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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG THE SERVANT OF THE LORD A TRUE sroRY FOR 1 HE YOUNG BY / TH . ODHNER ,, NEW YORK THE NEW CHURCH BOARD OF PUBLICATION 3 WEST TWENTY-NINTH STREET 1900
Transcript
Page 1: EMANUEL SWEDENBORG-The-Servant-of-The-Lord--a-true-story-for-the-young--by-Carl-Theophilus-Odhner-New-York-1900

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG THE SERVANT OF THE LORD

A TRUE sroRY

FOR 1 HE YOUNG

BY /

C~ TH . ODHNER ,,

NEW YORK

THE NEW CHURCH BOARD OF PUBLICATION

3 WEST TWENTY-NINTH STREET

1900

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~l.Uebenborg'ii ~f)eologicaI tWorM

ARCANA COELESTIA, ten volumes. HEAVEN AND HELL.

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED, six volumes. FOUR DOCTRINES:

The Lonl.-The Sacred Scripture.-Faith. -Life.

SUMMARY EXPOSITION OF THE PROPHETS AND PSALMS.

DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. DIVINE PROVIDENCE. APOCALYPSE REVEALED, two volumes.

CONJUGIAL LOVE. MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS:

The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doc­trine.-Brief Expmation.-IntercourRe be­tween the Soul and the Body.-The White Horse.-Earths in Lhe Universe.-The Last Judgmeut.

TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

Published by THE AMERICAN SWEDENBORG PRINTING &

PUBLISHING SOCIETY, 3 West Twenty-Ninth St .. New York. 'Descriptive Catalogues on application.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. /jY / 7~~

Chap.------·· Co1)yright Ko .. ______ _

Shelf_·, <!l _ _j )-

UNITED ST ATES OF AMERICA.

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85306 Library of Con9...,_

l WO COPIES REC£1V£0

DEC 7 1900 Q\ Copyrigllt Gll!'l. i70~. Z",/'fOO

a, 312-~¥-Ho •••••••• ••••••••••••••••

SECONO COPY Oeliwred to

ORDER DIVISION

Copyright, I900, by

Carl Theophilus Odhner

Braunworth, Munn &t Barber

Printers and Binders Brooklyn, N. Y.

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·~ ·~:

'THIS 'BRIEF ,ACCOUNT OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

IS 'DEDICATED

TO .ANY YOUNG <]{EADER IT !MAY FIND,

JN THE HOPE THAT IT !MAY .ASSIST IN AWAKENING IN

HIM OR HER ,A 'DESIRE FOR FURTHER KNOWLEDGE

OF THIS WONDERFUL SER'VANT OF THE LORD,

,AND OF THE !MANY GLORIOUS 'THINGS

WHICH HAVE 'BEEN <J{EVEALED

THROUGH HIM

FOR THE CROWN OF CHURCHES.

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CONTENTS

I. HIS CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH , page 9

Sweden and the Swedes; Emanuel Swedenborg born 29 Jan. 1688; his father, Jes per Swedberg; Emanuel's Child­hooj; his Mother's Death; his Education.

II . HIS TRAVELS AND EARLY WORKS, .

His First Foreign Journey; his Studies in England; Returning Home; Charles XII.; Emanuel in favor with the King; his Services to the King; Emerentia Polheim; his Earliest Writings.

Ill. SWEDENBORG AS A SCIENTIST AND PHILOSOPHER,.

Brighter Times; Swedenborg as a Patriot; his First Great Works in Science; the "Principia ;" the Purpose of his Studies; a long Journey; his Works on the Hu­man Body; his Search for the Soul.

IV. THE OPENING OF HIS SPIRITUAL SIGHT,

Remarkable Dreams and Signs; the Lord reveals Him­self to Swedenborg; the Vision in the Inn; Promise of the Lord's Second Coming; the State of the Christian World; why the Lord came again ; the Spiritual World opened to Swedenborg; Swedenborg's Inspiration.

20

35

46

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

V . SWEDENBORG THE REVELATOR,

The Arcana Cadestia; the Spiritual World; the World of Spirits; He.II and its life of Misery; Heaven and its life of Happiness; Other Writings of the New Church.

VI. A VISIT TO SWEDENBORG,

The Fire in Stockholm; the Queen's Secret; Sweden­borg's Home; his Study; his Garden; Swedenborg's Appearance; his Personal Habits; his Last Days; his Death.

VII . SWEDENBORG'S RULES OF LIFE,

APPENDIX J. CHILDREN IN HEAVEN,.

APPENDIX II. LIST OF REFERENCES,

6

57

67

95

97

112

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ILLUSTRATIONS

MAP OF SOUTHERN SWEDEN AND NORWAY,.

VIEW OF STOCKHOLM,

BISHOP JESPER SWEDBERG, SWEDENBORG'S FATHER,

VIEW OF UPSALA IN SWEDENBORG'S TIME, •

ERICUS BENZELIUS, SWEDENBORG'S INSTRUCTOR, •

CHARLES XII., THE "MADMAN OF THE NORTH,".

CHRISTOPHER POLHEIM,

ULRICA ELEONORA, QUEEN OF SWEDEN,.

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG IN 1734,

CARL VON LINNE (LINN;EUS),

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG IN 1766,

VIEW OF THE ROYAL PALACE JN STOCKHOLM,

SWEDENBORG'S HOUSE AND GARDEN,

SWEDENBORG'S SUMMER HOUSE,

SWEDENBORG IN HIS PARLOR, ,

. facing title

page JO

13

15

18

25

30

34

38

42

56

69

77

81

87

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

I

His Childhood and Youth

Away up in the most northern part of Europe there is a land of great for-

~l.Ueben anl! dJe ~webe!i

ests and wide lakes, of rushing rivers and fertile plains, of mountains rich in iron and

copper,-,a land where the snow lies deep

and the days are short in the winter, but where there is no night in summer time.

It is a land of beauty, poetry, and song, where dwells a free-born race of people, brave and hardy, both men and women tall

and strong, with flaxen hair, blue eyes, and bright complexion. The beautiful city of

Stockholm is the capital of this country. It is built partly on islands and partly on

the mainlands to the north and south ; to 9

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG IO

the east and west it is surrounded by thou­

sands of islets, green and smiling on the

rippling- waters.

STOCKHOLM

H ere, on the t wenty-ninth of January, <lfma11uel .~wctienborg

born 29 <Jan., 111 t he year 1688, a little boy was born, 1688 a child who in the merciful Providence

of t he L ord was raised up to serve his

Di vine ~Jaster and all mankind by the most

wonderful and glorious work that ever has

been gfren any man to do.

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[[ HIS CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH

To this child \Vas given the name Eman­

uel, which signifies God-with-us, for his fa_

ther hoped that God would be ever with

the boy and he with God; and truly this

Emanuel showed himself worthy of his

name. Throughout his life he walked hum­

bly with God, and in the sacred volumes

which he wrote God speaks again \dth man

and teaches them the real meaning of the

\V ord. This was the mission of his life:

to ad: as the Lord's intelligent and willing

scribe in writing down and publishing the

Lord's own explanation of the Scriptures.

