AMERICAN SWEDENBORG PRINTING AND PUBLISHING SOCIETY.

(From the New York Evening Post, May 10th.)

This society, organized for the purpose of printing and circulating the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, held its fifth anniversary last evening, at the Baptist Church in Eleventh-street. Mr. Waldo, president of the society, presided. After the reading of a chapter from the Bible, and a chant by the choir, an address was delivered by the Rev. Mr. Barrett, pastor of the church in this city. He said::

"Some five years ago a few individuals of this city, upon whose glad and waiting eyes had begun to dawn the crystal light of the New Jerusalem, assembled in the private parlour of the now honoured president of this society, to consider the best means of scattering broadcast over our land the precious truths revealed for the New Church.

"Here was a use-a high and heavenly use, aimed at. The only question was as to the best means of its accomplishment. The subject was duly canvassed. In the scarcity of New Church ministers, and the scarcity of New Church societies adequate to their support, even if the ministers could be found, the thoughts of all were naturally turned towards the press, as the grand instrument in the accomplishment of the use contemplated. Soon it was suggested that a society be organized for the purpose of stereotyping and publishing, in a neat and elegant style, and on a uniform page, the entire theological writings of Swedenborg. The suggestion was received with favour. A committee was appointed to draft a constitution; and the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society, whose anniversary we are this evening met to celebrate, was formed.

"The work was commenced amid difficulties and discouragements. Did ever a great and noble enterprise spring into existence in any other way except amid difficulties and discouragements?

"But spite of the trials and discouragements incident to all good enterprises, with which this society has had to struggle-spite of the indifference of

some and the opposition of others, and the loss of the active services of a few of its early friends and advocates, this society, through the merciful Providence of the Lord, has lived and prospered, and made its benign influence felt throughout the length and breadth of our land. It has steadily increased in activity, vigour, and usefulness, and as steadily gained upon the confidence of receivers of the heavenly doctrines throughout the country.

"The need of some such society, as well as the wisdom and efficiency of its organization, are clearly revealed in the work which it has been the instrument of accomplishing. For already the society has stereotyped eleven royal octavo volumes, amounting to nearly 6,000 pages, at an aggregate cost of 4,235 23 dollars; and about 1,500 dollars have been expended in plates during the past year, being nearly three times the amount expended the year previous. It has published in all 13,000 volumes, or more than 5,000,000 pages. Nearly 10,000 of these volumes have been ordered, and have gone forth from its depository, and more than 7,000 have been sold and paid for.

"These facts are highly encouraging. They encourage us in the belief that this society is not engaged in doing merely its own will; that it had its origin not in the will of man, but in the will of God. They encourage us to believe that He, whose Spirit first moved a few minds to engage in this enterprise, who has watched over it thus far, and raised up helpful friends in unexpected quarters, will continue to be with it and prosper it to the end.

"While, therefore, we have abundant cause for joy and thankfulness in the success with which the labours of our society have thus far been crowned, I trust it will not be deemed out of place on this occasion to offer a few remarks, designed to increase our confidence, I hope, and to incite us to new and more vigorous efforts for the future."

The speaker then glanced at the religious condition of the country, which he deplored. "He thought scepticism was universal; that it exists, though not avowed, in every walk of life, and that the heart of this nation has almost

unanimously crucified the Son of Man afresh.' Reverence for the Bible, also, was diminished. It continued to be read, but people no longer attach the importance and meaning to its precepts that the early Christians, and even our Puritan forefathers did. This he attributed to several causes; first, the lax and low views of the nature and extent of the inspiration of the Scriptures; there having been a gradual downward tendency of opinion respecting the inspiration of the Scriptures since the Reformation.

"Another cause is the number of sects into which the Christian church is divided, and the countless volumes of conflicting commentary and interpretation of the Bible.

"Another is the countless and absurd constructions put upon the Bible, by the press and the pulpit, which require oftentimes an absolute crucifixion of the reason.

