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a portion of our weakness, they have nothing to do. This exalted personality is not egotism; for such men, possessed by their idea, gladly give their life to seal their work; it is the identification of the me with the object it has embraced, carried to its last extent. It is pride to those who see in it only the personal fantasy of the founder; it is the finger of God to those who see the result. The fool here almost touches the inspired man; only the fool never succeeds.

Hitherto it has never been given to aberration of mind to produce a serious effect upon the progress of humanity.

Jesus undoubtedly did not, at once, reach this lofty affirmation of himself; but it is probable that from the very first he looked to God in the relation of a son to a father. This is his great act of originality; in this he is in no wise with his race. Neither the Jew nor the Moslem have learned this delightful theology of love. The God of Jesus is not the hateful master who kills us when he pleases, damns us when he pleases, saves us when he pleases. He is our Father. We hear him when we listen to a low voice within us which says, "Father."

The God of Jesus is not the partial despot who has chosen Israel for his people, and protects it in the face of all and against all. He is the God of humanity. Jesus will not be a patriot like the Maccabees, or a theocrat like Juda the Gaulonite. Rising boldly above the prejudices of his nation, he will establish the universal fatherhood of God. *

Jesus was not sinless; he conquered the same passions which we combat; no angel of God comforted him, save his good conscience; no Satan tempted him, save that which each bears in his heart. As many of the grand aspects of his character are lost to us by the fault of his disciples, it is probable also that many of his faults have been dissembled. But never has any man made the interests of humanity predominate in his life over the littleness of self-love so much as he. Devoted without reserve to his idea, he subordinated everything to it to such a degree, that towards the end of his life

the universe no longer existed for him. It was by this flood of heroic will that he conquered heaven.-Ernest Renan.

THE SPIRITUAL MAN REAL.

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That a man is equally a man after death, although he is not apparent to the eyes, may appear especially from the Lord himself, who showed his disciples that he was a man, by touch, and by eating, and yet became invisible to their eyes. The reason why they saw him was because the eyes of their spirits were then opened; and when these eyes are opened the things in the spiritual world appear as clearly as the things in the natural world.

Since it has pleased the Lord to open the eyes of my spirit, and to keep them open now for nineteen years, it has been given me to see the things which are in the spiritual world, as well as to describe them. I can asseverate that they are not visions, but THINGS SEEN in all wakefulness.

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What

The difference between a man in the natural world and a man in the spiritual world is, that the one is clothed in a natu ral body, but the other in a spiritual body. kind of difference this is (between the natural, or material, and spiritual) may be described, but not in a few words.-Swcdenborg.

THE SOUL INDESTRUCTIBLE.

At the age of seventy-five one must, of course, think frequently of death. But this thought never gives me the least uneasiness, I am so fully convinced that the soul is indestructible, and that its activity will continue through eternity. It is like the sun which seems to our eyes to set in the night, but is really gone to diffuse its light elsewhere. Even while sinking it remains the same sun.- -Gathe.

OF MERIT.

They who do good with a view of merit are not influenced by the love of God, but by the love of reward; for they who

are desirous of merit are also desirous of reward; and have respect to the reward, in which, and not in the good, they place their delight. Such, therefore, are not spiritual men, but natural. To do good which is really such, man must act from the love of good, and thus for the sake of good.

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They who do good for the sake of reward, do not act from the Lord, but from themselves; they regard themselves in the first place, inasmuch as they regard their own good.

if

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Genuine charity and faith entirely disclaim all merit; for the delight of charity is good itself, and the delight of faith is truth itself. The Lord Himself plainly teaches that man is not to do good for the sake of reward, where he says: "For ye love them that love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest." *The delight which is inher nt in the love of doing good without any view to reward, is itself an eternal reward; for heaven and eternal happiness are inseminated into that good by the Lord.-Swedenborg.

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CHAPTER XII.

GREAT BRITAIN.

QUESTIONS.

ANCIENT WALES.

Knowest thou what thou art,
In the hour of sleep-

A mere body- a mere soul

Or a secret retreat of light?

Knowest thou where the night awaits
For the passing of the day?

Knowest thou the token

Of every leaf which grows?

What is it which heaves up the mountain
Before the convulsion of the elements?
Or what supports the fabric

Of the habitable earth?

Who is the illuminator of the soul-
Who has seen-who knows him—

What are the properties of the soul,

Of what form are its members?

In what part, and when, it takes up its abode;

By what wind or stream is it supplied?

From Mabgyvrean, or Elements of Instruction, by Taliesin, A. D. 600.

FRANCIS BACON (A. D. 1560).

OF ADVERSITY.

It was a high speech of Seneca (after the manner of the Stoics) that the "good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are

to be admired." (Bona rerum secundarum optabilia, adversarum mirabilia). Certainly, if miracles be the command over nature, they appear most in adversity. It is a yet higher speech of his than the other (much too high for a heathen), "It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man, and the security of a God." This would have done better in poesy, where transcendencies are more allowed; and the poets, indeed, have been busy with it-for it is in effect the thing which is figured in that strange fiction of the ancient poets, which seemeth not to be without mystery; nay, and to have some approach to the state of a Christian, "That Hercules, when he went to unbind Prometheus (by whom human nature is represented), sailed the length of the great ocean in an earthen pot or pitcher; lively describing Christian resolution, that saileth in the frail bark of the flesh through the waves of the world." But to speak in a mean, the virtue of prosperity is temperance, the virtue of adversity is fortitude, which in morals is the more heroical virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God's favor. Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comfort and hopes. We see in needleworks and embroideries it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground: judge, therefore, of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious odors, most fragant where they are incensed, or crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.

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