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RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS
OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD

RIGHT AND WRONG
UNVEILINGS OF THE
SPIRITUAL WORLD

BY

REV. JOHN GODDARD

^

NEW-CHURCH BOARD OF PUBLICATION

3 West 29TH Street, New York City

1912

THE WEvTvOHiC

PUBLIC LlBRf.SY

586351^

Copyright, 1912, by
THE NEW-CHURCH BOARD OF PUBLICATION

Press of J J. Little & Ives C
New York

J

INTRODUCTORY

The purpose of this Httle book may be briefly
told.

The first chapter, furnishing its title, is pri-
marily intended to remove any existing impres-
sion in the reader's mind that Swedenborg's un-
veilings of the unseen world are in some way
related to what is known as Spiritualism, or,
more properly speaking, Spiritism. Swedenborg
speaks as a Revelator, a man of God, or, in his
own words, as "the Servant of the Lx)rd Jesus
Christ." He comes, not to add to or detract from,
the Bible messages of the past, but to open up
the deeper meaning of those revelations for a
new and rational or manhood age of human
development.

Every prophet of God in the past has had a
more or less clear vision of realities beyond this
world. This is the first g:^eat fc<ct/of prophecy.
Another great lact is that God speaks, not man,
nor spirit, nor angel. The third great fact is
that God reveals, wiienever he speaks, a message
for daily and higher life> not chiefly to satisfy
curiosity, or overcome scepticism by sensuous
proof of another world, or even to comfort us
in our affliction; much less to minister to our
bodily health, or lead us to greater financial

INTRODUCTORY

prosperity, or for any other earthly or selfish
benefit. Swedenborg is always in harmony with
these three distinguishing features of God's seers
and prophets. To him, as to them, "the word
of the Lord came, saying." If he tells more
than they about the unseen world, it is because
the world needs and can incorporate into spiritual
character more and deeper knowledge. And this
knowledge, as now revealed, is of such a kind
as to harmonize with human freedom — not to
overpersuade, nor hypnotize, but to lead to a
deeper, truer, more rational, more practical and
yet more spiritual life than the world has ever
known.

The second, third and fourth chapters, respec-
tively, treat of the spiritual w^orld from the point
of view (i) of common or intuitive perception;
(2) of Swedenborg's philosophy as illustrated
by modern science especially; and (3) o'f Swe-
^lenborg's personal experience, **from things
heard and seen.''

These chapters, first given in the ordinary
course of pastoral duty, are published by request.
That they may be of some little service, not only
in correcting erroilecJus; rmpre^Sions, but in help-
ing to establish a rational- belief in the w'ondrous
fact that death is only -the ! gateway to endless
life, and to help to" i5o build tip character here
that the future may reveal the Divine presence
and His peace, is the hope and prayer of

The Author.

PART I

RIGHT AND WRONG UN7EILINGS
OF THE UNSEEN WORLD

RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS OF
THE UNSEEN WORLD

A belief in a life after death is universal. It
is found among tribes which have no written
revelation, as well as among all others. It may
in part be due to a tradition handed down from
an ancient revelation, and partly perhaps to what
are now known as supernormal experiences. But
back of all this there must be something which,
for lack of a better term, we may call the "in-
stinct of immortality."

But this instinct is not enough. It often at-
tends the grossest superstitions and immoralities.
Divine revelation is needed for its guidance.
While revelation cannot rise very far above the
conditions of the people who receive it, still it
has always contained ideal teachings in advance
of their conditions, which have served to pre-
serve their spiritual life until a new revelation,
better adapted to those conditions, could be given.

Divine revelation always contains two distinct
features. It involves, first of all, more or less
of an opening of the unseen world before the
senses of the Revelator. And, again, it involves

4 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

a message from God to His children, containing
new and uplifting laws of right living. Before
the eyes of the inspired prophet, Revelator, or
man of God, there has been a clear vision of
supersensuons realities ; the Divine voice has been
heard, generally commanding a record to be
made of Divine laws, precepts, warnings or en-
couragements. The unseen w^orld is opened —
why ? Not chiefly to prove the existence of such
a world, but to show that God is speaking from
that "djorld, and not man, spirit or angel. The
chief purpose of the unveiling is not to satisfy
curiosity or convince sceptics of another exist-
ence, but to reveal God and His laws. This is
what we call the right nnveiling. In this God
speaks; His message is uplifting; the supernat-
ural enforces the practical. The effect is to
spiritualize the earthly, while in all wrong unveil-
ing the effect is to materialize the heavenly. All
through the Bible the spiritual world is unveiled
in glimpses, but the unveiling brings a vital les-
son. The Divine thunders of Sinai brought to
the world the Decalogue, not as a nezv but as a
Divine law, and also the neiv thought of 'one
God over all the earth, long lost to the world.
Some think that an outside, sensuous proof of
another world would, by itself, uplift humanity.
If men could only realize the tremendous fact
that there is no death, and that their future would
depend on their lives here, how (it is argued)
could people do wrong? This is the theory of

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 5

spiritualists, and of some in the Society for
Psychical Research. But what says the gospel
in the parable? 'Tf they hear not Moses and
the prophets, neither would they be persuaded
tho' one rose from the dead." If they are not
ready to obey the law, they cannot much profit
by a miracle. Such a conviction alone, even if
it could be made permanent, would only affect
the surface of character. It lacks the true mo-
tive. It lacks spirit and life. It lacks the inward
power of God. "Except a man be born from
above, he cannot see the kingdom of God." A
faith in a future life with God left out lacks the
vital element. But faith in that world as a fea-
ture, a confirmation, of faith in God and obedi-
ence to His laws, is a power for good.

If the restless world of to-day, striving for
the things which perish, could have a true picture
of the future worlds could realize how all that
is hidden here comes to the light and judgment
of Divine truth there; and how it is the pres-
ence of the Divine Spirit in the soul which alone
banishes that love of self which makes hell and
is hell; and that we need to obey the law of
God before the Divine love can come in and
take possession ; if all could see how that inner,
religious obedience is building for itself, even
here, a real mansion in the heavens, that would
help. We need a belief in the other world that
is intelligent and rational. We do need a firmer
belief in a spiritual world ; but we need a firmer

6 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

and more rational belief in God and His laws
of life to go with it. We need the conviction
that it is the Divine voice which said and which
says, ^'Behold, I come quickly, and my reward
is with me, to give to every one according as
his work shall be."

Orderly unveilings of the spiritual world, such
as can be made public, are given in connection
with and as subsidiary to Divine revelation. The
character of those unveilings will depend upon
the state and needs of the world at the time.
The Lord also sometimes permits disorderly un-
veilings; for they may prevent a greater dis-
order.

We are not considering those personal or pri-
vate glimpses of the other life which occasionally
come before death or at other times. These, when
unsought, are sometimes right, and in harmony
with revelation.

There has never been a great, enduring re-
ligious movement without something answering
to a spiritual vision. It may not always be an
open vision, but it is a consciousness of an un-
usual presence, an unusual power. But we will
consider now only the open visions of the Bible,
and these only in a very general way.

It is true that radical critics interpret the vi-
sions of the Bible as the oriental, symbolic or
poetical imaginings of zealots in a childish and
superstitious age. But this theory, when applied
to the New Testament (where we find the bold^

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 7

est, vividest, most constant and literal assertions
of experiences in the unseen world which the
Bible contains), becomes especially weak.

The gospel begins with miraculous openings
— the angels coming to Joseph and Zacharias
and Mary. These accounts, including the vision
of the shepherds of Bethlehem, begin the gos-
pels ; and they end with the miracle of the resur-
rection and ascension. All of the scenes of the
closing book of the Bible (Revelation) are laid
in the spiritual world. It is impossible to account
for the rapid spread of Christianity without the
miracle of the resurrection. 'We know/' says
Paul, and the word ''know" is the word we
should use as witnesses in a court of law when
we take an oath that we know certain facts.
"We have heard, we have seen, our hands have
handled," says John, "the Word of Life." And
that means not only that they had seen Jesus in
the flesh, and seen Him dead and buried in the
tomb, and seen Him risen, but it means, as his
disciple Peter says in his epistle, and as three
of the gospels tell it, he, with James and John,
beheld Jesus transfigured on the mountain, and
with Him Moses and Elijah, dead for centuries.

But for these wonderful unveilings of the un-
seen world, Christianity might have been buried
with Jesus in the tomb of Joseph. Nothing else
could have rallied those scattered, disappointed
disciples, and made them willing to suffer and
die. And the crowning experience of all was

8 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

the historical fact of Jesus' resurrection — His
appearance first to one, then to two, then re-
peatedly to the eleven, and finally to more than
five hundred at one time. I do not say that these
openings of the spiritual world alone could ac-
count for Christianity. They were only the signs
of His Divinity, the seals of His teachings, the
proofs that God is love. The apostles went forth
into the world with the cry, "Christ is arisen."
By this supreme fact all the facts of the past
story of Jesus' life were explained, were glori-
fied, were spiritualized by the power of the Holy
Spirit of Truth. This supreme fact elevated the
life of Jesus above the plane of a civil reform,
and made Christianity a world religion.

Lx)oking still farther backward for a moment,
the same supernatural experiences made Judaism
possible as a preparation for Christianity thro'
the giving of the Bible, the Word of God, whose
literal sense was based upon Jewish history. It
was not a spiritual religion. It was not that
the Jewish people were better than others that
Divine revelation came through them. Moses,
the founder, tells us that they did not want it;
that they resisted it; that they constantly re-
belled against it. Only the Divine power estab-
lished it, and the exercise of that power required
supernatural experiences from beginning to end.
And hence, at the Divine dictate, Abraham came
from Ur of the Chaldees to Canaan. By the
same Divine opening of the unseen Avorld Isaac

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 9

was led, and Jacob beheld in vision the ladder
to heaven, and Moses saw the burning bush, and
Sinai thundered the voice of the living God, and
Joshua was confronted by the Captain of the
Lord's host on Jordan's farther shore, and the
prophets, from Samuel to Malachi, beheld the
scenes and heard the voice of the Lord in the
unseen world. All this was necessary, not as a
substitute for revelation, but as an accompani-
ment of revelation, and especially necessary in
those days of spiritual darkness and deadness.