The Dod:rine which is taught in the books

which he wrote is known as the "Heavenly

Dod:rine of the New Jerusalem," and the

Church which believes in it as the Lord's

own teachings is called "the New Church."

The reason it is so called is because the

Dod:rine itself is something entirely new in

the history of the Christian Church And

it will remain "new " forever, because no

matter how much men may study this Doc-

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 12

trine in ages to come they will always dis­cover nevv truths in it, new light from the

Sun of Heaven shedding its glorious rays

on the life of man in this world and in the world to come. Thus we will learn to do our Father's will as it is done in Heaven, and thus, by this Doctrine, the Lord will

"make all things new." vVhen you come

to understand this, you will see for your­selves how great was the service for which

this little boy Emanuel was born and raised

up.

Emanuel's father, Jesper Swedberg, W•!i fatf)er, 3Je!fper ~'Web~

berg was a very learned, wise and God-fear­

ing man, who, when this story begins, was the chaplain or court-preacher to the king

of Sweden. He was a true and faithful

minister of God, who preached the vV ord mightily and fearlessly, flattering neither the

king _nor the people. But the king, Charles ~

XI., liked his brave preacher all the better, and made him his trusted friend and coun­

sellor. Jesper Swedberg was also a great

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BISHOP JESPER SWEORERG, SWEDENBORG' S FATHER

BORN 1655, DIED 1735

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 14

writer; he translated the whole Bible from

the Hebrew into Swedish, composed beau­

tiful hymns, and wrote a great many reli­

gious books, in which he cried out against the evils of the people and against the false belief that men could be saved by faith

alone without good ·works. But in spite of

his plain speaking he became one of the

greatest men in the kingdom, and his name is one of the most honored in the history

of Sweden.

~manuel'it \Vhen Emanuel was four years old, ~bilbboob . . his parents moved to Upsala, where his

father became a professor of theology and

superintendent of the great university in that city. The little boy now began to

show that he was different, in some ways,

from other children. He seemed to be con­stantly thinking about God, heaven, and

spiritual things, and sometimes said things

so astonishing, that his father and mother

would say that angels must be speaking through his mouth. Ministers and learned

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15 HiS CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH

UPSALA IN SWEDENBORG'S TIMB

men often came to Yisit his father , and

little Emanuel ahrnn liked to talk "-ith

them about "loYe and faith," saying that lm-e

is the first and highest of all things, and that

faith would come to him \d10 lm-es. And

yet he was at the same time a liYely little

fellow, full of fun and play, like all healthy

children.

\Yhen he \ms eight years old a great ~is .motbcr's

sorrow fell upon him, for his loYing ~catb

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 16

mother died, leaving him behind with all

his little brothers and sisters. Still, though he could see her no longer, he did not

really lose her, for the angels always re­main near those whom they had loved in

this world, and strive to make them think

about the Lord and the life in heaven.

Thus, no doubt, Emanuel was led to think

all the more about the spiritual world, and in time the Lord gave him a great know­

ledge on this subjeEt, and allowed him to meet his mother in the other life.

Nor was he left long without a mother's

care, even in this world, for after a time

his father married again, and his new mo­ther was a very kind and gentle lady, who

became a true mother to her many little step-children. She was also quite wealthy, and when she died, many years afterwards,

she left a great deal of her money to Eman­

uel, who thus could afford to travel much in foreign lands, and to print the many and costly books w hich the Lord commanded

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17 HIS CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH

him to write for the . use of the New

Church.

In the year 1703, the king appointed Wi~<ll'bucation J esper Swedberg to the office of Bishop in the city of Skara (he was also Bishop

of the Swedish churches in the colonies of "New Sweden," which were situated on the

banks of the Delaware river in North Amer­

ica). Emanuel was now left in Upsala in

order to finish his education at the college

and the university, and he lived during this

time with his elder sister, who had married

Dr. Eric Benzelius, one of the most learned

men in Europe, who finally became arch­

bishop of Sweden. This brother-in-law of

his took the place of a "second father" to

Emanuel, who received a thoroughly good

education from him and other famous teach­

ers. 'Ve know but little of his life while

at school, but it is clear that he was a

quick and diligent student, or he would not

have been able to ·write, soon afterwards,

with so much learning and good judgment

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ERICUS BENZELIUS, SWEDENBORG'S INSTRUCTOR

BORN 1675, DIED 1743

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19 HIS CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH

on so great a variety of subjects. He stud­

ied especially the great philosophers of an­

cient Greece and Rome, and from them,

and from the \V ord of God, he learned to

think clearly. This ability is not so com­

mon as might be supposed, but it has al­

.ways been found more practically useful

than the greatest amount of memorized book­

learning. "\Vhen, in the year I 709, he fin­

ished his course at the university, he was

considered by his professors a well-prepared

and talented young man, from whom great

things were expected. As we will see, he

did not disappoint his teachers.

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II

His Travels and Ear{y Works

Wi!i£ir!it~or~ Emanuel Swedberg was now twenty-einn ::J1 ourneµ,

one years of age, and his father thought

it would be well to let him travel abroad

for some years, in order to study at the

great universities m England, Holland,

France, and Germany, where he could also

perfeEl: his knowledge of the foreign lan­guages, and become acquainted with a wider

world than Sweden. And so in September,

1710, he started out on his first foreign jour­

ney, travelling by sea from Gottenburg to

London. If he had hoped for a lively time, he

certainly had enough of it on this trip, for

he was near losing his life not less than four times. First his ship was nearly ~wrecked

20

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21 HIS TRAVELS AND EARLY WORKS

on some hidden rocks; then it ,,·as chased

by Danish pirates; next it "·as fired on by an English man-of-\\·ar, which mistook it

for one of the pirate-boats; and finally, "·hen

the young trayeller arriyecl in London, he

came near being hanged by the goyernment

there. It happened that a pestilence was

raging in Sweden at this time, and as the

Londoners still remembered the terrible

plague of 1665, they had made it a la"· that

all travellers· from Sweden must rema111 111

quarantine on their ships for six weeks be­

fore landing, or be punished by instant

death. The young Swede had never heard

of this new law, and so he went ashore

right away, but was arrested at once, and

would really haYe been hanged if the S"·ed­

ish ambassador had not helped him out of

his trouble.

In spite of this inhospitable reception l'.~i!i ~tubicii m Cngianb Emanuel Swedberg fell greatly in loYe

with the English people and their free 111-

stitutions. The loye of freedom was bred

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 22

into his very bones, for he came of the only people in Europe which had not allowed it­

self to be oppressed by the nobility during

the Dark Ages. Nevertheless, just at this time the king had gained all power in

Sweden and could do what he pleased,

while the English, not very long before,

had deposed that evil despot, James II., who

had tried to force the Roman Catholic Church upon the people. Now there was

freedom in England, greater freedom than in any other country, freedom of thought

and of speech, and freedom for each one to

worship God in the way of his own con­

science.

On account of this freedom the English

had greater spiritual light than any other

nation ; a great interest in all kinds of study

and science had lately grown up in England, and greater teachers were to be found there

than anywhere else in Europe. This was therefore the best possible place for a studi­ous young man, and so Emanuel Swedberg

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23 HIS TRAVELS AND EARLY WORKS

remained two whole years in England, dili­

gently studying astronomy, chemistry, phys­

ics, mathematics, and other sciences. He

always took his lodgings in the houses of

various mechanics, and learned from them

the latest improvements in machinery and

in the art of making scientific instruments.