"When men, in the free exercise of their rational faculty-which, alike with the Scripture, is the gift of God-learn from the Bible that our earth was clothed with living verdure before the natural sun was created, that light existed, and was separated from the darkness, before the sun, moon, or stars were made when they learn that the first human pair, before they were yet a week old, unwarned of the approach of their subtle foe, and ignorant of the consequences of yielding to him, were permitted to be tempted and led astray by the meanest creature in the whole animal kingdom, thereby involving all the unborn generations of men in their own sin and guilt; when they read of robberies, wars, and human massacres, committed by the express command of Jehovah God; when they find the worst of human passions-anger, hatred, jealousy, revenge-attributed to the Divine Being himself; when they read of the journeyings and encampments of the children of Israel, of their sacrifices, the kind of animals offered, and the mode of offering them, the peculiar dress of particular persons, the minute description of the tabernacle, its hangings, its cloths of service, its rings of gold, its candlestick, with its branches, bowls, knobs, and flowers-when, I say, men, in the exercise of their free thought and sober reason, read all this and other things of a like nature in the

Bible, and when at the same time they find themselves shut up to the bare cortex of the letter by the professed expounders of the Bible-not allowed to go beyond the plain, obvious, literal sense of the record-is it to be wondered at that doubts should arise whether all this was really dictated by the Holy Spirit? Is it very surprising that men should ask themselves if there be no higher meaning here than that which is apparent in the sense of the letter? How is it inspired? Wherein lie its divinity and its sanctity? What need was there of any peculiar operation of the Holy Spirit upon the minds of the writers to enable them to record such things?"

The speaker then went on to show that the reason of this country must be satisfied, and that the men in this generation have an intelligent reverence for the Bible, or no reverence at all. He continued:-

"Now it is precisely to meet this advanced and still advancing state of the human mind that the new revelation, which it is our privilege to proclaim, has been made to the world. It is a reve. lation of rational truth, and therefore suited to the wants of rational men. It explains the nature and structure of a divine composition, and shows us in clear, rational light, wherein the inspiration, divinity, and sanctity of the Word consist. It announces the existence of a sense higher than that of the letter, and reveals the law according to which this higher sense is to be unfolded. In this way it teaches the true meaning of the Scripture, and shows us, that, rightly understood, it is rational, consistent, and beautiful throughout-in admirable harmony with itself, with the facts of science, with the known laws of the human soul, and the deepest experience of the human heart. It satisfies all reasonable doubts concerning the divinity and inspiration of the Scripture, and brings nature and revelation, science and theology, philosophy and religion, to a complete tally. It exhibits the true and altogether lovely character of the Lord, the true nature of the atonement and redemption, the true meaning and process of regeneration, the true doctrine of the resurrection and the judgment, and the true nature of heaven and of hell. And it exhibits all this in such clear and rational light, drawing it so

legitimately from the bosom of the divine Word, as to disarm even scepticism itself. Thus it takes their own weapons from the hands of infidels, and wields them against themselves.

"Now to multiply and sell at cost, and so circulate throughout our land the works which contain this new Revelation, is the noble enterprise in which this society has embarked. Already the society has stereotyped between five and six thousand royal octavo pages, and published 13,000 volumes, nearly 8,000 of which, or about 3,000,000 of pages, have been sold and set in circulation, at an average cost of a little more than one mill per page."

[We have seen the work on "Heaven and Hell," as a specimen of the manner in which this society prints and issues the works of Swedenborg. We were charmed with the volume. Its appear ance as to type, paper, and binding, is beautiful, and leaves nothing to be desired. Its cheapness also is amazing. The works printed by this institution are from the latest editions of the Swedenborg Society in London.]

THE "MILLENNIAL HARBINGER" AND

SWEDENBORG.

In our last number we extracted from the "Millennial Harbinger" a letter signed "J. W. Farquhar," on "The Coming of the Lord and Emanuel Swedenborg," in which the able writer advocates the views taught by the doctrines of the New Church respecting the true nature of the Lord's Second Coming. The importance of having true ideas on this momentous subject is very great, as it is only by this means that we can see through the fallacies of the supposed Millennium, as entertained by some, and of those presumptuous and false prophets who even venture to fix the date of the Second Advent, although it is expressly declared, that of "that day and of that hour knoweth no man." The true doctrine of the Lord's Second Advent is also closely connected with the true doctrine of the Resurrection and of the Last Judgment, and likewise with the true views of what is meant by the restoration, or by the return, of the Jews to their own land. All the errors which prevail on these subjects, and which have so long bewildered and even infatuated so many pious and well-disposed minds, have arisen chiefly from [Enl. Series.-No. 19, vol. ii.]

the merely literal interpretation of the Word, shewing us how necessary it is to have a right system of Scriptural interpretation, in order that we may truly understand what is said in the Word of God in respect to those important subjects.