If we had time, it would be interesting to
follow this thought into other fields outside of
the Bible, and to shew that not only in the es-
tablishment of the grand dispensations of re-
ligion, but in its minor reforms or renewals,
there must have come to the leaders, if not an
actual vision of the hereafter, if not an actual
lifting of the curtain dividing the two worlds,
there must have been at least a new and more
vivid consciousness of the presence of spiritual
forces, such as made Luther say, "I cannot do
otherwise," such as made Savonarola dare the
flames, or called John Wesley away from a dead
and formal state church to save and serve the
poor, and afterwards led to the reform or Trac-
tarian or Oxford movement within the church
itself.

So it must always be in all spiritual develop-
ment. If not an opening of the eyes, there must
be the sense of a Presence, a Power, beyond this

10 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

world. It was in the wild, lawless period of
Israel's history in the time of the Judges, that
it was written, ''the Word of the Lord was pre-
cious in those days; there was no open vision";
and the reform came through Samuel, to whom
the Lord openly spoke. Consciousness of the
supernatural always attends the living church.
Weakness, worldliness or sin follow when that
consciousness fails. It is the wise man Solomon
who says, ''Where there is no vision, the people
perish." Even if the veil is not actually lifted,
it may be made transparent or translucent.

But in the case of the need of great or radical
revolutions in religion, it is essential that the ac-
tual lifting of the veil accompany the revelation
of the new and needed truth. Before the one
great Jewish foundation teaching of one God
could displace the numerous sensual heathen
deities, and before the laws of the Decalogue,
which had always been substantially recognized
as laws of civil order, could be established as
the Divine foundations of human life, and thus
before the way could be prepared for Christian-
ity, God's voice must be heard, the bush must
burn, the mountain smoke, the stone tablets be
cut out without hands.

And before the Christian teaching could go
forth to the world — before the Sermon on the
Mount could unfold the deeper sense of the
Decalogue, before the disciples could carry to the
world the message of the one God of love and

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD ii

King of an everlasting Kingdom, the unseen
world must be seen or felt as a present
reality. Miraculous powers must strike off the
shackles from prisoners' hands, heal disease, and
strengthen the messengers of the Lord in the
presence of torture and death.

But, once again, we must recall the fact that
these supernatural unveilings were merely ac-
companiments of a new revelation. They were
helps in the establishment of the church as an
institution to teach God's truth and to lead men
to follow it. And the Christian unveilings were
wholly tributary to the new conception of God
and of Christian life which Jesus Christ revealed
to His followers by His life and teachings.

We reach, then, this conclusion: orderly un-
veilings of the spiritual world are always ac-
companiments, supports or confirmations of
Divine revelations.

In contrast, there are unveilings of the spirit-
ual world which we believe to be disorderly or
wrong. These are such as are sought for as
proofs of a hereafter, and whose effect is to
weaken the effect of Divine revelation instead
of strengthening it ; or to substitute the teachings
of what are believed to be disembodied spirits
in place of Divine revelation.

These wrong unveilings have existed in some
form all through the ages, and they exist to-day
in various forms, but especially in modern spirit-
ism. They are recognized and condemned all

12 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

through the Bible. They were famiHar to Moses,
the prophets and the apostles. I will refer only
to three instances:

Moses, in Deuteronomy (xviii, 9-14) says:
"There shall not be found with thee anyone that
* * * useth divination, one that practiseth
augury, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a
charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or
a wizard, or a necromancer. * * * As for
thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee
thus to do."

And we remember how Saul, in his despair in
not receiving any reply from God by Divine
means, violated this law of Moses, and consulted
the witch of Endor in the night, who called up
from the unseen world one who is called Sam-
uel, who truly predicted Saul's death at the hands
of the Philistines on the following day.

This substitution of the utterances of spirits
for the law of God was very common in the
old days. The tendency to it was especially
strong in times of trouble. And so, later on,
in the troublous days of Isaiah, that prophet,
at the mouth of the Lord, was moved to
say:

"And when they shall say unto you, seek unto
them that have familiar spirits, and unto the
wizards that chirp and that mutter; should not
a people seek unto their God? On behalf of the
living, should they seek unto the dead? To the
law and to the testimony ! If they speak not ac-

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 13

cording to this word, surely there is no light in
them."

Here we have a strong implication that the
utterances of these "familiar spirits" are not in
accord with the Divine law and testimony, and
should never be sought in their place; and we
should find, if we looked into the subject, that
the utterances of these ''familiar spirits" are
mostly opposed to the Divine law, and made a
substitute for it to-day. We should find that,
as a rule, they do not acknowledge what we call
"Divine revelation." We should find that, as
a rule, God as a Divine Personality is not ac-
knowledged, and that the supernatural utterances
of the Bible are regarded as spiritualistic mani-
festations. And we should find that the usual
tendency of these things is abnormal, often hyp-
notic, and sometimes sensual and degrading.
Doubtless this latter effect was much more
marked in the ancient days. We see then why
these practices were so often and so sternly for-
bidden.

We are living indeed in a very different age,
and it would be unjust and unkind to charge
spiritists or spiritualists as a class with evil prac-
tices; yet, when the foundation of Divine revela-
tion is destroyed, and the utterances of spirits
are substituted, there will be a tendency which
will be subversive of true freedom, some-
times mild, sometimes extreme. Two cases
have come into my own experience, in which the

14 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

effect of following the guide of alleged spirits
was an actual obsession, so that not only were
their minds hypnotized, but their bodies were
controlled. They lost their freedom of thought,
their power of will, their liberty of action, until,
through friends' help, they were enabled to turn
to the Lord Jesus. While such extreme cases
are doubtless quite rare, yet whenever anyone,
having lost his belief in revelation, and hoping
to build his faith in a hereafter on sensuous
proof, puts himself under these influences, he
loses in a measure the Divine protection. He
becomes personally known to spirits of a low,
earth-bound sort, who, unseen by him, can in-
fluence him in ways that he is ignorant of. He
puts himself in their power. These things we
learn to-day through the experiences of Emanuel
Swedenborg, who explains and warns us against
them.

But at once the question comes. Was not
Swedenborg himself a spiritualist? Did he not
claim to deal, for some twenty-eight years, with
the people of the other world?

Yes. But now, once more, I must recall our
underlying thought that there are right, orderly,
Divine openings of the unseen world as well as
disorderly ones; that the Divine and orderly
ones always come in connection with, and always
in subservience to, a Divine revelation. The
miraculous appearances of angels and spirits and
supernatural forces to Israel all centered around

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 15

the Decalogue and the revelation of one God
governing all the world. The openings of the
spiritual world to the prophets were merely ac-
companiments of a renewed Divine appeal to the
Jews to obey that law of God from Mount Sinai.
The angels of the New Testament all came to
bear witness of Jesus Christ, the Divine Man;
to testify of Him who came, "not to destroy,
but to fulfil the law and the prophets," — to re-
veal their spirit, to change the stern threatenings
of Mount Sinai, with its black clouds and lurid
lightnings and thunders, into the sunshine and
peace of the Mount of the Blessings — to make
the light of love disperse the shadows of fear.
At the heart of all was the thought of God in
Jesus Christ, revealing the true Divine character.
A vision of the other world must needs attend
it, that men might be helped to realize that His
Kingdom is not of this world. It must attend
it, that in all the changes and chances, all the
trials and troubles of this mortal life, they may
keep that promise before them-: "let not your
heart be troubled ; * * * I will come again,
and receive you unto myself."

And as it was then, so is it now. If the un-
veilings of the unseen world at Bethlehem, at
Tabor, at Gethsemane, at the resurrection on
Calvary, or the ascension on Olivet, had for their
purpose that which John, the apostle, describes
at the close of his gospel : ''these things are
written that ye may believe that Jesus is the

i6 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye
may have life through His name," so is it now.

And this is Swedenborg's message. He tells
us that Christian doctrine and Christian life had
declined through the ages; that gradually its
spirit was lost; that the original thought of one
God — the Divine foundation which Judaism was
established to teach — was lost, so that the thought
of the love of Jesus as the supreme power gave
place to the thought of a stern Supreme Deity
separate from Jesus. The establishment of the
doctrine of the Trinity of Persons in God, and
of Jesus as a vicarious substitute for the sins of
men, and of the church and its head as the Vicar
of Christ on earth, and of faith alone or obedi-
ence to sacraments as an equivalent for a loving
life of obedience to God's commandments of old
— all this tended to destroy the real Christian
church, and to make another revelation from
God necessary to restore and also to unfold more
deeply and rationally the teaching of the apostles.

Strange as it may sound, this is Swedenborg's
claim, namely, first, to restore the original teach-
ings of Christianity, and, second, to set them
upon a new, advanced, and rational basis. He
calls himself "the servant of the Lord Jesus
Christ." He comes wholly in His name. He
speaks by His command. He comes, not to de-
stroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfil them.
He comes in the name of the Lord and of His
Word of old time, to lead the church back to

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 17

the old foundations, but not to lead it backwards
to the dark and cruel ages in which it was born,
or to stop at its undeveloped conception of Chris-
tianity. Swedenborg's) teaching's are at once
thoroughly Christian, conservative and progres-
sive. Jesus, in His glorified form, is God, and so
God is one, and God is love and unselfishness it-
self. The Bible remains, as of old, the Word of
God, the church's chart and compass, but while
enforcing its practical and literal precepts, it is
explained as to its deeper or spiritual meaning,
which meaning is adapted not only to the needs
of a rational age into which the world is now
entering, but to the needs of the deeper, truer
Christian life which will develop in the future.
All that is revealed is for the sake of this true
human life — a life of religion built upon the Di-
vine laws of soul and body; for, according to
Swedenborg, "All religion is a thing of life, and
the life of religion is to do good."

These things, told in barest outline, are the
essential and vital features of the message which
Swedenborg, in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, brings to the world, and which we, who
accept his teachings as a revelation, feel it our
duty and our privilege to declare to all the world.
It is Christianity, but a Christianity at once
spiritualized and rationalized, and adapted to the
new age of universal education and developing
reason. Without asserting that all mysteries are
explained, we assert that a grand foundation

i8 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

has been laid for their explanation, and doubt-
less the darkness that lingers will be dissipated
as we learn to live the life.