He was wide awake to everything that

might be of use to bis own countrymen,

and studied and worked so hard that he

nearly fell ill. Then, to rest and amuse

himself, he took to writing poetry in the

Latin tongue. This would be considered

hard wmk by any student nowadays, but

Emanuel Swedberg felt rather ashamed of

such "child's play."

From England he travelled to Hol- liletuming

land, and was present at the great

"Peace Conference" in the city of Utrecht,

where representatives from nearly all the

countries in Europe had assembled to settle

the long and bloody "\Var of the Spanish

Succession" (a quarrel as to who should be

Wome

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 24

the king of Spain). He then went to Paris,

where he remained nearly a year, continu­

ing his scientific studies, examining libraries

and workshops, becoming acquainted ·with learned and famous men, and making every possible use of his time. He next visited

various universities in Germany, and finally,

just as a new war broke out, managed to

get home to Sweden after an absence of four years.

'II:f)arle!i XII There were now bad times in Swe­den, as bad as they could be. The good

king Charles XL, Jesper Swedberg's friend,

had died in 1697, and his son, Charles XII.,

was only a boy when he came to the throne. The young king was one of the "most re­

markable persons in history. Very tall and

of great physical strength, brave as a lion in battle, quick to understand and to plan, and

gifted with many talents which might have

made him a blessing to his country and to the whole world, he nevertheless ruined both himself and his people by his insane obstin-

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CHARLES XII. , " THE MADMAN OF THE NORTH "

BORN 1682, DIED 1718

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 26

acy and self-will, by his revengefulness and

hellish lust for war and dominion over the

earth. vVhen he was only sixteen years of

age, Russia, Poland, and Denmark declared

war against him at one and the same time, but young as he was he crushed all his

enemies with lightning speed, although the

opposing armies outnumbered his own ten

to one. Soon he came to be considered the wonder of the age, the greatest hero in the

world, and if he now had been willing to

make peace he could have made Sweden

one of the most powerful nations in Europe.

But he never had enough of fighting, and

when he attacked Russia without a just cause, in the year I 708, he was wounded

in a battle, his army was beaten and cap­

tured by Czar Peter the Great, and he himself had to flee to Turkey. His people

now begged him to come back to Sweden ;

but for an answer he sent home one of his

old boots, saying that this was a good enough king for the Swedes. But he al-

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27 HIS TRAVELS AND EARLY WORKS

ways wanted more money and new armies,

and so in time he utterly ruined his coun­

try. No money was left in the land, the

young men and the horses were nearly all

killed, and the women had to drag the

plows and till the fields. Finally, "·hen

beaten everywhere, he had to return to

Sweden in 1715, but right away he began

to prepare for a new war against Denmark.

Such were the conditions in Sweden <emanuel m fauor \UJtb tbe

"·hen Emanuel Swedberg came back to fling

his home. His learning and talents were

now made known to the king, who "·as not

slow to make use of him. Charles XII.

was especially fond of mathematics and me­

chanical arts; and as young Swedberg had

made some great i1wentions while abroad,

and had become one of the best mathema­

ticians of that time he became quite a fa­

vorite with the king, who appointed him to

the office of an "Assessor" at the College

of Mines. This did not mean that he was

to be a teacher in a school, but he was to

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 28

assist in supervising the work of mmmg m Sweden, and to show the miners the best

methods of getting the ore out of the moun­

tains, and how to smelt it so as to make

pure iron or copper. He became very skil­

ful in this useful art, and wrote some great works about it.

But he was not yet to begin his W1s scruices ta tbe lliing

work as "Assessor," for the king com­manded him to assist the great engineer,

Christopher Polheim, in building a great

canal from Stockholm to Gottenburg, right across Sweden. This canal was not com­

pleted until more than a hundred years

afterwards, but there is still a sluice near

the great falls of Trollhattan, which 1s

called "the Swedenborg sluice." Then, when

Charles XII. declared war against Denmark and marched against Norway (which at that

time was a Danish province), Emanuel Swed­

berg did a great service to the king by con­struB:ing a contrivance by which a number of warships were dragged seventeen miles

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29 HIS TRAVELS AND EARLY WORKS

over land and mountains, and thereby were

saved from capture by the enemy.

During this period he lived at the l!fmcrcntia

house of his friend Polheim, who - had a ~olbctm very pretty young daughter, Emerentia, with

whom Emanuel Swedberg was deeply in

love. The young couple became engaged,

and the father gave the young man a writ-

ten promise that Emerentia should be his

wife as soon as she would come of age.

But the young lady, who was only sixteen

years old, changed her mind, and fell in love

with another gentleman, a young officer

whose head was not so full of mathematics

and scientific inventions. She now began

to sigh and worry so much about her en­

gagement that her brother took pity on her

and one day stole the written marriage­

promise from the desk in which it was kept.

The theft was soon discovered, and Polheim

commanded his son to return the paper, but

Emanuel refused to take it, declaring that

he would never marry any girl against her

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CHRISTOPHER POLHEllYl

BORN 1661, DIED 1751

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.31 HIS TRAVELS AND EARLY WORKS

own free will, and so the engagement came

to an end.

This was the last time he looked for a

wife in this world. It was his sad lot to live alone his whole life long, without a

loving partner or children of his own. This

must have been hard to bear, for he was

always exceedingly fond of little children

and of the company of refined women, but

it is said that many years afterwards while

he still lived in this world, he found the

angel wife in heaven with whom he was to live to all eternity.'*

Turning sadly from all thoughts of

love he now sought consolation in still 1%~ l!?arlic!it

Wming)i

greater work and study, for the advance­

ment of science and the good of his country.

\Ve may gain some idea of his diligence and

learning from the fact that he wrote not less

than twenty-one different works within the

* The authority for this, and for some other statements made in this work, will be found in Appendix II., see pp. n2.

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 32

next five years. Most of these were only

small books, it is true, but they were on a

great variety of subjeCl:s, all of which re­

quired much study as well as praCl:ical know­ledge. Thus he wrote accounts of his vari­ous mechanical inventions and scientific dis­

coveries, such as the construCl:ion of air­

pumps, ear-tubes, and flying-machines, on

the methods of mining and smelting ore, on the building of sluices and canals, on the nature of fire and color, on the manufaCl:ure

of salt, on the regulation of the coinage,

and on various astronomical, geological, and mathematical subjeCl:s, ending up this period

of his aCl:ivity with a highly ipteresting little work on Tremulation, in which he shows that

all our sensations are produced by little vib­rations in the skins and membranes of the body. Most of these little works were writ­

ten in the Swedish language, but all the books which he published afterwards were

written in Latin. All these works might have been of great

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33 HIS TRAVELS AND EARLY WORKS

use to his countrymen, but the people were at this time too much worried with poverty,

war, famine, and every kind of distress, to

pay attention to his writings and discoveries;

and when his great friend, Charles XII., "the madman of the North," was killed in

1718, Emanuel Swedberg felt greatly dis­couraged, and for a while he thought of

leaving Sweden in order to seek a home in

some happier land.

