I sensed the likeness of Him
whom I loved as the One and Only.
and I wanted to understand more. The
words Love and Wisdom seemed to
carees my fingers from paragraph to
paragraph, and these two words re-
leased in me new forces to stimulate
my somewhat indolent nature and
urge me forward evermore. I came
back to the book from time to time,
picking up a line here and a line
there, “precept upon precept,” one
glimpse then another of the Divine
Word hidden under the clouds of
literal statement. As I realized the
meaning of what I read, my soul
seemed to expand and gain confidence
amid the difficulties which beset me.
The descriptions of the other world
bore me far, far over measureless
regions bathed in superhuman beauty
and strangeness, where angels’ robes
flash, where great lives and creative
minds cast a splendor upon darkest
circumstances, where events and
mighty combats sweep by endlessly,
where the night is lit to eternal day
by the Smile of God. I glowed through
and through as I sat in that atmos-
phere of the soul and watched men
and women of robler mould pass in
majestic procession. For the first
time immortality put on intelligibility
for me, and earth wore new curves of
loveliness and significance. I was
glad to discover that th~ City of God
was not a stupid affair of glass
streets and sapphire walls, but a sys-
tematic treasury of wise, helpful
thoughts and noble influences. Grad-
ually I came to see that I could use
the Bible, which had so baffled me, as
an instrument for digging out pre-
cious truths, just as I could use my
hindered, halting body for the high
behests of my spirit.
I had been told by narrow people
that all who were not Christians
would be punished, and naturally my
soul revolted, since I knew of wonder-
ful men who had lived and died for
truth as they saw it in the pagan
lands. But in “Heaven and Hell” I
found that “Jesus” stands for Divine
Good, Good wrought into deeds, and
“Christ” Divine Truth, sending forth
new thought, new life and joy into
the minds of men; therefore no one
is ever condemned. So I grew to ;
womanhood, and as unaccontably as |
Conrad found in English the lan- |
. guage of his choice, I took more and |
more to the New Church doctrines as |
my religion. No one encouraged me !
in this choice, and I cannot explain |
it any more than anyone else. I can
only say that the Word of God freed |
from the blots and stains of barbarous |
creeds has been at once the joy and
good of my life, wonderfully linked
with my growing appreciation of my
teacher’s work and my own responsi-
bilities of service, hours of struggle |
and solitude, hours of deepest joy, !
harsh truths faced squarel; and high |
dreams held dearer than the pleasant .
baits of ease and complaisance. Those
truths have been to my faculties what
light, color, and music are to the eye
They have lifted my wist-
me with both hands full of possibili-
ties, and in its brief course I discern
all the verities and realities of my
existence, the bliss of growth, the
glory of action, the spirit of beauty.
CHAPTER III
Do I hear someone say, “But is not
deaf and blind Helen Keller liable to
be imposed upon by those whose
opinions or dogmas or political ideals
are confined to a small minority?”
Before considering Swedenborg's
claims, which have astonished the
world since they were made, I should
like to lay before the reader the
opinions of well-known writers who
were conversant with his works, but
who have had no affilbations with the
church which treasures his religious
teachings.
It will be remembered that Emer-
son chose Swedenborg as one of his
“Representative Men.” He says:
“This man, who appeared to his
contemporaries a visionary and elixir
of moonbeams, no doubt led the most
real life of any man then in the
world. . A colossal soul, he
lies vast abroad on his times, uncom-
prehended by them, and requires a
long focal distance to be seen.” It
should be noted in passing that Emer-
son had no eye for Swedenborg’s helt
or mind for his Bible symbolism.
Thomas Carllyle was a canny
Scot not. likely to be led astray, This
is his estimate of Swedenborg:
“A man of great and indisputable
cultivation, strong, mathematical in-
tellect, and the most pious, seraphic
turn of mind; a man beautiful, lov-
able, and tragicgl tome. . . . More
truths are confessed in his writings
than in those of any other man. . . .
One of the loftiest minds in the realm.
of mind. . One of the spiritual
suns that will shine brighter as the
vears go on.”
Elbert Hubbard’s comparison be-
tween Swedenborg and Shakespeare is
of special interest, as he approaches
the subject from an entirely differen®
mental angle:
“They are Titans both. In the
presence of such giants, small men
seem to wither and blow away. Swe- |
denborg was cast in heroic mould,
and no man since history began ever
compassed in himself so much phy-
sical science, and, with it all on his ! sEirit with sor The smile. wee thats
back, made such daring voyages into
the clouds. The men who soar high-
est and know most about another
No man of his time was so compe-
tent a scientist as’ Swedenborg, and
: bef i :
no man before or since has mapped | of many great men, and they: also
so minutely the Heavenly Kingdom.