I have dwelt upon these vital teachings of
Swedenborg with the purpose of bringing them
into contrast with what is commonly believed
about his teachings. It is commonly believed
that his works deal with his supposed experi-
ences in the spiritual world. But what is the
fact? The fact is that out of his twenty-nine
chief volumes which were published by him in
furtherance of his spiritual mission (after he
learned of that mission through the opening of
his spiritual sight), seventeen volumes are de-
voted chiefly to the unfolding of the spiritual
sense of Scripture, six are treatises on theology,
three on spiritual philosophy, one on marriage
and its opposites, one on the Earths in the Uni-
verse, one on the Last Judgment, and only one
limited volume on the spiritual world. And as
for publishing the dicta of spirits, he tells us
he never wrote anything from their dictation or
suggestion, but from the Divine influence, which
he could sensibly perceive, and distinguish from
all other influences. And, moreover, he explains
and in a manner predicts spiritism and warns us
against its dangers in the strongest possible way.
In all respects, Swedenborg's unveilings of the
unseen coincide with the methods of the prophets.
This is one of the thoughts that I would leave
with you.

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 19

And the other and chief thought is that with
which we began, namely, that while there exists
in all of us what we may call an instinct of im-
mortality, this instinct, apart from and unguided
by revelation, is, in the case of savage tribes,
changed into superstition and magic, and with
those less degraded tends to different forms of
spiritism. Whenever, through abnormal condi-
tions of mind or body, the other world, on its
lowest side, becomes more or less known to the
senses of people through mediumistic agency, the
effect upon both mediums and their followers is
likely to be injurious to the higher Christian life,
and liable to be physically as well as spiritually
disastrous. This is Swedenborg's teaching as
well as the result of experience and observation.

But this is not the effect of the unveilings
which attend revelation. In these the openings
of heaven are utilized to serve and strengthen
the truths of revelation. The true prophets' vi-
sions are visions of God. He calls them to this
service, and they are guarded from danger be-
cause they are in the way of duty. Being in
the way of duty, God's angels, of whom it is
said that they shall keep men in all their ways —
the ways of duty — they could be kept from harm ;
and so Swedenborg, as he tells us, was protected.
He never sought to be a prophet. He shunned
all desire to make for himself a name. He was
a humble man, believing deeply in God, origi-
nally a scientist, whose aim was to find the human

20 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

soul. Like the prophets, his mission came un-
sought. Like them, the unveihng of the here-
after came unbidden. Gradually his sight was
opened, and finally he learned that his mission
was to make known to the world the principles
of a new and rational Christianity.

And so, wonderful and helpful as are Sweden-
borg's teachings about the spiritual world (and
they are wonderfully helpful), we are taught to
think of them only in connection with the spirit-
ual principles of living taught in Divine revela-
tion, or in the Bible, opened and rationalized by
Swedenborg. Beautiful and real as is the pic-
ture of heaven which he gives us, yet we are led
by means of it to remember that, as Jesus said,
"the Kingdom of God is within you." All that
Swedenborg tells us about the other world re-
minds us of our duty in this world ; calls us back
to this world ; tells us that it is our duty to shun
all evils, not chiefly for the sake of our personal
salvation, but to shun them as sins against the
Master and His life of love.

In short, there is a similar relation between
Swedenborg's doctrines of life (if we call them
his) and his teachings about the other world
that there is between the law of life given in
the Commandments from Mt. Sinai and the thun-
derings and lightnings and the other prodigies
attending their utterance; or the same as be-
tween the prophets' message, "Cease to do evil,
learn to do well," and the opening of their spirit-

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 21

ual eyes to see God in His throne, and hear the
cherubim crying, "Holy, holy, holy." Only now
the picture of the other world is a rational and
practical as well as religious one. It does not
appeal to our curiosity, but to our faith. It up-
lifts, broadens and sanctifies life as never before,
destroying superstition^ strengthening us for
righteous endeavor, bringing the spirit of judg-
ment to bear upon the daily life of deed and mo-
tive, making all places holy ground, enabling us
to look forward with joy to the life to come,
removing as never before the sting of death, by
the knowledge that death, to the faithful, is but
the passageway to a larger, wiser, nobler life,
guided, nourished, led on from glory to glory,
from strength to strength by the leadership of
the Good Shepherd, the infinite love and supreme
wisdom of the Glorified, Jesus Christ our Lord.

PART II

WHY MUST THERE BE A SPIRIT-
UAL WORLD?

WHY MUST THERE BE A SPIRITUAL
WORLD?

Why is a Spiritual World necessary to our
faith? What is its place and use in the
economy of religion? An extreme form of the
question would be, why may we not dispense with
the idea of another life altogether, and devote
ourselves wholly to this life? A very different
and more vital form of the question is, what, in
the Heavenly Father's sight, and in His purpose
for His children, is the use and necessity of a
spiritual world? And finally, the question will
be specific, viz. : how should the thought of the
spiritual world, as we are taught to think of it
now, affect our lives, our purposes, our char-
acters, to-day?*

Why should we believe in it at all ? First, be-
cause life would have no sufficient, no worthy
meaning without it. How many have asked, in
the light of this world and of its experiences
alone, "Is life worth living?" And while some^
whose lines have fallen to them in pleasant places,

* The question is not to be considered on the broad
ground of philosophy, but in the light of common sense,
together with some reference to Swedenborg's teachings,

25

26 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

with a goodly heritage of heredity, health and
balanced temperament, and opportunity of free-
dom and leisure, might say, '*Yes, it is worth
while," yet even such, like Solomon, except for
the thought that God reigns, might question it
when the sun of life's day sinks low in the heav-
ens, when the evil days come, and they say, **I
have no pleasure in them," and the windows are
darkened, and the doors closed, and one looks
forward to the time when the silver cord shall
be loosed, and the golden bowl broken, or the
pitcher broken at the fountain, the wheel at the
cistern, and the dust shall return to the earth
as it was. Then comes the verdict of the wise
man, wise in this world, but not looking beyond
this world : ''Vanity of vanities ; all is vanity."
But on the other hand, with the poet:

"Grow old along with me,

The best is yet to be —

The last of life, for which the first was made.

Our times are in His hand, Who saith, a whole I planned.

Youth shows but half; trust God, see all, nor be afraid."

But looking at the subject from the light of
this world, they have far more reason than Solo-
mon (who had every earthly blessing) to ques-
tion the desirableness of this life to whom it has
brought suffering or joyless labor, or enforced
sorrow ; unless, indeed, they are able to look, con-
sciously or unconsciously, far beyond the three-
score years and ten. And even if we have ex-

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 27

perienced the Christian's deepest blessing — the
inward presence of the Master; even when we
can say with the Apostle, ''I live, yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me," yet if this world were all,
we should presently be compelled, with the same
Apostle, to say, "If in this life only we have hope
of Christ, we are of all men most miserable."
For it would be wholly senseless for the Heav-
enly Father to put the cup of joy to His chil-
dren's lips only to withdraw it at once and for-
ever. All persons, or all who have risen above
their animal nature, would be miserable without
some conscious or half conscious recognition of
a better world — who have a hope if not a faith;
but those who have obtained a glimpse of life's
highest meaning would be of all men most miser-
able. Life would be meaningless if not worth-
less; it would seem to be an insult, not only to
intelligence, but to all that is sacred, all that is
in the highest sense human in man.

But apart from all this, there is such a thing as
a wholly blind recognition of another world — a
testimony to its existence, taking the form of a
love of life in this world, common to all human
beings, even the criminal classes. When the poor
criminal struggles, with the aid of every artifice
of falsehood and of feature and of law, to es-
cape conviction, and, when convicted, hopes for a
change of sentence of death to that of perpetual
imprisonment — this struggle for a life that, if it
were all there is, would hardly be worth living.

28 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

is an unconscious recognition of a life to come.
When a man seeks to rear up for himself a monu-
ment, whether as a mausoleum, or a library, or
church, or hospital, or university, or a family
name or a kingdom — something which shall carry
his name down to posterity, it is (Swedenborg
tells us) a result of the spirit of the immortal
world, flowing into an earth-bound soul, and
hence perverted.

The truth is that we are all spirits living in
the spiritual w^orld now, only the five senses of the
spiritual body are so completely veiled over by
their connection with the five senses of the ma-
terial body, that the spiritual world in which we
are actually living, and its people, with whom we
are most intimately associating, are yet person-
ally unknown to and unrecognized by us. In the
poet's phrase, we ''move about in worlds unreal-
ized." Yet we are drawing our chief mental
forces from that world. Without that compan-
ionship we could not think nor act. We are
never alone, even in the darkest solitudes of the
forest, or the deepest silences of the desert.

But, as said before, the suggestions from the
immortal world, the very impressions of immor-
tality which flow in are affected by our own
states, and assume an earthly form or coloring.
Thus Ponce de Leon was in search of the fabled
Fountain of Youth when he discovered Florida.
Only a single generation ago the celebrated phys-
iologist, Brown-Sequard, believed he was on the

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 29

track of something which would indefinitely pro-
long life here, when he died. These were blind
recognitions of a spiritual world.

Partly because of the old erroneous belief that
death was a result of sin, the inflowing spirit of
the immortal world has fathered the belief and
given birth to the hope of earthly immortality.
But consider how childish is such a conception!
Abolish death, and in a few years our earth
would be crowded to suffocation, unless births
were abolished also. And that would mean a
limit to a Divine Father's infinite and loving pur-
pose. The earth as a schooling for heaven would
be no more. Then what would become, or what
has become of the countless host who have al-
ready passed on, if there be no other world? The
rule of ''first come, first served," would be re-
versed, and "last come only served," substituted.
The past would be meaningless ; and there would
be no future, save for the few.

And again. How unfit would be this world
for immortal life ! The eternally expanding needs
of the human soul would be "cribbed, cabined,
confined," enslaved within the narrow limits of
space and time, and one small planet at that. It
would be not the promised "large place" of Bible
freedom, but a prison.