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ULRICA ELEONORA, QUEEN OF SWEDEN

BORN 1688, DIED 1741

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III

Swedenborg as a Scientist and Philosopher

But as he waited patiently, brighter ':lDriubter

times came both for Sweden and for

himself. The new ruler, queen Ulrica Eleo­

nora, the sister of Charles XII., was a good

and sensible woman, who stopped the war,

restored freedom, and looked after the real

welfare of the country. She now reward­

ed the long and faithful services of Bishop Swedberg and his son by raising the family

to the rank of nobility. According to the

Swedish custom the family now changed its

name from Swedberg to Swedenborg. This

name is not derived from "Sweden," but

from a word which means a clearing in the

forest. From this time on, Emanuel Swed­

berg was known as Emanuel Swedenborg. 35

<Qtime~

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 36

As the head of a noble family, Eman­.~wetienboru a~ a ~atriot uel now had the right to a seat and

vote in the " Bouse of Nobles" of the Swed­

ish Diet or Congress, corresponding to the House of Lords in the English Parliament.

His new honor did not make him proud,

however, but inspired him with a still

greater desire to be of use to his fellow­

citizens. With him the love of country was next to the love of God, but he always held

that liberty, enlightenment, and virtue were

greater blessings for a country than war,

conquest, and glory. As a member of the Diet his voice was_ therefore always in favor

of peace, reform, and education, and he proposed many measures which helped to

develop the suffering trade, manufactures,

and finances of Sweden. Among other

things he suggested a plan for regulating and restricting the manufacture and sale of

strong liquors; his proposition was adopted many years afterwards, and has helped to

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37 SCIENTIST AND PHILOSOPHER

decrease the drunkenness which used to be

dreadfully common in Sweden. In the year I j2 I Swedenborg again Wt!i fm.it great

lWorli!i on left Stockholm for a new foreign journey. ~cicncc

He travelled first to Holland, where he

published several new books; the most im­

portant of these was a work on chemistry,

in which he explains in an entirely new

way the formation of crystals and the form

of the finest particles which compose the

various substances in the mineral kingdom.

He next went to Germany, where he exam­

ined a great number of mines, and pub­

lished another scientific work.

Returning home, he now remained ""'b m . . . ,,.. c l"'nnctpta 111 Stockholm eleven years, working in

the College of l\lines, attending the Diet, and

preparing a great \vork treating of the be­

ginnings of all natural things. This book is

known as the Principia, a truly magnificent

work, in which he gives an altogether new

explanation of the manner in which this

earth and all other planets were created

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG IN 1734

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.39 SCIENTIST AN'D PHILOSOPHER

from the sun, and how the various elements

were produced. i\Iany philosophers have

tried to explain these things, but nobody

has ever been able to make these secrets of

nature so plain as Swedenborg did in this

book. At the same time he wrote two great

works on Iron and Copper, and a beautiful

book on Tlze Infinite, in which he presents

his clear and noble ideas about the infinite

nature of God and the connection bet\Yeen

the soul and the body. \Vhen all \Yas ready,

he undertook a third journey abroad in

order to publish his new books in Germany.

He was now beginning to be knO\Yn as one

of the most learned men in Europe.

But Swedenborg never cared for ~be ~urpolie of bill .~tubieii fame and worldly glory; Truth \Yas the

treasure which he sought for \Yith an ar-

dent love. His one aim was to show that

nature had not created itself, but that above

nature there is a God of infinite wisdom

and love, and that within the body of man

there is a soul which .is to live forever.

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 40

This, of course, is known from the vV ord of

God, but many of the learned did not be­lieve in the ·word, and Swedenborg there­

fore tried to show them their error by prov­ing in a scientific way the conneCl:ion be­

tween God and His creation. But since Man is the most perfeCl: thing in Nature,

Swedenborg now turned his attention to

the study of the human body, which is the habitation of the soul and the image and

likeness of God Himself.

?l long 'lour: nc).l

In order to complete his knowledge

of the human body by examining the greatest works on anatomy in the various libraries in Europe, he set out on a fourth

foreign journey, in the year 1736. This time

he kept an account of his travels, writing

down, day by day, short descriptions of the many interesting things he saw while visit­

ing Germany, Holland, France, and Italy, together with observations on the charaCl:er

of the people and the form of the govern­ment in these countries. On his way home

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41 SCIENTIST AN'IJ PHILOSOPHER

he published his great work, Tlze Economy

of t!ze Animal Kingdom, in Holland, and

then returned to Sweden in 1740. He was now considered a very great man even in

his own country, and was made a member of the Academy of Sciences, a society of the most learned men in Sweden, of which

the famous Linnceus, the "king of flowers," was the president. But he did not remain

long at home, for in 1743 he was again in Holland, ready to publish another great

work on the human body. This book was

entitled Tlze Animal Kingdom.

The human body looks very simple Wili workli on tbc Wuman

from without, but so many wonderful ")l;oll)?

and intricate things are contained within the skin, that the most learned doctors will never be able to describe all of them. The

finest and purest things in nature are col­lected in the body of man, and the science

of anatomy is therefore the noblest and highest of all natural sciences. \Vithout some

knowledge of anatomy, a man cannot really

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CARL VON LINNE (LINNJEIJS)

BORN 1707, DIED 1778

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43 SCIENTIST AN7J PHILOSOPHER

know !zimseif, for if he looks at his body

from the outside only, he will never under­

stand what is going on within, and even if

he were to cut up a dead body and look

at the internal parts through the strongest

microscope, he would still see only the out­

side of those parts. The things within, the

real life in. the body and all its parts, can

be seen only with the eye of the rational

understanding.

This was the instrument which Sweden­

borg used in his studies of the human

body. He looked with his reason at the

things which other men had discovered

with their disseEting knives and microscopes,

and he looked not so much for the mere

form and position of the yarious vessels

and organs, as for the "why" and the

"wherefore," the purpose, reason, and use

of all things in the body. On this account,

and also because he always remembered

that the body is the sacred temple of a

soul, the mysteries of the human frame were

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EMANUEL SWE'DENBORG 44

opened to him m a light such as has never been given to another man. And thus, by

learning the genuine truth concerning the kingdoms of nature, his mind was prepared to receive, afterwards, the revelation of the

Divine Truth concerning the spiritual King­

dom of God.

In the course of his studies Sweden-Wiii gcarclJ for tf)c ~oul borg resembles a man who is climbing

higher and higher up a mountain-side. From the mines and minerals in the ground his

thoughts had risen to the sun and stars, and

then to the still higher study of the living form of man. And now, after he had mas­

tered every natural science and had come to

those inner recesses of human nature where

the spirit d\v_ells, he tried to lift the veil

from the invisible in order to discover the very soul itself. For this purpose Sweden­

borg made a deep study of the mind of man, the will and the understanding, the

affections and the thoughts. Higher and higher soared his inquiring spirit, until he

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45 SCIENTIST AN'D PHILOSOPHER

felt that he stood upon the threshold of a

higher world, into which no man can pene­

trate by his own understanding, any more

than a camel can enter through the eye of

a needle. Glimpses of truth were given to

him, grand laws of universal order, which

he has written down in his beautiful works

on Tlze Soul and on Tlze vVorslzip and Love

of God. But with all his learning and his

labors he had not been able to discover the

real truth concerning the soul and its im­

mortal life. He knew he could go no fur­

ther by himself, and bowed in deep humility

before his God, who alone could reveal

what is invisible. He had now, as it were,

reached the very top of the mountain of

human knowledge. Above this there was

nothing more,-except heaven itself, which

now was opened to him by the Lord.