At the time we extracted Mr. Farquhar's letter, we thought that the Editor of the "Millennial Harbinger" would soon be assailed with communications from persons hostile to the Editor's candour and liberality in admitting into his pages an article favourable to the claims of Swedenborg, and in the subsequent number of that periodical our foreboding was realised. A paper signed Joseph Harbottle, who, we believe, is a Baptist minister, has been inserted in the number for June, and on perusing it we do not find a single argument against any of the positions advanced on Scriptural grounds by Mr. Farquhar in support of the New Church doctrine of the Lord's Second Coming; but Mr. Harbottle deals out a tirade of abuse against Swedenborg, as though abuse and vituperation were to stand in the place of rational argument and of Christian deportment. We tell Mr. Harbottle, that this kind of proceeding will not answer his purpose, nor does it become those who profess "to love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity," to act thus towards those who have a fuller and more comprehensive belief in Jesus Christ than he, from his tripersonal creed, can possibly have.

It is, however, not necessary that we should enter upon a refutation in detail of Mr. Harbottle's aspersions and unjust inuendos respecting the work on Scortatory Love; we will merely state that Swedenborg, in the work on Conjugial Love, having demonstrated from a deeper ground than any previous author, the sanctity of marriage, and the true nature of that holy covenant, proceeds in the work on Scortatory Love to shew the sinfulness of the opposite evils of adultery and fornication; and because he, in common with Paley, Puffendorf, and other eminent writers on moral philosophy, shews the degrees of sinful depravity and guilt arising from the practice of these abominations, and points out the way by which the libertine can be preserved from grosser and more damnable evils, until at length he may be brought round to some sense of Christian propriety and chastity,

2 T

because Swedenborg has done this in the true spirit of Christian sympathy for the sinner, he is, therefore, to be denounced as giving a licence to immorality, is what Mr. Harbottle would insinuate by the article he has inserted in the "Millennial Harbinger."

Mr. Farquhar, rightly concluding that the Editor of the "Millennial Harbinger" would not insert his reply to Mr. Harbottle, in vindication of Swedenborg, addressed a letter to that effect to Mr. H. himself, of which having received a copy, we here subjoin it:

"Warley School, near Sowerby "Bridge, June 8th, 1855.

"To the Rev. J. Harbottle.

"Dear Sir,-As it is not at all likely, from the regret which the Editor seems to have felt in inserting my last communication, that he will admit from me any reply to your letter into the pages of the Harbinger,' I am under the necessity of communicating with you directly, in order to appeal to you, as a professing Christian and lover of truth, whether you have not, in some points at least, inadvertently misrepresented Swedenborg and his writings.

"You appear to have arrived at the conclusion that Swedenborg was insane, 'somewhat different' and 'something like the monomania of the late Jonathan Martin;' but as you have said nothing to show in what the likeness and in what the difference consists, and as I never before had even heard of Jonathan Martin, I am as much in the dark as ever, especially as there is a likeness and a difference in the writing of many men of acknowledged sanity.

"I can better understand you when you state that it is your opinion that Jonathan's Autobiography contains passages 'more sensible, more eloquent, and more truly religious than any thing which may be found in the writings of Swedenborg.' The legitimate conclusion from this expression of opinion on your part must be, that you have read all the writings of Swedenborg, because if you have not, there may be a work of his which may contain some passages that in sense, eloquence, and true piety may rival any thing to be found even in Martin's Autobiography. If you have not read all his writings, then I may conclude that your opinion has been too hastily formed, and on insufficient evidence.

"Will you have the kindness to lend

me Martin's work, or to send me a specimen of those passages to which you allude, that, leaving eloquence out of the question, I may be instructed by their superior excellence; for if they are more sensible and pious than any thing to be found in Swedenborg, I shall not object to them because they have been written by Martin.

"When you say he had for some time held office under the Swedish government, but being unfitted, we suppose, for the discharge of its duties, a pension was kindly conferred on him,' do you mean that you think that the Swedish government, believing him to be insane, made him resign his office, or that on account of his new and higher office from above, he himself, feeling that he could not give that attention to the duties of his assessorship which they required, voluntarily resigned his worldly office? If the former is your meaning, you ought to have known better; if the latter, then I admit his unfitness.