When the child opens his eyes upon this world
it is new and grand and beautiful. But the aged,
with failing powers, are apt to echo the psalmist's
question, "Who will shew us any good," until.

30 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

in faith, they are able to look forward, and finish
the verse : ''Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy
countenance upon us."

A figure rises before my mental vision out of
the memories of the past. It is a very aged
man, helpless, almost blind, quite deaf, and with
a partly paralyzed throat and tongue. But mak-
ing a great effort, he finally whispers, "waiting,
waiting!" Waiting for what? Waiting in vain?
Is that hope, bound up with the deepest, sweet-
est elements of his being — that w^hich has helped
to hold him true to his God and his fellow beings,
a vain delusion? Nay, he is waiting to see Him
in whom he has believed ; Him whom he has tried
to follow through the hard lines, the thorny path-
way of this life; waiting for that world where he
can find youth and strength to serve his brethren
again; waiting for the night to give place to the
dawn, and for the shadows to flee away; waiting
for the fulfilment of the promise, *'Eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the
heart of man, what He hath prepared for them
that love Him."

Wliy, then, the spiritual world? Because, on
the mere negative side, nothing else will explain
human longings, human faith, human hope, hu-
man uplooking, human excellence. Because with-
out it life would be meaningless. Because this
world can never satisfy the soul's needs. Be-
cause this world's experiences can never satisfy
the sense even of justice. Misty, irrational and

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 31

imperfect as the faith in immortality has been, it
has held a vital place among the forces which
make for progress. If we ask for the reason of
early Christianity's power — ^its power to conquer
Rome and to overcome the world; its power to
sustain men suffering the most cruel tortures ; its
power to purify the heart from sin and selfish-
ness, we shall find it in the realization of the love
of God, as shown in Christ Jesus their Lord ; and
we shall find the thought of that love so bound
up with the conception of a kingdom not of this
world, that the two cannot be separated. With
the thought of immortality left out, the love of
Jesus would have had small significance. The
original symbol of Christianity was not the cross,
but the Good Shepherd, with the lamb in his arms.
And the power of that picture lay in the thought
contained in His words : '*My sheep hear my
voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and
/ give unto them eternal life, and they shall never
perish/' His love, I say, was bound up with the
thought of eternal life. "In the world ye shall
have tribulation; but be of good cheer." And
again, the converse is true; the true thought of
eternal life is bound up with Him. Without
Him the spiritual world is soulless. For in His
last prayer He said, "This is life eternal, that
they may know Thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.'' Eternal
life in its high sense means not chiefly continua-
tion of existence, but life ruled by His spirit of

Z2 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

love, life of the soul, life in His kingdom in
union with Him. But His kingdom cannot reach
its perfection in a realm of time and space. His
kingdom is not of this world.

And when we realize, as we are taught now,
that Jesus Christ glorified is God ; that whoever
sees Him sees the Father, whose children we all
are, sees the Good Shepherd, whose flock we are ;
when we realize that His love is not only for
time, but eternity, then we can understand the
necessity of an eternal world. And we can
understand the necessity of our planet and of
all planets continuing to fulfil their use of lay-
ing the foundations of our eternal existence. As
Paul said : "That was not first which is spiritual,
but that which is natural; and afterwards that
which is spiritual." \\'hen the foundation is laid,
then we may go hence into a world free from the
restrictions and restraints of the material world
and body into a world where, because He lives,
life shall live also.

Now let us try to understand why death, in
the light of the New Church, is the very opposite
of what it seems, and why it is a blessing, not a
curse. All are familiar with the words of the
Saviour spoken in connection with the prediction
of His own decease and departure : 'The hour is
come, that the Son of Man should be glorified.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of
wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 33

fruit." Glorified! How often He prayed to
be glorified, to be delivered from the limitations
of the earthly nature, to put off the finite, and to
put on the Divine ! But He must finish His v^ork
here, His work of redemption, first. He must
overcome the evil powers, and restore mankind
to spiritual freedom, so that they may also over-
come and go forth to their larger heritage with
Him in His own world and kingdom. He de-
scribed His own deliverance from limitations and
His entrance upon the unlimited freedom and
glory and power of the Divine life by the figure
of the death of the planted grain of wheat spring-
ing up into a stalk producing many grains. What
He said of the effect of death upon Himself is
true in a finite measure of all of us, at least of
all who have striven to follow the Master amid
the limitations and temptations of this world.
Let us then endeavor to understand this truth in
the light of the New-Church teachings.

Death frees us from bondage to weak or im-
perfect physical bodies. How many men of large
means are there who would not be willing to give
up almost everything for the rugged health of the
laborer? Death frees us from bondage to uncon-
genial surroundings, duties and associations.
Necessary as are these surroundings and duties,
here, vital and Providential as are this world and
its experiences, yet our permanent home is not
here. Death sets us free to seek our real home.
Strive as we may, we cannot, even with unlimited

34 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

means, and able to command the services, the
labors, the talents, the art, of the whole world,
make our surroundings satisfy our real inner
needs. It is to be doubted whether there is any
deeper discontent than prevails with such as these,
unless they are able, consciously or unconsciously,
to look beyond this world. There is nothing in a
world of mere things that can permanently sat-
isfy. It is impossible to make a permanent home
in a world of things, while it is possible, by the
right use of things, to see the spiritual life shin-
ing dimly through materiality. But we need
more than a dim vision of realities. We may be
comparatively happy and at peace here, but it is
only when something of the spirit of the immortal
world shines through. But the soul cries out,
even in the best conditions, for a larger freedom.
It cries out, with Moses in the desert, 'T beseech
Thee, shew me Thy glory."

Our life zvill be larger in the spiritual world
if we have lived rightly here. The dying seed
will bring forth many grains. We shall be in
freedom as to body. "The inhabitant shall not
say, I am sick." Like Israel in the wilderness,
there will not be one feeble person among the
tribes of heaven. As to the body, we shall be
freer, because no longer handicapped by illness,
age, or infirmity. No fear of the physical re-
sults of overdoing. The body will respond to the
soul.

We shall be free from the friction of nncon-

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 35

genial companions and surroundings. We can
command at once by our desire the presence of
those we love. The environment, too, when once
we have ''found ourselves" in that world, will be
a help and not a hindrance. No more conflict be-
tween earthly and heavenly demands, the ''law
in the members" warring with the mind.

IVe shall be free as to mind and heart; there
will he opportunities for enlarged knozdedge.
There will be a wonderfully enlarged and deep-
ened intelligence as well as a vastly increased
fund of knowledge. We shall understand the
causes of things rather than their phenomena.
We can command the presence and help of wise
instructors, who will also be loving friends. They
will come at the spirit's call. They will help to
answer the formerly mysterious questions. They
will make plain those vital truths of heaven which
we have seen here, in Paul's words, only "as
through a glass darkly" (that is, by a reflection
in the dim, polished, copper mirror). The help-
ers there will make these things plain, beautiful,
vibrant with life. "They shall see His face,
and His name shall be in their foreheads."
"They need no candle, neither light of the
sun."

Again, it is a peculiarity of that world, that all
the things which appear before the senses are in
harmony with and helpful relation to the internal
states and needs of the soul. This is a truth so
new to the world, so different from what we are

36 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

familiar with, that it is not easy to tell it, and less
easy to grasp it. If we hear, for example, that
the surroundings change with the states of mind,
it might seem to destroy all reality, and make
objective nature a kind of phantasmagoria. But
the truth is, the spiritual world is really as fixed
and substantial as we could desire. It is not the
fixity of materiality, but because the permanent
states of mind of its inhabitants are fixed, or, at
most, very slow to change. But fixed as is human
character as a whole, it has its temporary moods
or needs, and these are reflected in the other
world by temporary changes in outward nature,
and temporary companionships, which serve both
for illustration and improvement. The spir-
itual world may be said to have quite as
much fixedness as this world, but its peo-
ple may be said to move about at will, so to
speak, among its various scenes. Or, the homes
of heaven are, in general, fixed and unchanging,
but the particulars vary with the states and needs
of their occupants. The spiritual world is full of
truly living pictures. How we labor here to illus-
trate thoughts so that children can grasp them!
In heaven an angel mother, teaching the little
child who has gone from the earth, can call upon
outward nature to reproduce that thought, and
it is done. Is it historical characters she would
describe ? They can be made to appear in living
form, until the lesson is learned. W'ould she
teach some profound Bible truth? (For they

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD Z7

have the Bible there in a more living expression.)
That truth can be reproduced in beautiful and
living heavenly symbols in a manner that will
be understood by and be delightful to the childish
mind and heart, as well as to the mature under-
standing.

And so, with adults as well as children, every
facility is furnished to guide the soul onward into
deeper realms of truth, into deeper, sweeter and
broader states of love for God and man, and into
larger capacities for usefulness.

As to the question of usefulness, that is, of
heavenly occupations, here, too, our life will be
larger, for we shall be at home. It is but little
that we know, or are capable of knowing, about
heavenly occupations. I have alluded to the care
of children or young people, who have been
taken. If parents knew what is being done for
them on the other side, their hearts would have
deep cause for rejoicing, although their natural
feelings would still remain. We remember what
the Bible says of the angels having charge over
us here, both adults and children. If we could
realize what is being done for us all through our
life here by unseen guardians, whom the Lord
calls to this service, we should all rejoice. Can
we better show our gratitude than by daily co-
operation with them, and when the helpful, kindly
thought comes, or the flash of inspiration to do,
not our own, but the loving Father's will, may
we not thank the Father that He has sent His

38 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

angels, and be grateful that we have been worthy
of such association, even for a little while?