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IV

I

The Opening of his Spiritual Sight

lllemarliable For some years Swedenborg had <!Dreams ann

~iun~ noticed a wonderful change coming into his life. While writing some of his books, there had appeared, at times, flames and

strange lights before his eyes, and he had

understood that these were signs from heav­en to show that he had written what is

true. Remarkable dreams also came to him

at night, so peculiar that he thought they must have some hidden meaning. After a

while he began to write down some of these dreams, and tried to explain to himself what

they could signify. Thus he walked for

some time as it were in a twilight between natural and spiritual light; it was the dawn

of a new age, not only for himself but for all mankind.

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47 THE OPENING OF HIS SPIRITUAL SIGHT

Finally, in the year 1743, the light ~~~s~;~~J:rf of heaven first broke through the clouds to.~we!lenborg

in his natural mind, for then the Lord Jesus

Christ appeared in person to Swedenborg

and called him to serve in that holy use for

which he had been prepared from his child-

hood. Of this first manifestation of the Lord

we have no particular account, but He ap-

peared twice again to Swedenborg before

the latter was fully introduced into the

spiritual world. "Then the Lord appeared

the second time, Swedenborg tells us that

he "lay upon His bosom and looked at Him

face to face. It was a countenance with an

holy expression, and such that it cannot be

described; it was also smiling, and I truly

believe that such had been His face while

He lived on earth." This took place in

Holland in the year 1744.2

Tli.e third manifestation took place at (ijtfJe IDision in

L d . h'l S d b tbe ;Inn on on, 111 1745, w I e we en org sat at table in an inn, eating with unusual appe­

tite. Suddenly everything became dim be-

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 48

fore his eyes, but after a while he saw a

mass of horrid reptiles on the floor. These

disappeared after a few minutes, and then

he noticed a man in a corner of the room, who said to him, "Eat not ~o much." Swed­enborg was quite frightened at all this, and

all became black in the room, but when the

darkness cleared away he found himself

alone as before. He then went home, but during the following night the same man

appeared again to Swedenborg, revealing Himself as the Creator and Redeemer of

the world, and promising to explain to him

the hidden or internal sense of the Sacred

Scriptures.* ~romiscoftbc In order that we may understand

'11.orll' ii ~cc: -onll '1toming why the Lord revealed Himself to Swed-

enborg, we must first call to mind the

promise which He gave to the disciples

* Swedenborg was afterwards instructed that the rep­tiles which he saw represented the unclean desires of the body, such as the lust of eating or drinking too much, which a m an must overcome and cast out of himself be­fore h e can rise above his animal nature)

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49 THE OPENING OF HIS SPIRITUAL SIGHT

before He left this world. He promised that

He would come again to those \Yho loYed

Him, but this tirr.e He \\'aS to appear "in

the clouds of heaven with power and great

glory." This was spoken in a parable, but

the Christians have not understood it, and

therefore many are still expeEting that the

Lord will some day appear in a natural

cloud and establish an earthly kingdom.

They do not know that He has already

come in the clouds of lzcm1en, and has be­

gun to establish a lzcmmzly kingdom among

men. The Jews, in the same way, do not

yet know that the Lord was born in Beth­

lehem, but they are still expeEting the l\Ies­

siah to appear in Jerusalem, and make Him­

self the king over the whole earth. But the

Lord is "the \Vay, the Truth, and the Life,"

and His name is "tlze Word of God." By the

"clouds" in which He was to appear, He

meant those things in the Scriptures which

are difficult to understand, and by .His

"appearing" in these clouds He meant that

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 50

He Himself would come as the Divine Truth

and explain the glorious and heavenly things

which are hidden in the parables and sym­

bols of the written \V ord. \Vhen the gen­ume truth appears in the 'V ord to men,

then "the Son of l\Ian" is again speaking

with His beloved, teaching them to do His

will as it is done in heaven; then the vVord

has real "power " with men, and then the

"glory of God " appears in the Scriptures; the " clouds " are then no longer dark, but

are beaming with the splendor of heavenly

light. llll'bc .~tate of The Christian world was, indeed, in tbc <II:brisuan

Worn1 the greatest need of the Divine reve-

lation which the Lord was now about to give through Swedenborg, for the church

which called itself from the name of Christ had become thoroughly perverted and cor­

rupt, and no longer worshipped the Lord ] esus Christ as the only God of heaven and

earth. The old Christian church now held as its fundamental doctrine that God was

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51 THE OPENING OF HIS SPIRITUAL SIGHT

diYided into three different persons, and

that each one of these persons was God by

himself, and so they really worshipped three

gods. The \V ord of God had been explained

in one ~way by one great teacher, and in

a totally different way by another, until it

had been so twisted and turned that no­

body understood its real meaning. The

people had been forbidden to try to under­

stand the teachings of the Lord and the

doB:rines of the church; they only had to

believe blindly what popes and councils had

commanded. Faith, blind belief, was the only

thing considered necessary for salvation ;

the worst rascal, it was taught, could go

straight to heaven if he only believed, while

a poor heathen. who might have a loving

heart and lived well, but on account of

his ignorance could not have faith, was

condemned to hell by this cruel church.

Faith alone was upheld as the essence of

all true religion, but since there were so

many different kinds of faith and no kind of

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 52

mutual love, the church split up into hun­

dreds of setts, each condemning and raging

against all the rest, and so these perverted

people," Christians," robbed and fought and killed one another for more than a thousand

years, until the Christian church had be­

come more like a hell than a heaven.

m'lbP. tbc ']!orb If "those days had not been short-camc again ened," if this state of things had kept on

much longer, no flesh could have been saved, for men would have totally destroyed each

other, and the human race would have per­

ished in eternal death. "But for the eleff s sake " those days were shortened. "'While

there were yet some simple, faithful and

loving hearts among the Christians, the

Lord revealed Himself in the truth of His'

Word. Nothing but the Divine Truth it­

self could save these few remnants from the

universal corruption. Only the Lord Him­

self could explain the true meaning of His

vV ord, and sweep away all the false teach­rngs which had been spun about the 'hu-

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53 THE OPENING OF HJS SPIRITUAL SIGHT

man understanding. He came as the Truth

to set free His people, a·nd this Truth He

chose to reveal through His servant, Eman­

uel Swedenborg. In order that Swedenborg might learn ~be .~piritua!

lW or!b opcnrb to understand the \V ord as it is under- to.~uiebcnborg

stood in heaven, the Lord now opened to

him the whole spiritual world, so that he

was able to walk about there, and to speak

with the spirits and angels just as really

and aB:ually as we walk about here on

earth and speak with one another. This

was not so difficult as it may seem, for the

spiritual \vorld is not very far away. The

Lord Himself has taught us, "Be/told, t!te

kingdom of God is wit/till you." Every goo_d

·man carries heaven within himself, and

every one of us is, in fact:, even now in the

spiritual world as to the spirit, although

we do not know it, because our spiritual

eyes are not opened until after death. But

whenever the Lord in His mercy has given

a new revelation to His people, He has al-

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 54

ways opened the spiritual eyes of some one of His servants on earth. He did so in an­

cient times to Moses and the prophets and

the evangelists, and He did so now to Emanuel Swedenborg, but in a more per­

fect manner than ever before. The won­

ders of the spiritual world were opened to

his eyes, the horrors of hell, and the glories

of heaven, in order that through him all other men might receive a true knowledge

of that world in which, after death, each one is to live for ever.

