possessed all the doctrinal truths that God had vouchsafed to mankind, and the Gentile nations who were destitute of these truths. The former were rejected of the Lord because they neglected to live in conformity with the truths that were given them, while the latter rested in His bosom, for they had lived lives of charity and brotherly love, nourished by the crumbs of bread that fell from the rich man's table.

The prophets who are ravening wolves in sheep's clothing, represent those who, externally living a life of sanctity, teach falsities that destroy men's souls, pretending that they are sacred truths.

The man who was cast out from the marriage feast because he was not clothed in a wedding garment, represents those who possess themselves of religious truths and act in conformity with them, only that they may appear well in the eyes of the world. Marriage signifies the conjunction of goodness and truth in the life, and to be clothed in a wedding garment is to be possessed of truths which are applied to the life from the love of goodness. The man in this parable was one of those hypocrites who, though they may be able by their external sanctity to deceive the servants of the Lord, and so obtain a place in the church for a little while, are, at the coming of the Lord to judgment—that is, at their own death-at once recognised for what they really are, and cast into outer darkness, where from them is taken even those garments which they seemed to have; for unless truths are carried out into the life, we do not really possess them. They abide only in the natural memory, which we cast off at death; while those truths which are carried out into the life become a part of our internal nature, and abide with us for ever.

Those at all conversant with the science of correspondences, know that there is an evil as well as a good signification to all things; because all things may be abused or perverted into their opposites. Thus nakedness, beside being predicated of those who are in celestial innocence, is also understood of those who are destitute of all doctrine. The naked are often alluded to in this sense in the Scriptures. The command to clothe the naked does not merely mean that we should exercise offices of charity to those who are destitute of the external comforts of life, but that we should supply with spiritual truths those who are ignorant, yet desirous to learn. Nakedness may simply imply involuntary ignorance, in which there is no sin, or it may imply a destitution of truth from a love of falsehood and evil. A little consideration will enable the reader to perceive which of these significations is to be taken in the various Scripture passages in which nakedness is mentioned.

Garments likewise signify falsities derived from evil as well as truths derived from good. We are told that evil spirits appear clothed in garments which are foul and tattered, each according to his insanity. In the hells, as in the heavens, the external appearance indicates the affections by which the spirit is possessed. This subject might be illustrated in each of its aspects by multitudes of texts from the Word, but enough has already been said to guide the inquirer in the application of the truths in relation to it, which have been revealed to the New Church; but if more light should be desired, it can be found shining with full-orbed brightness in the writings of Swedenborg.

M. G. C.

MATERIALS FOR MORAL CULTURE.

[Continued from page 370.]

"Keep the channel open."-No. CCL.

CCCXXXIII.

THE perfection of a man lies not in his excelling generally, but in applying his particular "talent" to its destined use, in spite of the opposition of the fallen proprium, which always has a special desire to appropriate to self what is specially given by the Lord for the benefit of others,—that is to say, a man's peculiar capability of use.

CCCXXXIV.

It is a strong evidence of the end of the church, that each one's "talent" is generally misapplied, by being devoted to selfish purposes. How seldom the "talent" of power is combined with gentleness; or wealth, with a generous disinterestedness; or intellectual attainments, with an ingenuous modesty. The powerful are powerful for themselves; the wealthy are wealthy for themselves; and the talented would be talented for themselves, were it not that their selfishness can only meet its reward, by their conferring pleasure or advantage upon others. CCCXXXV.

With God, and also with his image-man, forgiveness is both potential and actual. The first consists in not taking vengeance on the impenitent, whose evils reject the advances of holy love; the second consists in the actual reception of love by the penitent, who then first avail themselves of the preexisting disposition to do them good, and which patiently waited for the opportunity of coming forth from a potential to an actual state of grace. In the Old Church, "forgive

ness of sin," is commonly represented as the whole of the blessing brought by Christianity, and yet how little accurate meaning is attached to the very phrase itself!

CCCXXXVI.

Potential forgiveness is inculcated by the Lord where he commands us to "love our enemies," and to be "merciful as our Father in heaven is merciful." Actual forgiveness, or the bringing of the inclination to forgive into actuality, is inculcated where he says, "If thy brother sin against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him." To pass from potential to actual forgiveness, is to pass from the love of another as an enemy, to the love of him as a neighbour.

CCCXXXVII.

A state of sin, is a state of the rejection of the Divine mercy and friendship; a state of repentance, is a state of acceptance of that mercy and friendship, which is the same as a state of actual forgiveness. "Ye are my friends, saith the Lord, if ye do whatsoever I command you."

CCCXXXVIII.