We might pursue the subject of the enlarge-
ment of useful opportunity, the deepening of char-
acter, the opening up of the soul to higher and
higher realms of truth, afforded by the spiritual
world. With time we might make it clearer why
that world is necessary, not only to explain the
meaning of the life here, but necessary to explain
why the deep longings of the human heart can-
not be satisfied here, and to show how, in that
domain of living substance, all human powers are
set free. All will have room for exercise, room
for service to fellow-men — room for intellect and
will, for heart and hands; room to grow in un-
derstanding, love and power; room to learn truth
without error and without obscurity; room for
the soul to expand and receive more and more of
the Father's willing gifts; opportunity to ap-
proach nearer and nearer to Him who loves us,
and who made us to be images and likenesses of
Himself. And so death is no more a grinning
monster, but a beautiful angel, bidding the spirit
to go forth to its birthright of heavenly wealth of
wisdom, love and usefulness; bidding the one
grain of earthly capacity to die, that it may bring
forth 30, 60 or 100 grains.

I have tried to answer, why is the spiritual
world necessary? Why is faith in it vital to
men? And now, in conclusion, let uic apply that
to our own special thought of the spiritual world^

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 39

which we believe to be revealed from heaven, with
this single question in mind : *'What is the legiti-
mate effect of this special teaching upon life and
character? Or, what use does it serve?"

It serves two great purposes.

I. It presents a clear and attractive picture of
the future home. Taught wisely in early child-
hood, let me assure you that it remains a beautiful
vision of reality to look forward to. It banishes
the old, irrational, misty thought of a bodily
resurrection ; it gives us a rational thought in its
place ; it has power to remove the old fear of T"^
death; and while it cannot destroy our natural ^ —
affection, so that we can no longer mourn for
those we love, who have gone in advance of us,
it does help greatly to modify our grief, and
bring our loved ones nearer.

Let me illustrate one of these statements re-
specting the effect of this teaching. A promising
young man, indirectly connected with the church
of my former pastorate at Cincinnati, won the af-
fections of a young and very beautiful girl in a
distant city, who had been brought up in the light
of our faith. The union was brief. She was
taken ill, and grew worse. When her husband,
who was most tenderly attached to her, was ex-
pressing to her his own grief and his sympathy
for her in the almost certain prospect of death,
she replied cheerfully, *'0h, death is nothing; it
is merely like passing from this room into the
next." In this state she fell asleep. This faith

40 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

removes the fear of death. I might say more
and add, without hesitation, that it often makes
the thought of going hence positively attractive,
as one would love to go to a country beautiful
in climate, soil, scenery, and where love and jus-
tice reign supreme, and the love of Jesus Christ
rules over all.

2. The other thought is this :

Our vision of the other world, or, at any rate,
the vision of heaven, while in one aspect very
beautiful, is in another aspect quite forbidding.
For it is not merely a beautiful, sentimental pic-
ture of a lovely home. It tells of the beauty of
the soul and life. The beauty of heaven, the
peace and joy of heaven, are possible only to the
unselfish, the pure in heart, the just and true in
word and act, the transparent in character. And
not only in the sight of men, but in the sight of
Him who reads the heart. True in motive and
purpose, as well as word and deed, must they be
wdio would attain the heavenly state. More-
over, our teaching is, that it is on earth that we
must begin that life. Here must the foundations
be laid. And while the blind in the world or the
ignorant and incapable are not to be judged as
are the intelligent, they who have the light are
responsible according to their light. And so the
light or truth of heaven is a judgment. The pic-
ture of heaven which we behold, so far from
leading us away from life's duties, or bidding us
dwell in sentiment, almost sternly bids us return

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 41

to this world and be faithful to our duties and to
God's commandments if we ever expect to attain
heaven. It holds up the ten commandments of
Mount Sinai as the holy law of God, written with
his own finger, and obedience to them as the basis
of heavenly life. It also opens up the deeper
meanings of those commandments, until they are
seen to be laws searching the heart to its inner-
most depths. It tells of the vital importance of
each period of life, the sacredness of every day
and hour, as the seasons and opportunities for
preparation for an unending existence. It tells
of the obligation resting upon us, to use all our
talent, all our possessions, as a trust placed in
our hands by the Lord, to be employed in His
service, that is, in the service of our fellow men.

Why, then, the spiritual world ? Why does the
human race, in all ages, lands and faiths, believe
in it? Because there is a universal human de-
mand for such a faith — a demand of the heart,
of the intellect, and a demand growing out of
life's experience. The belief in it is necessary,
on man's part, to satisfy his faith in the Divine
justice, and in the Divine love. The spiritual
world is necessary, on the Lord's part, to satisfy
His love for us as His children — that love which
can only be satisfied by giving them the gift of
eternal life.

Because, once more, it is absolutely essential
to human development. We have powers which
cannot be developed in the restrictions of material

42 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

space and time. We ask questions which cannot
be fully answered here. We are capable of a use-
fulness and happiness impossible here. Death is
essential as a stepping stone to that more abun-
dant life which the Saviour has promised us. It
was expedient that He go away from His disciples
in body that He might come closer to them in
spirit. Where He was, there He promised that
we should be also. He can fulfil that promise
fully only in His own and the soul's own world.
And finally, the revelation of that world which
has been given for our use today is necessary, we
believe, to establish our faith in immortality upon
the rational basis befitting a manhood age of the
church, to deliver our faith from its childish
superstitions, and to furnish us with substantial
reasons for right living here and now, and to
supply nutriment for that inner and higher motive
life which prevails in heaven.

PART III
WHERE IS THE SPIRITUAL WORLD?

WHERE IS THE SPIRITUAL WORLD?

At the eastern end of Lake Geneva, in Switzer-
land, high up among the hills, overlooking the
noble scenery of that region, is an attractive
resting place for tourists. Across the lake to
the south mountains a mile and a half high rise
abruptly from the shore. Farther away, to the
left, loftier peaks, covered with eternal snow,
are visible. From a still higher point back in
the hills Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn appear
on the dim horizon.

But this view requires a clear atmosphere. On
the average summer morning even the mountain
across the lake is covered with clouds. As one
watches for the near mountain outline, when the
mists are rising at the bidding of the strength-
ening sun, one first sees it as the outline of the
cloud, the sole difference being the permanence
of the mountain lines, while the cloud lines
change. But by and by, the form becomes
clearer, and at last the whole magnificent pros-
pect is revealed.

Observing this phenomenon recently, this
thought came :

With most people, spiritual subjects, or, as the

45

46 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

Bible calls them, "lofty" subjects, including the
thought of a spiritual world, are misty, mysteri-
ous, sometimes even painful; spiritual things
mingle with clouds of fancy or with superstitions.
It does not destroy the faith of the true hearted
but obscures it. But where the pride of intellect
prevails, spiritual things are, for this reason, apt
to seem like all cloud and no mountain. Some
do not hesitate to attribute the faith in the here-
after to dreams, or abnormal bodily conditions.

But other thinkers say that the fact of the
universal permanency of faith in a life after
death among all nations, notwithstanding its
cloudiness, is one of the strongest evidences of
its truth.

Will the mists ever arise? Hear what the
prophet says:

"He will destroy in this mountain the face
of the covering cast over all people, and the veil
that is spread over all nations. He will swallow
up death in victory, and the Lord will wipe away
tears from off all faces." Hear also our Lord's
words : "The son of man shall come in the
clouds of heaven with power and great glory."
Again: "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men, and there shall be no more death."

Instead of the belief of the past — i. e., a be-
lief in the second advent of the Saviour in the
literal clouds of the sky — think of an advent of
His Spirit of love and truth, making the clouds
which cover the Bible's surface bright with new

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 47

meaning, and dispersing the clouds of the mind,
which mingle faith with superstition, if not with
fear or dread.

Our Lord also said, "I have many things to
say to you, but ye cannot bear them now. But
when the Spirit of truth is come. He will guide
you into all truth, and will show you things to
come."

This church stands for the belief that these
promises have been or are being fulfilled; that
light has been given on all great spiritual sub-
jects, including the thought of the life after
death. And what is said here will be based upon
what has been in this way revealed.

I would like at once to come to that aspect of
our subject which would be a comfort to those
who are mourning the loss of loved ones. This
I shall hope to do a little later. But now I
shall speak more to the mind than to the heart,
and more to the scientific than the higher mind,
for our thought is merely preparatory. I shall
speak to those who are asking the question,
"Where is the spiritual world?" whether the ques-
tion implies a doubt of the existence of any such
world, or whether it be an earnest, rational in-
quiry, devoid of prejudice or doubt.

It is a question to which all believers, savage
or civilized, have made some reply. With the
Greeks and Romans, feeble in spirituality, the
world of spirits was underground; with the
tribes of northeastern Siberia it was under the

48 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

ocean; with the North American Indians it was
on the earth's surface, far away. All would
point and say, *'Lo, it is there."

But with a large part of the race, including
Christians, it has been thought to be somewhere
above, in suns or planets or stars, or beyond.
With the old Druids the Milky Way was re-
garded as a procession of human souls on their
journey to a far off home. Christians' thought
has been almost as cloudy and fanciful. Talk-
ing about a spiritual world, they have longed
for something solid, fixed, material, and so they
have even taken up with the old heathen concep-
tion of the resurrection of the material body in
a rejuvenated material world, and the thought
has vibrated between this and the dream of
planets or stars as the future home. And why?
Because they wanted to associate their loved ones
gone with the thought of reality, solidity, and
they are willing to make use of superstitions and
myths in order to preserve this idea of reality,
and so, too, they visit the graves of their be-
loved. But faith persists in spite of the mists.
The outline of the mountain remains permanent,
unlike the clouds.

Let us first ask the Bible our question — not,
indeed, those parts which are expressing opinions,
but those in w^hich the spiritual world actually
comes to view.

Recall the passage in II Kings (VI. 17), in
which Elisha prayed that his servant's eyes might

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 49

be opened, and they were opened. They were
not the eyes of his earthly body, which had pre-
viously seen the horses and chariots of the
Syrians in the plain, but the eyes of a different
body, which could see the horses and chariots of
fire on the mountain.

The shepherds of Bethlehem saw the glory
in the night time and heard the angels' song.
Nobody else saw or heard them, as far as we
are informed. They must have had other eyes
and ears opened, which commonly are closed.

Up to a high mountain apart Jesus led Peter,
James and John, where they saw their Master
in His glorious body, and with Him Moses and
Elijah, who had been dead, as we call it, the
one for eight, the other for fifteen centuries.
Then suddenly the eyes that saw these things
were closed, and Jesus was seen alone, and His
shining garments gave place to the travel-stained
Syrian raiment.