~\tlcllcnborn's Swedenborg now gave up his work '.jln~piration

m the College of :Mines and all his

studies in the natural sciences. Henceforth

his life was given entirely and directly to

the service of the Lord, and the one thing

which he now studied to the end of his days was the \V ord of God as it was first written in the Hebrew and Greek lan­

guages. \Vhile thus studying he was given to know the genuine understanding of the

Scriptures. No spirit, nor even any angel,

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55 THE OPENING OJ: HIS SPIRITUAL SIGHT

was permitted to instruct him on this sub­

ject, but the Lord alone taught him what

to write in those great and many volumes

which contain the doctrines of the New

Church.

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SWEDENBORG IN

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v

Swedenborg the Revelator

After a few years of preparatory study ~be '?[rcana, . . l!I:relc~tia

of the Word and explorat10n of the spir-

itual world, Swedenborg, in the year 1747,

began to write the great work called Tlze Ar-

cana Ca:lcstil, unfolding the "heavenly mys-

teries" which are contained in the Sacred

Scripture. This work, which occupies many

large volumes, was printed in London be-

tween the years 1748 and 1756, and explains in a Divine light what is meant by the Cre-

ation of the world, the Garden of Eden,

the Fall of Man, the Flood, the Tower of

Babel, the History of Abraham, Isaac and

Jacob, the Captivity of the children of Is-

rael in Egypt and their wanderings 111 the

wilderness on the way to the land of Ca-

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 58

naan. Nobody had ever supposed that all this was anything else but just common his­

tory, but in the Arcana Ca?lestia it is shown

that there is a much deeper meaning in these stories, and that the Lord in that in­

ternal meaning has described the history of His Church among men, and how each man

may be saved from hell, and led to his eter­

nal home in the heaYenly Canaan.

@!:be ~piritual Worlll

Swedenborg was now daily among the angels and spirits in the other world

at the same time that he was among the

men on earth. The things which he heard and saw in the spiritual world, he has de­

scribed at length in his Spiritual Diary and

other works, but especially in the wonderful

book on H eaven and Hell, in which we are taught about the real nature of life after

death. This is especially a vwrk for the

young, for what child is there who has not asked, \Vhat is heaven like? But how many parents, outside the New Church, are able

to answer this question ?

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59 SWEDENBORG THE REVELATOR

In these books the Lord has revealed ~be tWorib of ~pitit!i

that every man awakens in the spiritual

world on the third day after his death on

earth. The spirit is then very much surprised

to find that he is really alive again, has a

real human body, and is in a real world, with

fields and gardens, rivers, mountains and

seas. Angels are there to meet him and to

teach him about the new world into which

he has come. As yet he is neither in heaven

or in hell, but in a world between these two,

called the \V orld of Spirits. Here all spirits,

good or wicked, are together for some time

in order to be examined and judged, each

one according to his works. For mankind

is like the harvest .growing in a field. Death

is the reaper, and the \V orld of Spirits is the

threshing-floor where the chaff is separated

from the wheat, where the good are chosen

and the wicked rejected. This judgment is

effected by each one being allowed to fol­

low his own bent or love in perfect free­

dom. Those spirits who love the Lord and

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 60

the neighbor, take pleasure in the company

of the angels and follow them to places of

instruCl:ion where they are taught concern­

ing the true Christian religion, and then they are ready to enter heaven. But those who

love themselves and their own pleasures above all things, soon become tired of their

angel-guides. They rush away from them

and seek companions like themselves. Thieves hunt up the dens of thieves, and drunkards

seek the society of drunkards. Each wicked spirit loses all fear of punishment, and be­

gins to commit all those evil deeds which he would have done here on earth if he

had dared. And so each one casts himself

jnto hell, which he much .prefers to heaven.

"\Vere he forced to go to heaven, against

his own will, he would be like a fish out of water. He would not be able to endure

the heavenly air of purity, truthfulness, and mutual love, but would suffer horrible tor­

ments until allmved to return to his dark­ness and filth.

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61 SWEDENBORG THE REVELATOR

Hell is below the \Vorld of Spirits. Wefi anti its

It is a world of darkness and horror, UifeofJll!li~er);t

where the satans and devils dwell in hide-

ous holes and caverns, among burning des-

erts, stagnant bogs, and all sorts of fearful

surroundings. All these unhappy spirits

have at one time been men and women on

the earth, but they now appear to the good

like deformed monsters, or like fierce and

filthy beasts. All of them are burning with

hatred against the Lord, the angels, and

even against one another. Each one wants

to be master over all the rest, and finds his

greatest joy in tormenting others. No one

of them is willing to be of the least service

to any one else, and therefore they are forced

to work in prisons and workhouses, and

are miserably punished for their evil deeds.

Here they remain for ever, for they do not

want to be saTrd; yet the mercy of the Lord

watches even over them, restraining them,

and preventing them from casting them-

selves into ever deeper damn;ition.

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 62

Wca\.lcn anb itiJ Uifc of Wappi:

ncitit

Heaven, on the contrary, is a world

of light, and love, and never-ending joy.

The light is from the glorious Sun of heav­

en, within which the angels are constantly beholding the loving face of their heavenly

Father, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

To do His will is the greatest joy of all the angels, and therefore they are constantly

busy with useful work. Each one is given that special occupation or work which he

enjoys the best. Some are in humble po­sitions and some in high, but all are simply

servants of the Lord. All the angels have

been men or women on the earth, who, af­ter a period of preparation and instruction

in the World of Spirits, have been introduced

into heaven, where each one is made a mem­

ber of one of the innumerable heavenly socie­

ties, and here he remains to eternity. Beau­

tiful, shining garments are given to him by the Lord, and a lovely home among the

many mansions in the Father's house. But the loveliest of all is this, that every man-

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6.3 SWEDENBORG THE REVELATOR

angel here finds his true conjugial partner,

the beautiful and loving angel-wife with

whom he will live forever. Everything is

bright and beautiful in heaven; everywhere

there is happiness and health and youth. No­

body ever grows old there; even those who

die on earth as old men and women at once

begin to grow young in heaven, and finally

they regain the strength and beauty of early

youth. But you will find much more con­

cerning all these glorious things in the works

which Swedenborg wrote about Heaven and

Hell and Co11:.fugial Love. ~tbcr Writ: Beside these books Swedenborg wrote inns of tbc

nearly sixty other works, some large, .@cw i!.tburcb

some small, in which he explained the Heav-

enly DoClrines, of the New ] erusalem as the

Lord taught him to write. Of these books I

will mention only the following:

T!ze Eartlzs in tlzc UJLivcrsc, in which are

revealed most wonderful things concerning

the people who live on other planets and dis­

tant stars, how they look and live, and how

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 64

they all worship no other God than our Lord

Jesus Christ. This is a very interesting

book for young readers.