“Shakespeare’s feet were never
really off the ground. His excursion
in ‘The Tempest’ was only in a cap-
tured balloon. Ariel and Caliban he
secured out of an old book of fables.
“Shakespeare knew little about
physics; economics and sociology
never trouble him; he had small
Latin and less Greek; he never trav-
elled, and the histery of the rocke
was to him a blank.
“Swedenborg anticipated Darwin in
a dozen ways; he knew the classic
languages and most of the modern:
he traveled everywhere; he was a
practical economist, and the best civi’
angineer of his day.”
Henry Jamas said: “Emanuel Swe-
denborg had the sanest and most far-
reaching intellect this age has
known,” and Henry Ward Beecher
was no less sweeping in his asser-
tion, “No one can know the theology
a true man’s picture, gracious and
wise, endowed with the strength of
‘heroes and the beauty of womanhood.
It shall hang in my inmost chamber,
and when I retire thither, it shall filk
my soul with grandeur and warm it
with sacred fire.” The picture was
painted and hung in the palace hall.
The king gazed on it with rapt de-
light, until suddenly he discerned a.
strange meaning that puzzled him..
The form was that of his most grace-
ful courtier, perfect in every line!
The bearing was that of a humble:
attendant who filled the cup for him;
the brow was that of a priest in holy
vision; the eye was that of the wan--
dering minstrel who charmed his tired’
. of his wife, sc sweet and constant.
of the Nineteenth Century who har ° : A
. other appears on the screen of imagi--
notread Swedenborg.”
There are others who bear interest-
ing witness to the impression left
upon them by Swedenborg’s teach-
ings. Among them was Elizabeth
Barrett Browning, whose beauty of
soul and exquisite poetry excited such
admiration everywhere. “To my
mind,” she says, “the only light that
has been cast on the other life is
found in Swedenborg’s philosophy. It
explains much that was incomprehen-
sible.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whom the
Encyclopedia Britannica notes as
“one of the most remarkable poets
and thinkers,” pays this tribute to
one who has been hastily called by
some a madman: :
“I can venture to assert, as a mor-
alist, Swedenborg is above all praise;
and that, as a naturalist, psycholo-
gist, and theologian, he has strong
and varied claims on the gratitude
and admiration of the professional
and philosophical faculties. . . Thrice
happy should we be if the learned
teachers of to-day were gifted with a
like madness!” 4k
Such estimates ' by these distin.
guished men and women are helpful
in forming some idea of the person-
ality and commanding genius Swed-
Thus was the picture graced with allt
world usually know little about this, | their charms, and they also were glor--
ified in a new light. So the picture
of Swedenbor; seems to gather unto
itself gleams of nobility from the lives:
gain a new significance from the com-
parison. In science, literature, and’
philosophy there are those who stand!
like "heralds on. mountaintops pro--
claiming a new day, of which they
catch the first rays. There are pa-
triots who deliver their country from:
a cruel yoke or lead the people to a:
truer freedom. There are those who
search the treasuries of earth and
discover new stores of light and heat;
there are those who reveal countless:
stars and distant planets, and still
others who sail many seas and find—-
not a Northwest Passage, but an
America. Finally, in religion there
are leaders w’ o teach millions by ex--
ample or precept, who destroy idola-
try or who auken the temple or
church from superstitions and hypoc-
risy; and again others, like Wesley,
who pour love into the coldness of an
unspiritual age.
So one impressive figure after an.
nation when we contemplate Sweden-
borg. There is Michael Angelo who-
saw an angel in the stone and “carved
it with many a sharp incision until:
he caught the vision.” But Sweden--
borg’s inner eyes were opened to be--
hold living angels, and out of the lit-
eral truths of the Word of God, which:
are its stones, he carved heavenly"
messages of love and help from God:
to His children.
Another touch is piven to the pie--
ture when we think of Beethoven,
Mozart, and Wagner, pouring into the
world harmonies that lifted men’s
hearts to heaven, while Swedenborg
perceived the divine harmony in the
universe, and, as he said, actually
heard sweetest music sung by angelic:
multitudes.
From our childhood we have been.
familiar with the characters of Na-
poleon, Wellington, Washington, and:
Grant, and the fearful battles they
took part in. But it was Swedenborg’s-
lot to witness war between the forces-
of good and evil in the spiritual
. world; and, armed with the weapons:
enborg possessed. Any defect there '
may be in my own judgment of him
is evidently not due to my physical
limitations. Measured by those who
are scholars themselves, and others
who are esteemed for spiritual gifts,
' enter intellectually into the mysteries
he is proclaimed to have had an amaz-
ingly well-trained intellect—trained,
. spiritual philosophy which liberated:
i as Emerson observes, “to work with
astronomic precision.” If he had been
; an illiterate man, no matter how won-
derful his experience, and how au-
thentic his claims, he could not long
have stood his ground before the piti-
less battery of competent inquiry.