In all these instances and many more recorded
in the Bible the eyes and ears and sometimes other
senses of the spiritual body, unless the Bible tells
of fancy and not fact, were opened into the spirit-
ual world. Where was that world? If you had
a'sked Elisha's servant, he would have said,
"Why, it is here." So would the shepherds. If
we must answer in the terms of space and time,
so must we say it is not in sky or suns or planets,
not far away, but here — close at hand. Put away
this misty dream of travelling through space, in

so RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

the company of planets, suns and comets. A veil
falls from the inner eyes, and we are there.
Sometime that veil will fall from the eyes of all,
and death will be death no more.

And now let us try to answer the question
in the light of the New-Church philosophy, ap-
proaching it from the earthly side. Here is the
solid earth, with its rock basis, which to our
senses is the most real of all things. Divided up
into farms or town lots, we call it real estate.
In one sense — the lowest sense — it is real (not
imaginary, as the idealist thinks), but in another
sense it is the least real of all things, because
the deadest of all things, or the least alive. Let
us understand how, and thus where, we are to
look for genuine realty or reality.

Surrounding the earth and extending above
it for perhaps a hundred miles is the air we
breathe, and which is the medium of sound to
the ear. Within the air, and penetrating it in
every direction, scientists have discovered an-
other atmosphere of a much more vital kind,
which is the medium of both light and elec-
tricity, which they call ether. And now they
suspect that there is still another vastly more
refined atmosphere, which is the medium of
gravitation, that very mysterious force which
has baffled thought for ages.

Now observe, if you please, how the vitality,
that is, the life, and in this sense the reality, in-
creases as we pass from the gross to the refined,

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 51

or as we approach the spiritual. The motion
of the waves of the sea may be at the rate of
ten or fifteen miles an hour. The motion of
the waves in the air, which conveys sound, is
about 1,200 feet in a second. The motion of
the waves in the ether, which conveys light and
also electricity, is about 180,000 miles in a sec-
ond. The motion of the waves in that more sub-
tile medium which conveys the force of gravita-
tion appears to take no time at all. For while it
requires eight minutes for light to come to us
from the sun, or at the rate of twelve million
miles a minute, this motion is like the crawling
of a snail compared with that of the gravitation
force, which operates instantly between star and
star.

That is to say, the deeper we penetrate into
the mysteries of nature, the nearer we come to
nature's swiftest forces. And another fact is
that in these deeply concealed, invisible atmos-
pheres are the most vital, most powerful forces.
Take away the motion of the ether, and all light
and heat would fail. Remove gravitation, and
not only would rivers no longer flow, and the
tides of the ocean fail, but planets and suns would
cease to revolve. All life would perish.

We have seen how nature is made up of layers
or degrees, one within another, the deepest or
most hidden being the most vital and real. But
now, instead of nature as a whole, let us think
of man.

52 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

It has been said by another that, if we sepa-
rate the bony system from the rest of the body,
it is recognizable as human, although as a skele-
ton it is crude and repellent. Here we have one
degree of the body, the lowest, most earthly
part, separate from the others. Again, if we
should separate the circulatory system of heart
and branching arteries and veins in all their num-
berless ramifications even to the smallest capil-
laries, and could hold it up before us, we should
see a much more perfect human form. Here is
another separate degree. Once more, if we could
separate the brain with its branching nerves from
all the rest, we should behold a still more per-
fect human form, very distinct in its degree from
all the rest, and superior to all the rest.

Now the brain, with its nervous system., is
more interior, more secret, and hence more diffi-
cult to understand, than all the rest. Only in
these last days have physiologists begun to com-
prehend it. Its workings can never be seen, as
can those of the bones or circulatory system. It
can only be known by experiments with living
creatures, or else through accidents or injuries
to its several parts. The life of the body is in
the brain. Injure one small part of the brain,
and the eye cannot see ; another, and the ear can-
not hear; another, and the tongue cannot speak
words; another, and the mind cannot grasp
words, although it can understand as well as
ever; another, and the power of movement is

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 53

destroyed. The brain rules every part of the
body. It is the body in a higher form.

But the brain itself is, on its part, only a serv-
ant to the mind, which is distinct from it, and
wholly out of sight. Here, then, is the real man
— the being who thinks, and loves, and chooses;
the being who has power to live to the flesh, or
to the spirit. It is not the eye that sees, but the
brain ; nor yet the brain, but the mind. The eye
is but a superior opera glass, fitted to the eye of
the brain, and the brain a far superior opera
glass, fitted to the eye of the mind. You observe
that the mind is so far above, or so far within,
or so far distant from the lower stratum of this
world that it takes several opera glasses to bring
earth near enough to be seen!

And yet, with all this great chasm between
mind (or spirit) and matter, how easy it is, by
means of these opera glasses, to bring the mind
down to earth! And here is the sad part of it,
that the mind cannot only look down to earth,
but in its freedom it may actually descend to
earth and make its home there; and, like the
accursed serpent in Eden, crawl with its whole
length in the dust. And this, by the way, is
involved in that Bible story of Eden and the fall.

Departing from our immediate thought for
one moment, let us inquire what happened to
Elisha's servant when he saw the horses and
chariots of fire, and the shepherds of Bethlehem,
or to the disciples at the transfiguration ? Simply

54 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

this : the opera glass of the brain became detached
for a moment from the mind above it, so that
the mind became free to use some of the senses
of its spiritual body.

For this fact that the mind sees, and hears,
and tastes, and touches, and not the eye, or ear,
or tongue, or hands, means that the mind is in
the human form, having its own organized body,
with all its parts, only made of a different mate-
rial, or substance. The invisible mind is the life,
the power, the man. Indeed, it is the power
which has given to the body of this world its
form and personal peculiarities. As the old Eng-
lish poet Spenser, W'ith the true poet's insight,
says:

"For of the soul the body form doth take;
The soul is form and doth the body make."

And now one step higher. As the body is made
up of layers, bones, muscles, heart and its rami-
fications, brain and its nerves, so the mind itself
has its higher and lower degrees, and while the
angel man lives in one of the higher degrees, the
selfish or earth-bound spirit or man lives in the
lower. And we can think of each plane or degree
having its own body answering to the state of
the mind. Hence, the angel is beautiful, and
the earthly spirit is unbeautiful, or deformed.
But besides the spiritual body, there is some-
thing which every one who dies takes with him
from this world, composed of the most interior

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 55

substances of the natural world, and it is this
which retains the memory of the world, and will
enable us to recognize our friends when we go
hence. But this is a subject as yet imperfectly
understood. It is for the future.

We look up into the sky at night, and with
our present knowledge of the stars we realize
a little the immensities of space. But far more
wonderful is what we are told about the inside
meaning of all this marvellous foundation or
preparation for life which we behold in this grand
universe. Most of our stars are suns, around
which no doubt revolve countless planets filled
with people who will soon pass over to the other
side, the life side, of their worlds. We can think
of every planet having its own spiritual world
around it, all the more real because it is at pres-
ent hidden from the eyes of the earthly body.

The reason underlying all this is very simple.
It is this: as we leave the surface and approach
the centre of life ; or as we leave the visible and
draw near what is now the invisible, we find sub-
stances and forces growing more living and pow-
erful. All nature's index fingers in science, as
well as in all the religious intuitions of the ages,
are pointing inward, not outward, not to the sky
above, but to the soul within, and within and
above the individual soul to God, who is a spirit,
the One Life, the inmost and only Life in all.

The poor woman of Samaria asked the Savior
whether the dwelling place of God was in Mt.

56 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

Gerizim, as the Samaritan Jews thought, or in
Mount Zion, as the JucLxan Jews beheved. Shall
we say, *'Lo here! or lo, there!" The Greeks,
too, if asked for the dwelling place of Jupiter,
the supreme deity, would point to Mt. Olympus,
and say, "Lo, there." But Jesus said, ''Neither
in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem. God is
a spirit, and they that worship Him must wor-
ship in spirit." And in a similar sense, tho' less
profound, do we affirm that the spiritual uni-
verse is within the material, as the soul is in the
body.

Why, then, have so many located heaven in
the skies? A complete answer would require
time. We shall have to acknowledge that the
Bible often seems to locate God's dwelling place
on high; and from time immemorial have wor-
shippers built their altars on high places. In
brief, this is the answer. Elevation in space is
the natural symbol of what is interior, pure, re-
fined or holy in the state of the heart and mind.
We speak even now of ''high thinking," or 'lofty
thought," meaning deep thought, or pure, true
thought — thought which strives to attain a
heavenly standard. And so we think of heaven
as above. And so the Bible, the Word of God,
speaks in the language of symbolism, when it
speaks of Him as "the High and Lofty One, who
inhabits eternity, and whose name is holy." And,
therefore (to continue the quotation), it says that
He "dwells in the high and holy place, with him

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 57

who is of a contrite and humble spirit." The
state of humility, then, is a high place. And so
the Savior, when asked how He could manifest
Himself to the disciples, said that the Spirit of
Truth would dwell in them. In a few passages
of this kind, including the one already alluded to,
in which He said, ''the kingdom of God cometh
not with observation, but is within you," we read
the real truth — not only the truth as it applies
to the development of spiritual character, but as
it applies to the location of the spiritual world
itself. The past has been, in a religious sense,
an age of what we may call spiritual childhood
or immaturity, which required that the truth
should be taught, as our Lord for the most part
taught, in parables or symbols, for they could
not bear any more then. But the age is approach-
ing, yea, is close at hand, when we shall be taught
as full grown men, when we shall be shown
"plainly of the Father," and plainly and reason-
ably, too, of His kingdom and the way thither.
The time is coming when mankind will put away
childish things in religion, cease to depend upon
blind authority, cease to be ruled by mysterious
fears and superstitions; and this will be when
the spirit of Him who called Himself "the Light
of the World," and who is the Spirit of Truth
as well, shall become the Supreme object of our
worship, God over all, blessed for evermore.
With Him as our Guide, there will be no dark-
ness at all. Truth will take the place of error;

58 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

sunshine will disperse the clouds and darkness;
the mountain will stand out bright and clear ; we
shall lift up our eyes to it, for our help; and
*'the mountain of the Lord shall be established
in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted
above the hills."