T!te Last 'ludgment, where Swedenborg describes how the wicked spirits in the other

world were cast down into hell, so that they

could no longer prevent good spirits from

going to heaven. This took place in the

year 1757. The New 'Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doc­

trine, in which we are taught that the "New Jerusalem" means the New Church, just as

the old Jerusalem means the old church of

the Jews and the perverted church of the

Christians. The doctrine 'vhich this New Church is to acknowledge is called "heav­

enly" doctrine because it is revealed by the

Lord out of heaven. Tlte_Four Doflrines of t!te New J erusalem.

In this work are revealed the genuine teach­

ings of the \V ord concerning the Lord, the Sacred Scripture, Life, and Faith,-the four fundamental doctrines of the New Church.

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65 SWEDENBORG THE REVELATOR

The Divine Love and Wisdom, which treats

especially of the Lord as the Sun of heaven,

and of the order in which the whole world

was created. The Divine ProvideJtce, in which men are

shown how the Lord not only created, but

continually preserves and governs heaven

and earth, with all things therein, both great

and small.

Tlte Apocalypse Revealed, and Tlte Apoca­

lypse Explained, two great works, in which is

given the true explanation of the book called

the "Apocalypse" or" Revelation of John."

It is shown that this book, in the internal

sense, treats of the New Church, the "Bride

of the Lord," which will be built up in this

world among those who are willing to be­

lieve in and obey the heavenly doctrine of

the New Jerusalem.

Tlte Brief Exposition of t!te DoflriJte of tlte

New Clmrclt, in which it is shown how true

this doctrine is, and how false and mislead­

ing are the doctrines which are taught both

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 66

by the Roman Catholic and the Protestant churches.

Tlze True Christian Religion, which was

the last work published by Swedenborg himself. It contains a full explanation of all the doB:rines of the New Church.

All these works were originally written

in Latin, but nearly all of them have now

been translated into English, French and Ger­man. Many have been published in Swed­

ish, Danish and Italian, and some even in the Icelandic, Welsh, Dutch, Polish, Russian,

Hungarian, Spanish, Arabic and Hindu lan­guages. Some day they will be read by every nation on earth, and will fill this world

with the light and joy of heaven.

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VI

r:A Vi8it to Swedenborg

Many interesting things have been told by a great many different people about Swedenborg himself; . how he looked and

acted, and what kind of a home he had. In this chapter we have brought together many of these things and have woven them into

a connected story, which, let us suppose, is

told by some one of the many visitors who

used to come to see Swedenborg at his home in Stockholm. All the incidents men­

tioned are facts; it is a story only in form.

"During the whole of the year 1769 the people in Sweden were greatly excited about the many wonderful things which

were told respecting Emanuel Swedenborg,

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 68

his conversations with people in the other

world, and his new doEl:rines, which were

much admired by the few who had read his

books, but bitterly hated by the many who declared that they never had read and never

would read his writings. I was myself at

this time a young student at the university

of U psala, and had heard a great deal both

for and against Swedenborg. Some said he was a prophet from God, and some · said he

was a madman, but all agreed in this, that

he had said and done certain things which

ratbe !rite in ~tochbolm

were, indeed, most remarkable. Once,

for instance, he happened to be at a

dinner-party in the city of Gottenburg, when

he suddenly informed the company that a

great fire had just then broken out in Stock­

holm, nearly three hundred miles away,

and that his own house was in great dan­

ger. After a while he said that a great por­

tion of the southern part of Stockholm had burned down, but that his own house had been saved. The company did not know

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69 A VISIT TO SWEDENBORG

what to think about this, but Swedenborg's

words were repeated to many in Gotten­

burg, and great was the astonishment when tlzree days later · a messenger arri \'ed from

Stockholm bearing news of the fire just as

it had been described by Swedenborg.

"At another time he had been invited

to the royal castle in Stockholm, where ~f)c ~uccn'Jt

~ccrct

the queen, Louisa Ulrica, asked him in a

teasing way, if it was really true that he

THE ROYAL PALACE IN STOCKHOLA\

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 70

could speak with people who had left this world. To this he ansvvered 'Yes,' and the

queen, in order to try him, then asked him

if he would be willing- to carry a message from her to her brother, prince Augustus William of Prussia, who had died a short

time before. Swedenborg replied, 'With

all my heart.' The queen, who really be­

lieved that there was no such thing as a life after this, now told the courtiers about

Swedenborg's promise, and joked a good deal about it, but a few days afterwards

he came again to the castle, walked boldly up to the queen, and asked to speak with

her in private. She then took him aside,

and he now whispered a few words in her

ear which so astonished her that she nearly

fainted. Many great people at the court witnessed this scene, and the queen after­

wards told them that Swedenborg had in­

deed given her a message from her brother, and had revealed a secret which could have

been known to none except to her brother

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71 A VISIT TO SWEDENBORG

and to herself. \Vhat the secret was she

would not tell anybody, but she never again

made merry about Swedenborg. "Many other similar tales were told about

this wonderful man, but some tried to ex­

plain them in one way, and some in another,

and so, in order to judge for myself, I de­cided to look into some of the works which

Swedenborg had written and which he had

presented to the library of the university. I read and read, first from curiosity, after­

wards with the greatest astonishment, and

finally with the most intense joy and grati­

tude to the Lord for the immeasurable new

world of light which had been opened to me in these \V ritings. Then I became pos­

sessed of an uncontrollable desire to see with my own eyes this most wonderful of

all the mortals that had ever trodden this

earth, ~ Emanuel Swedenborg, who styled himself so simply, 'the servant of the Lord.'

"And so, one day in May, 1770, I took ~ltlcbcnborg•; t~omc the stage from U psala to Stockholm,

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 72

SWEDENBORG'S HOUSE ANO GARDEN

where I arrived in the afternoon. The next

day I inquired for Swedenborg's address, and, finding it without difficulty, I walked out to the southern part of the city, and up the 'Hornsgatan,' where Sw-edenborg lived.

I finally found myself before his house, an old-fashioned wooden building, low and small,

but neat and well kept, humble enough for so great a man, but sufficient for his wants

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73 A VISIT TO SWEDENBORG

as an unmarried man.4 I knocked, and the

door was opened by a friendly, honest-look­

ing old woman, Fru Anderson, the wife of

the gardener. She led me into a nicely

furnished parlor, and courteously inquired

what I wanted.5 I explained why I had

come, and heard with regret that the 'Herr

Assessor ' had gone out for a walk. But

as he was soon expecred home, she suggested

that I should wait, and in the meantime take

a look at his house and garden. The master

would not objecr, as he kept open house to

his many visitor.s. To this invitation I quickly

agreed, and the kind-hearted, talkative old

servant at once began to show me the rooms.

His parlor, as I said before, was neatly fur­

nished, but at the same time showed the ab­

sence of the beautifying hands of a wife. In the middle of the room stood a curious

marble table, inlaid with mosaic in the form

of a pack of cards spread out loosely.6 On

one of the walls I noticed an old painting

representing our mad hero, king Charles

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 74

XII., in the midst of the fury of battle. On another wall was the framed patent of no­

bility which was kept by Swedenborg as the head of his family.