But here is a scholar far ahead of
his time, mastering the arts and sci-
ences, writing akle and voluminous
works on every wonder of Nature |
from the tiny lichen on the rocks to |
the most complex structure of the ! and : Kant ‘were philosophers of bril-
brain, always , reserving a splendid
balance on dizzy heights of learning
where he must needs climb alone; and
then with the same audacity, calm-
ness, and composure, feeling his peri-
lous way over the deeps and abysses
of the spirit-world and revealing with
, fearless authority the delicate yet un-
breakable links between mind and
matter, eternity and .ime, God and
man,
Three of my dear friends have had
something to say. and they would not
have said it of a lunatic or an intol-
erant fanatic. I knew Dr. Edward
Everett Hale longest, and I always
marvelled at his freshness of interest
in all things and the variety of sub-
jects upon which he deeply pondered.
{t was he who passed this judgment:
“Swedenborgianism has done the
liberating work of the last century.
The wave Swedenborg started last to
this day. The statements of his re-
ligious works have revolutionized the-
ology.”
Like all who love. Bishop Brooks,
i realize what weight and significance
his public utterances carry with them.
His opinion on this subject is surely
deserving of consideration:
“I have the profoundest honour for
the character and work of Emanuel
Swedenborg. . . . I have from time to
time gained much from his writings.
It is impossible to say a little on so
great a theme. Yes, in a true sense,
we are all New Churchmen, with new
light, new hopes, and new communion
with God in Christ.”
Whittier said, “There is one grana
and beautiful idea underlying all his
revelations about the future life.”
Another way to appreciate Sweden-
porg, the man, is to compare him with
other great world leaders. There is
a story out of ancient times that a
king left his council chamber weary
and disheartened. He called for Iliff
the artist and commanded: “Paint me |
i
|
|
, ginning from the
of heaven—the new doctrines of the-
Word—and the sword of earth—the-
truths of Nature—he is the greatest.
champion of genuine Christianity in:
twenty centuries.
Alexander I of Russia set the serfs.
free, and Lincoln abolished Negro
slavery in the United States. Over
the temple of religion Swedenborg;
saw written, “Ncw it is permitted to.
of faith,” and he gave mankind a:
their minds and overthrew the power
of ecclesiastical despotism.
What Agassiz did in zoology ana.
paleontology, Karl Marx in econom-
ics and Darwin in evolution, Sweden-
borg did in religion. With massive
arguments and thundering anathe-
mas he sent a continent’s literature of
pessimism, condemnation, and insin- -
cerity crashing down into the abyss. .
Aristotle, Plato, Francis Bacon, .
liant genius who sought long and pa-
tiently for the Causes of all things.
Mot only has .ur seer been justly
called “the Swedish Aristotle,” but he -
has declared that he was permitted,
to enter conscicusly into the very’!
World of Causes and live in its Light:
for twenty-nine years, :
Columbus’s uadaunted faith was :
realized in the discovery of a newt
| continent, and Cortez “stood on a:.
peak in Darien” with the Pacific im-|-
mense upon his vision. Now we have -
before us an explorer who travelled '*
through the “undiscovered country,”:”
heard its language with his ears, con-..
versed with its inhabitants, and de-:.
scribed to our world, “from things|
i heard and seen,” its life and climate
and civilization. For example, in his;
“Heaven and Hell” he wrote: :
“When a man’s acts are disclosed,
to him after «cath, the angels to.
whom is given the office of searching]
look into his face and the search is:
extended through the whole body, be-
i fingers of each
{ hand, and thus proceeding through
| the whole. Because I wondered as to;
|
i the reason of this, it was made known |
i to me, namely, that as all things of
the thought and will are inseribed on
the brain, for their beginnings are.
| there, so ‘also they are inscribed on:
the whole body; since all the things:
of thought will extend thither from’
their beginnings, and there terminate,
; a8 in their ultimates. . . . From these
things it may be evident what is
meant by the book of man's life,
spoken of in the Word, namely this,
that all things, both what he has!
thought and what he has done, are
insribed on the whole man, and ap-
pear as if read in a book when they
are called forth from the memory, .
and as if presented to sight when the
spirit is viewed in the light of"
heaven.” .
(Continued next week.)