My friends, we need to realize the stupendous
and sublime reality of a grand spiritual universe
within this, a spiritual world within the natural
world, as the soul is within the body; within,
not spacially, but statically, and that in the very
inmost of all, as the supreme life of all, the love
and the leadership of the Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ.

PART IV
WHAT IS THE SPIRITUAL WORLD?

WHAT IS THE SPIRITUAL WORLD?

In considering the question, "Where is the
Spiritual World?" we saw the index fingers of
nature pointing inward as the source of life.
We saw the Bible picturing the nearness of the
spiritual world to this. We saw in the New-
Church philosophy how creation consists of dis-
tinct but closely connected layers, degrees, or
planes, each having its own free or independent
existence, one degree being within another, not
in the sense of space, but in quality of life, each
inner degree being the cause of the one outside
of it, and hence being more vital, possessing all
that the outer possesses, only in a nobler form.
We saw the inner degrees growing more living
in their ascent, until they reach the inmost, the
one only real Life in Itself, that is, God, the
Divine Man, or Divine Love and Wisdom. The
logic compels belief in a spiritual world, as real
in all respects as this world, but not the same
as this, either in substance or in its quality of
activity.

We found in the clouded sayings of the lit-
eral Bible this clear truth: "Neither shall they
say, lo here or lo there ; for the kingdom of God
6i

62 RIGHT AXD WRONG UNVEILINGS

is within you." And we saw that wherever in
the Bible the two worlds appeared to mingle,
it was not because earthly eyes can see the spirit-
ual, but because the inner senses of the spiritual
body were opened. One world does not shade
off into the other. The spiritual is not the ghost
of the natural. But the spiritual appears when
the spiritual eye is separated from the natural
eye of the brain and body, as one might with-
draw his eye from the telescope to behold with
the eye alone the objects close at hand. For
it is a fact that we are spirits, living in spiritual
association now. That world is nearer than this
is to us, altho' we are unconscious of it.

Our question now is, "What is the Spiritual
World?" Not, what is the nature of the sub-
stances which compose the spiritual bodies of
the inhabitants, and the real scenery of the
spiritual world — the earth, the sky, the sea, the
hills and mountains and plains and homes which
that world must contain, if it be a livable world
to us. This is not our question now, but rather,
how does that world appear to those who enter
it? What is the experience of death, and what
follows death ? What are its occupations ? Time
will permit only of a brief treatment.

The basis of our reply must be the experience
of Swedenborg, who for 28 years passed as
freely from one world to the other as we go in
and out of our houses, and who studied that
world with the same thoroughness and devotion

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 63

which he had shown in his previous 40 years'
study of the deepest problems of nature.

But why take Swedenborg's word? In brief
reply, let me turn aside for a moment. In the
month of March, 1908, Swedenborg's remains
were removed from their obscure resting place
in London to an expensive mausoleum in the
Cathedral of his university city of Upsala, in
Sweden, under the auspices of the English and
Swedish governments, carried on a Swedish
warship and escorted, on sea and land, by mili-
tary, naval, civil and college dignitaries. And
why? Because of his most remarkable achieve-
ments in scientific discovery, eclipsed at the time
by prejudice excited by his subsequent career,
and only now beginning to be recognized by the
most advanced students. Most scientific works
are said to be almost useless after ten years, but
his works, after 175 years, are only beginning
to reveal their prophetic quality. We trust him,
then, first, because he has shown himself most
worthy of trust, especially because of his intense
love of truth and his great humility, and his
entire purity of life. But how about his later
works? Well, we trust those to the extent that
they appeal both to our reason and to the deep-
est intuitions of our souls; or for the reason
given for the belief in the Gospel: "Whereas
I was blind, now I see." Not because he inci-
dentally proved his power to communicate with
the dead, altho' he did, even to the satisfaction

64 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

of sucli a man as Emmanuel Kant, the sceptical
philosopher. Swedenborg himself never made
use of such means to convince any one, for he
well knew that such conviction was of little or
no value in itself. It is not wrong, however, to
coniirin our faith by this undoubted fact.*

The very word "death" has had, and with
many still continues to have, a repellent, if not
a fearful, sound. Death has been called "the
king of terrors," and has been pictured as a
ghastly, pitiless monster. Entering silently and
unexpectedly into our homes, it has borne away
into a dark unknown those whose lives are bound
up with ours. Its approach has been attended
generally with pain or discomfort, nearly always
with growing infirmity, by a shrinking of the
frame, a pallor of the face, and sometimes at
the last by a laboring of the breath and spas-
modic movements painful to witness, which, in
the ignorance and superstition of the past, have
suggested untold sufferings. And a personal
fear of death, like a black cloud, has overshad-
owed many people all through life, casting a
gloom over everything.

But not only death, but ivhat follozi's death,
has been to some a gloomy, if not a dismal or
distressing, thought. Personal expressions have

* Whenever there was some important use to be sub-
served, Swedenborg did not refuse to bring back word
from the other world, as in the well-known case of the
"lost receipt." But he always refused to do it to satisfy
curiosity about the future.

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 65

been heard like these : "'The spiritual world
will be wholly strange, and its people will be
strangers. I must leave home behind, and all
those familiar faces and surroundings, activities
and enjoyments which have made life happy and
desirable. The spiritual world must be, to those
who enter it, a foreign country." And besides
this, the old superstitions of the past, the clouded
symbols of the literal sense of the Gospel, come
to mind, which have left the impression that the
love of God, even the love of Jesus Christ, has
its limit at the grave, and that one is liable to
hear the stern voice of condemnation, bidding
him to depart, against his will, into the realm
of darkness, if not into eternal suffering, or even
torture.

We cannot now attempt to answer all these
questionings and fears, although it would be an
easy and delightful task. But, first of all,
let us bring before our minds that supreme truth
with which Swedenborg, in the work entitled
"Heaven and Hell," begins his description of
the spiritual world. In its very first chapter,
as the central, ruling thought, is the statement
that "the Lord (Jesus Christ) is the God of
heaven." Here is the most vital truth of the
New-Church revelation; the Lord Jesus Christ,
in His glorified nature, reigns, the God of
heaven and of all below heaven. "All power,"
He said, "is given unto me in heaven and in
earth." If we can accept this thought, all our

66 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

fears of evil which can come to us from the out-
side, that is, evil which we ourselves have not
invited by our own wrong courses, will be re-
moved. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Heavenly
Father; "he that hath seen me hath seen the
Father," He assured His disciples. And this
means 7tot only that His Fatherly love and His
perfect wisdom are guiding the human race as
a whole, but it means that He is with every
child of His in all the details of life, from in-
fancy to old age, and forever. But that love is
especially near in the season of death. You
well know the words of the 23d psalm: "The
Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. * * *
Yea, tho' I walk thro' the valley of the shadow
of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with
me." You know the echo of these words in the
New Testament: "I am the good shepherd and
know my sheep." We understand that the east-
ern shepherd knows all his sheep by name, each
one separate from all the rest, and provides for
each one separately. So does the Good Shep-
herd. If we could accept and trust this supreme
truth, we should fear no evil coming to us from
the outside, neither in life, nor in death, nor in
the world to come.

Here is another great truth of the New Testa-
ment which we must not forget, namely, that
whenever and wherever the Lord Jesus Christ
comes, He comes surrounded with angels. "The
Son of Man shall come in the glory of His

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 67

Father with His angels." You recall that at
His birth the angels came to the shepherds. At
the close of His temptations in the wilderness
"angels came and ministered unto Him." At
His resurrection the angels were at the sepulchre,
saying, "He is not here, but is risen." The
thought here is that His spirit makes use of
human instrumentalities to guide and lead, and
care for His children at all times, but in a pe-
culiar and special way, or rather in an open and
manifest way, at certain great and vital seasons,
when there is need of it, and therefore at the
hour of death. And so, when we talk of angels,
we mean the Spirit of the Lord, in His infinite
love and wisdom, exhibited especially by means
of angels. And again, when we talk of angels,
we do not mean a superior race of beings, but
we mean men and women and children gone
hence from the planets, who have become angels,
and whose joy it is to do their Father's work.
For there are no other angels — nothing above
man.

There are those who are especially fitted to
attend upon the dying, and to minister to their
needs on their first awaking. I have mentioned
the fear of death all through life. Dr. Weir
Mitchell tells us that in all his experience he
never knew a single instance of a person fearing
death when it actually approached, even when
all through life it had been a matter of dread.
If we are not ready to say that this is the effect

68 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

of supernatural presences, we certainly may see
in it a merciful provision from some source. Is
it not the most helpful explanation to recall the
promise : "Yea, tho' I walk thro' the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for
Thou art with me" ? The apparent suffering in
death is not real ; it is of the body only ; the mind
is unconscious of it.

Whether one has lived well or ill, angels from
the highest realms are with him during the sleep
of death, and during the first part of the awak-
ening. If it be true that the angels are with us
in the sleep of the night, and if we can feel the
results of their presence when the morning comes,
in mental clearness of vision and peace of soul,
it is more true in the deeper sleep of death — a
sleep not extending beyond the time of our
Lord's sojourn in the sepulchre, or beyond the
third day. During the state of unconsciousness
and the beginning of the awakening these min-
isters of the Lord surround the dying one with
what we may call an atmosphere of life and
love and peace — a sense of being tenderly cared
for. No evil influences, no anxious states, are
permitted to approach. No thought of death is
present, but only of life, life more abundant,
life eternal, life blessed and happy. As the high-
est angels are attendant upon the babe at its
birth and in its period of helplessness, so at the
birth into the other world the holiest influences
draw near.

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 69

And so there is no shock. Just as the sleep
of the night obscures the vividness of the scenes
of the day before, so the profounder sleep of
death helps to lift one above the familiar scenes,
duties and cares of this world and removes
still farther away the sense of strangeness or of
loss. There is also imparted at this time, or
rather developed, the capacity to think in a
higher, deeper w^ay than before, apart from
ideas of space and time, and so to express one's
self in the language of the spiritual world,
which is common to all, and understood without
learning.