No man can be conjoined with the Lord, or with his fellow man, except there be a state of parallelism or correspondence, for this is essential to conjunction. Hence the necessity that man should forgive as the Lord forgives, as required in the Lord's repeated declarations, that if we forgive not, we cannot be forgiven. The forgiving God cannot be conjoined with the unforgiving man. Neither can the unforgiving man be conjoined with the penitent aggressor. Charity, in order to exist at all, must exist as an impartial and universal principle, like the Divine Love. God is "no respecter of persons," neither can his image be, the man of true charity.

CCCXXXIX.

The first rational (Ishmael) is satisfied with condemning the faults of others as offensive to self; but the second rational (Isaac) seeks not to punish but to amend, and therefore cannot be satisfied without an effort to remove faults discerned in the character of others,—because they are inimical to their happiness. Only the latter resembles the Divine Wisdom grounded in the Divine Love, which has "no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live."

CCCXL.

There are persons who are lenient towards individuals, at the same time that they are severe on the defects of the New Church, in it N. S. NO. 84.-VOL. VII.

2 M

infantine and imperfect state, as a body. But the Lord is more merciful. He looks with the same eye of pity upon the faults of the whole human race, and of each individual.

CCCXLI.

An unamiable Christian! What a contradiction in terms ! How can such a person be the likeness of that Blessed Being who is "altogether lovely"? God is lovely because He is Love itself. "The beauty of the Lord our God" cannot possibly be "upon us," while our manners are not amiable-not lovely-not love-provoking. The Christian must be love-love in essence, and love in form, and then he cannot be otherwise than amiable.

CCCXLII.

Is it not the fact, that some who affirm that religious belief is not religion itself, show no marks of religion in their own persons, except such as are merely doctrinal? Is it not the fact, that some advocates of the priority of charity over faith, appear practically ignorant of what charity is; and with the eulogy of love on their lips, bear no marks of it in their demeanour? Is it not the fact, that some strenuous asserters of the superiority of goodness to truth, appear sadly wanting in that practical wisdom, that truth grounded in good, which shews itself in just judgments concerning the principles and practice of goodness? All this arises from want of faithfulness in shunning evils as sins.

CCCXLIII.

"If any man think himself to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, that man's religion is vain. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father, is to comfort the fatherless and widow in affliction, and to keep unspotted from the world." This definition of true religion by the apostle James, is worthy of him, as the spiritual representative of charity. It deserves to be recorded indelibly on the hearts of the advocates of the priority of charity over faith, both as a proof of the truth of their doctrine, and a stimulus to good works of charity in their own person.

CCCXLIV.

"Jesus did not many mighty works, because of their unbelief." And is not our unbelief,-our want of trust,-of faith grounded in love, and operative from love,-the real cause of the miracles of spiritual healing being so little exhibited in us: while, on the contrary, there is much seen amongst us that requires to be healed,-of spiritual blind

ness, deafness, and lack of strength to do good, owing to a want of the vitality of self-denying love?

CCCXLV.

If angels rejoice over the repentant sinner, must they not be ready to weep, when they behold the professors of a spiritual, self-renouncing religion, hugging their riches, clinging to their pleasures, and enslaving themselves to the silly maxims and pernicious ways of the selfish and the worldly? Could God Himself grieve, how intense would be his grief at such a spectacle! If Jesus were on earth, would he not weep over some of us? (Luke xix. 41.)

CCCXLVI.

Except under the sanction of marriage, or its precursor, courtship the touch or caress of the male can never be agreeable to a rit minded female. Without this sanction, the touch, so far as it a proaches to a caress, is wanton, and can only be acceptable to th hoyden who lacks understanding; or to her who is deficient in womanl purity and womanly spirit. It was an artful proceeding, to stigmatiz high-minded females who practically assert this heaven-protecting pri ciple, as prudes.

CCCXLVII.

Will, without understanding, is not will, but lust; and understandin without will, is not understanding, but insanity: consequently, no or in whom the heavenly marriage of goodness and truth does not exis can see (that is, practically and really) the woman as the impersonatio of the good, and the man as the impersonation of the true; but thɩ to see each other, is the very essence of chaste conjugial love, wheth as existing with the married or the unmarried.

CCCXLVIII.

Whenever the heavenly marriage of goodness and truth takes plac in a man, he becomes more affectionate; and whenever it takes plac in a woman, she becomes more intellectual, especially in the departmer of moral wisdom.

CCCXLIX.

Not the least striking mark of the Fall, is the loss by man of th inseparableness of his will and understanding,-the likeness of th inseparableness of the Divine Love and Wisdom. This disjunctic began when man first "inclined to proprium," which is signified 1