"Before noticing what you say of his writings, allow me to say, that even could it be proved-which never has been, and, I am firmly convinced, never can be done that he was insane, it would not at all affect the system of doctrine contained in his writings, for this can be proved to be in strict accordance with the Word of God in its literal sense, by the acknowledged rules of Biblical interpretation. Neither would it at all affect the spiritual sense of the Scriptures which is so clearly and consistently unfolded by him. Those Christian doctrines and that spiritual sense can be proved from the Scriptures themselves. Could Swedenborg's insanity be proved to demonstration, it would solve no difficulty, but on the contrary create a hundred others, and land us in inextricable confusion as to the distinction between sanity and insanity.

"His relations of what he saw in the spiritual and other worlds, they who believe in his mission receive as they would those of any traveller or resident in an unexplored territory, who having a sound judgment and ample means of observation, might be expected to give, on the whole, an accurate account of the manners and customs of the inhabitants. But neither Swedenborg's relations nor his opinions on any subject are received as matters of doctrine by those who are

convinced that he was a teacher sent from God.

"I suppose I may pass over what you say respecting the 'Earths in the Universe.' I have read that work very carefully, and can see not the least evidence of insanity or absurdity in it. Suppose Paul, or John the apostle, in place of Swedenborg, had professed to have seen them, and given a similar account, would the relations themselves have appeared to you so nonsensical as to make you reject every part of their testimony? I shall continue to think the relations contained in that book to be at least probable, until some other traveller with equal opportunities shall show them to be erroneous.

"I must confess that I do not see the force of your observations regarding Swedenborg's omission of the rest of the planets in the solar system. Do you mean to say that because he does not mention all, therefore no credence is to be given to what he says of the others? Suppose he did not know of them, and was not permitted to see them, what then? Nobody ever asserted that he knew everything; or even if he did know of them, might there not be reasons for his silence?

"That he did know of one at least of these planets is very evident, for he makes express mention of it in a work written and published before the 'Earths in the Universe.' Had not that planet been afterwards discovered by astronomy, his notice of it would doubtless have been put down as part of a 'farrago of nonsense.' Are you aware that Pike was sufficiently answered by Hindmarsh, and have you read that Answer?

"I cannot tell what you mean by a sepulchre and hidden abominations, as all Swedenborg's theological works are translated into English, and are open to anybody. Swedenborg does teach baptism for the remission of sins in the best and truest sense; but I admit that I have no evidence to show that he received the ordinance in the way which you consider to be the only right way, yet I am strongly of opinion that he truly received that ordinance of the Lord's appointment, in the way which Christ and His apostles considered to be sufficient; and this I infer from his life, viewed in the light of Christ's teaching and in the teaching of the apostles. (See Rom. ii. 28, 29.)

"You ask, 'Do not the Swedenbor

gians sprinkle infants and call that baptism This ad captandum question, coming from a Baptist minister to Baptist readers, I am willing to leave to the consideration of a jury composed of persons selected from every professing Christian denomination in the United Kingdom.

"If Matt. xxiv. 27 means, in your opinion, that our Lord's coming was to be conspicuous to all, I leave you to reconcile it with that other saying of our Lord,— The kingdom of God cometh not with observation.' (Luke xvii. 20.)

There was a light shone from the east, even to the west, at His first advent, but only a few wise men were guided by it.

"As to what Swedenborg really does say regarding the sense in which he considers the Gospels and Apocalypse to be emphatically the Word of God, while the Acts and Epistles are so in a different sense, I shall quote his own words: 'With regard to the writings of Paul and the other Apostles, * * * the style of these writings is quite different, having indeed communication with Heaven, but only mediately or indirectly. The reason why the Apostles wrote in this style was, that the New Christian Church was then to begin through them; consequently, the same style as is used in the Word would not have been proper for such doctrinal tenets which required plain and simple language, suited to the capacities of all readers. Nevertheless, the writings of the Apostles are very good books for the Church, inasmuch as they insist on the doctrine of Charity and Faith thence derived, as strongly as the Lord himself has done in the Gospels and in the Revelation of St. John, as will appear evidently to any one who studies these writings with attention.'

"Now, I leave it to the judgment of any candid person, whether he does not here admit the authority of these writings to as great an extent as they are admitted by intelligent Christians of all denominations? Swedenborg never denies that Christ died for the sake of the guilty. If you had asserted that he hated the doctrine of Justification by faith alone more than any other doctrine, you would not have made such a gross misrepresentation as you have done when you insinuate that he hates most bitterly the doctrine of Justification by the blood of Christ; while, on the contrary, that doctrine is as much