And so, after all this preparation, one gradu-
ally awakens. First comes a dim consciousness,
then more complete, and then sight, hearing,
touch, and all the other senses, and one finds
himself in a body and world as complete in all
respects as the body and world here. All is sub-
stantial and real — more real than ever, because
the senses of the spiritual body are so much
more perfect. So natural is it all that one does
not realize, until he is told, that he has changed
worlds. He is clothed with a body as real as
the body he had here. He is in a familiar room
and house. Outside are familiar scenes; and
attendant upon him are most kind and loving
friends, thoroughly human, who are responsive
to his every wish. At first these companions are
the highest and best of the angels, who remain
until they perceive that their presence is no

586359

70 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

longer congenial or useful, and then they yield
to others better adapted to his returning earthly
states (out of which he had been temporarily
lifted by the beautiful and sacred experience of
death), until at last he is surrounded by those
who are thoroughly congenial to his ordinary
state of mind, and then, for a time, he lives a
life not very dissimilar in appearance to that
which he lived in the world. His memory of
the world is still quite active. He thinks of his
friends, and his thought may bring their inward
presence, but he cannot see them, or hear them,
or touch them, because the substances of the
higher world, real as they are, do not shade off
into the substances of this, but are wholly dis-
tinct in kind, the one never interfering with
the other.

H you ask, How can there be a solid and sub-
stantial world without material substance? this
is a question which belongs rather to the **why"
than to the "what." I will turn aside, however,
for a moment, to say, or repeat, that everything
material originated in a spiritual or ideal form
in the spiritual world, and, first of all, in God,
who made it, and who is a spirit. As Mrs.
Browning tells it :

There's not a flower that blooms upon the earth
But hath a flower upon the spiritual side,

Substantial, archetypal, all aglow

With blossoming causes."

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 71

If you can think, not only of flowers, but
earths and suns and everything else as first ex-
isting on the spiritual side, and then of the vital
nature of the substance of the spiritual world,
capable of being moulded or shaped by the spirit,
as Mrs. Eddy imagines the fixed and compara-
tively dead substance of this world can be, then
you have one clew to the problem. Mrs. Eddy's
idea in this respect is true there, but only partially
true here. And if you will remember that, when
the spiritual body sees and touches spiritual sub-
stance, the effect is the same as when the mate-
rial body sees and touches material substance,
you have an important clew. Then if you can
grasp the law of correspondence, which connects
a higher degree with a lower, and which shows
how things were first thoughts, and how, through
this law of correspondence, things may be Divine
symbols of thought, and realize how angels, in
dealing with things, are dealing with thoughts,
you have another clew to what life may be here-
after. And once again, let me repeat, let us
realize the absolute necessity to human life there
as much as here is the fact of an outside or objec-
tive world — a world of objects and sounds and
contacts. And when it is asked, "How can such
a world be spiritual, or a world of spirit F Is it
not the material world over again?'* the reply is
that the substance of the spiritual world is not
inert like ours, resistant to the desires of the
mind, but is a servant to the mind or spirit, is

^2 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

shaped by the mind, is immediately expressive
of its affections, its ideas, both Hterally and sym-
boHcally. The things (as we call them) of the
spiritual world are not mere things (altho' low
down spirits may regard them as mere things),
but they are thoughts in substantial form, and
in heaven they are expressions of heavenly
thoughts according to the law of heavenly sym-
bolism. And so in heaven every apparent deal-
ing with things is an act of the spirit, or a spirit-
ual act. Every use is a use for the soul, and not,
as here for the most part, a use for the body.
But let us return to our main subject for our
final thought.

The spiritual world, according to Swedenborg,
has three great divisions — heaven, or the abode
of those who are led by the Lord; hell, the home
of those who are led by self-love; and the in-
termediate world, called "the world of spirits,'*
which is a state of preparation for the perma-
nent home.

The intermediate state has two divisions. The
one is occupied by those who, in Swedenborg's
language, are in "the state of the exteriors,"
which means the outside or earthly state of mind,
into which everyone relapses after the temporary
uplift caused by the near presence of the angels
of the resurrection. While the process of death
dulls the most vivid earthly sensibility, still the
memory of the world and its people and things
and activities remains, and for this reason the

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 73

visible spiritual world does not appear essentially
different from this world, altho' it is really essen-
tially different, being a direct expression of the
state of mind.

We are all well aware that in this world we
do not always reveal our real selves, not even
to friends. The material body, through its very
fixity, may be made a veil, behind which one
may hide his real interior purposes. The inner
life may be very different from the outer. Those
whom we call evil may not be so from deep
choice; it may be largely the result of outward
conditions. Those we call good may be so for
selfish and worldly reasons. It is absolutely im-
possible in this world to know the real inward
quality of any human life, altho' we can see the
indications. We cannot judge finally of any
one, while we can say that, if such a one be
what he appears, he is good or bad, as the case
may be.

But while it is not difficult to conceal one's
inner life here, the whole tendency of the spirit-
ual world is to bring it to the surface. While
one may still hide in a measure his secret
thoughts, it becomes increasingly difficult. The
whole influence of that world, while careful not
to destroy the real freedom of any, is to fulfil
that law spoken by the Savior : "There is noth-
ing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither
hid, that shall not be known. Therefore, what-
soever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard

74 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

in the light; and that which ye have spoken in
the ear, in closets, shall be proclaimed upon the
housetops." And I will add here the Lord's
words which follow these, altho' not belonging
to our immediate thought : "1 say unto you, my
friends, be not afraid of them that kill the
body, and after that have no more that they
can do."

This process, by which the interiors are
brought to the surface, is what is meant by the
judgment. It is the opening of the books men-
tioned in Revelation XX. It is a process by
which the interiorly good at heart are led to re-
ject the disorder and wrong which lie on the
surface of their nature, and by which the in-
teriorly selfish and evil put off what seems good
in their lives, but which is only a covering or
veil of evil. It is a process of separation, often
involving more or less of suffering. It is the
truth of the intermediate world and the judgment
which is effected there which is preserved and
likewise so terribly materialized and distorted in
the Romanist doctrine of purgatory. This dis-
tortion and abuse inspired the Protestants with
such horror that they rejected the whole doc-
trine of the intermediate world as an invention,
whereas it is a vital teaching.

The judgment is simply a process of bringing
the real life to the surface. And the real life,
the ruling life, is always the inner life. With
the well-disposed, it is a relief from the bondage

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 75

of inside heredities and outside environments.
One comes into harmony with himself. The
words of Job are fulfilled: "The wicked cease
from troubling; the weary are at rest." It pre-
pares one to find his real home, his place and
use and joy. Swedenborg tells us that after one
who is well disposed has passed through this
second state in the intermediate world (the "state
of the interiors"), he is like one who comes out
of darkness into light. His weak affections for
righteousness and truth give place to strong and
joyous ones. He is filled with peace. He is like
Christian in "Pilgrim's Progress," after the
heavy load which he had carried so long falls
off and disappears forever.

There is a third state, which follows with those
who are to enter heaven, which Swedenborg
terms "a state of instruction." It is an instruction
in the laws of heaven. But not merely written
on the outer memory, but written in the heart
and life.

If the church on earth were what it should
be and some time will be, this work, both of judg-
ment and of instruction, would, in great measure,
be finished here. But the present disorder renders
the judgment especially necessary, and is the
cause of its sometimes severe discipline. Let us
recall the advice which has come down from
early Christian days: "Wherefore judge ye
yourselves, brethren, that ye be not judged of
the Lord." But, of course, the old idea of being

76 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

personally judged by the Lord from a throne
is merely a symbolic picture. As He Himself
said : 'The word that I have spoken, the same
shall judge you in the last day." When the books
of life we have written are opened, another
book, the Book of Life, will also be opened, and
the light from the latter Book, the Divine Word,
will reveal the real quality of our lives.

Beyond the thought of the intermediate world
we will not go now, except by brief allusions. A
word about heaven. It is the home of those
who have exchanged their native selfishness for
the Divine unselfishness. Heaven is love to the
Lord and the neighbor. Heaven is usefulness,
not idleness. Heaven is wisdom increasing for-
ever. Heaven is happiness in loving service to
fellow men. Heaven is full of beauty — beauty
of scenery, beauty of architecture unknown on
earth, beauty of form and feature, beauty of art,
of musical expression — but all these outward
things are only symbols, understood by all, of
interior and sublime thoughts and affections and
good will to men.

Heaven is various. It has grand and smaller
divisions. **In my Father's house are many
mansions." Each finds his place and loving
spiritual use. Heaven is the perfect home.

About the evil, I would gladly remain silent.
There is a disposition to-day to question the per-
manency, if not the very existence, of hell. It
is quite true that there is no hell according to

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD J7

the old conception. There is no place of pun-
ishment desired or created by the Lord, who is
Love Itself. There is no such thing as being
cast out into an evil and suffering condition
against one's will. But there is such a reality
as a real, human choice of evil. There is such
a thing as a determination to be one's own
master. There is a selfishness which one is
unwilling to give up. And this is hell, here
and hereafter. "He that is unjust, let him he
unjust still; he that is filthy, let him he filthy
still." Let him be; the Lord permits it, not
desires it.

Knowing, as we do, that the life of the uni-
verse is God's life; knowing that His life is
love, and unchanging love, even as our Lord.
Jesus Christ has revealed it; knowing that His
mercy is forever; we can safely trust Him for
the final result, when once we have chosen to'
follow Him. He loves us all ; He will make the
best of all. If there is any way by which the
evil can be made willing to give up their evils,
He will find it. And if we cannot think of evil
as destroyed, we can at least think of the evil,
world as coming into an orderly external con-,
dition, altho' at heart ruled by fears of the in-\
evitable punishment which unbridled self-love'
always brings upon itself, and which, when it>
passes its set bounds, is, in the world of spirits,
immediately detected and checked.

The old idea of hell is gone or is fast going.

78 RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS

It is for us, as individuals, to see that the real
hell is cast out while we live here, by obedience
to the Divine laws of life — by doing justly, lov-
ing mercy, and walking humbly with our God.

The End

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