" But the master did not spend much time

in his parlor, the old lady informed me, but

was nearly always in his study, where he

was writing day and night, year after year.

The old servant was evidently very fond and proud of her master. According to her

(and others), he was the wisest and most learned man in the whole world, and his

company was sought for by all the great

men in Sweden, the bishops of the church,

the professors of the universities and gentle­men of the court; nay, he was even received

as a familiar friend by the members of the

royal family. "At this point I began to feel myself

rather small, and somewhat regretted my au­dacity in intruding myself upon so grand a

lord; but I regained my courage when the kind old soul informed me that her dear mas-

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75 A VISIT TO SWEDENBORG

ter, in spite of all this glory, was nevertheless the most humble and simple-hearted of men,

courteous and benevolent to high and low

alike, and cold only to some impertinent

people who came to gaze upon him as a

wizard or fortune-teller.7 The only fault

she had ever found with him was that he did not care to go to church, and that he

never gave any money to the beggars; but she was no longer worried about this, after

the master had shown her that the people did not really worship the Lord Himself in

the Lutheran and the other churches, but

three Divine persons instead. As for the beggars, she now agreed with her master

that they were mostly an idle lot who did not deserve much sympathy, but she had

been informed by one of the officers of the parish, that Herr Swedenborg every year

quietly gave a big sum of money to help those poor people in the neighborhood who did not go begging.8

"Chatting in this manner the old lady

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 76

now led me into the bedroom, which was

furnished with great simplicity. An old­

fashioned chiffonier, a wash-stand, some

chairs, a high bedstead in an alcove sur­rounded with heavy curtains, and on a wall

a newly-painted portrait of himself,-this

was all the furniture. A large water-pitcher

in a bowl on the washstand surprised me

somewhat, as some g ossip had told. me that S wedenborg never needed to wash himself,

inasmuch as no dirt ever clung to him.9

My guide told me that her master was a

rather irregular sleeper, going to bed only

when he was sleepy ,

he had slept enoug h. in bed for days, and

and arising whenever

Sometimes he stayed then nobody dared to

disturb him, fo r he was then continually in

heaven with the angels. 10 I gazed with awe

and reverence upon this bed, where in the

visions of the night the inhabitants of an­

other world descended to the silent sleeper. To me it seemed as if I stood near the gate

of the eternal life.

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77 A VISIT TO SWEDENBORG

"I now followed Fru Anderson into l~i!i ~tubP.

the study, where Swedenborg each mor-

ning made a fire of birch wood in the open

grate, and prepared his simple breakfast,

consisting generally of bread soaked in hot

milk. The Herr Assessor did not seem to

need a great deal of ' food, I was told, and

seldom ate any meat, but was rather fond

of coffee, which he took at any time in the

day, always filling the cup half full of

sugar. 11

"Looking about in this study, where

Swedenborg had written nearly all of the

Sacred \Y ritings of the New Church, I was

astonished at the absence of books and

bookcases. Nothing of this kind was to be

seen, except, on a table, the \\T ord in He­

brew, Greek, and Latin, a set of his own

theological writings, and some manuscript

indexes to these works. These were all he

needed now': the rest of his library \Yas

kept in a small house in the garden. On

his \vriting-table there was nothing except a

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 78

handsome inkstand, a goosequill pen, and the yet unfinished manuscript of his great

work, Tlze True Clzristian Religion, on which

he was still at work.12

"Spellbound I looked at this writing­

table, where the light of heavenly truth had

come down to earth in the form of written

words. And in these words the Lord Him­

self is now speaking openly with men. He has come again as the Divine Truth itself,

and yet how few have listened to His voice! But we must wait with patience;

wait for hundreds of years, perhaps, until

the eyes and ears of men be opened for the truth. In time it will_ be received, though

the opposing darkness be as strong as death

and as black as hell. I looked up over the

table, through the open window. Outside,

in the garden, I saw the signs o~ early spring- our lovely northern spring. The

fruit-trees were budding and blossoming, the

snowdrops and narcissuses were swaying to and fro in the balmy wind which wafted.

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79 A VISIT TO SWEDENBORG

their fragrance to me, together with the

clear notes of a flock of migratory birds

above, who were returning from their south­

ern homes. There was spring in the north,

and signs of spring in human hearts. The

truth had come again into the world, like

a breath from heaven. The winter of the

church was passing away, and here, in this

lowly dwelling, lived the herald of that

new age which was to restore to mankind

the youth and beauty of a never-ending

sprmg.

"Out of these meditations I was Wi~ ~arben

finally awakened by my guide, who now

invited me to come out into the garden.

Here we met her husband, the gardener, a

kindly old man, who eagerly began to show

me the things of interest in his special do-

mam. Among the trees I noticed a variety

of choice fruit-trees and a number of box-

trees which, in the fashion of those days,

were clipped and trimmed into the shape

of various animals and ornamental figures.

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 80

In front of the house there were several large flowerbeds, containing rare Dutch tu­

lips and other early flowers. At the side

of the house was· a small conservatory, in which were kept palms and other southern

plants. The gardener said that his old mas­

ter loved these flowers and plants almost

as tenderly as if they were his children.13

But he loved still better little human chil­dren. 'The little folks always miss him

greatly when he goes away on his foreign journeys,' the old man continued. 'They

are his special favorites. He often allows

them to play in his garden, and sometimes

joins in their games and merriment. They

are always on the lookout when he is com­

ing, for he generally has his pocket full of

cakes and goodies for them.' For their special amusement he had built a maze or

·labyrinth of boards in the garden, so con­

trived that no one who had entered could find the way out without his help. 14 There were several other little buildings m the

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81 A VISIT TO SWEDENBORG

garden. One was his 'summer house,' where

he kept his library. Another was built so

that he could, by pressing a button, sud­

denly change it from a square to an oB:a­

gon. In this building there \Yas also a

blind door, which, when opened, showed

another door with a window in it, as it

seemed. But when I walked up to it I

was surprised to behold-only myself! The

'window' was only a large mirror.

"The gardener laughingly told me that

the old master deri \'ed

much amusement from

this arrangement, especial­

ly when inquisitive young

ladies were investigating

the nooks and corners of

his large garden. Once

a pretty maiden begged

that 'Uncle Swedenborg

would please show her one

of his angels,' and as she

would not be put off, he SWEDE!'\BORG 'S SUA\AIER HOUSE

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 82

led her to this door and smilingly opened

it, saying, 'Now, my dear, you shall see an

angel.' But she saw only her own blush­

ing face. 15

"Much interested in all this, I was about to say farewell, to come again at another time, when we were met by the gardener's

wife, who announced that the Herr Assess­

or had just returned from his walk and would be pleased to see me in the parlor.

Delighted, but somewhat fearful, I walked quickly to the house, and was met at the

door by Emanuel Swedenborg himself, who

greeted me with a friendly smile and led me into the room.

jt,1.t1ebenborg'% ?Cppearance

"I was surprised to see in this very

old gentleman an erect and lively per-

son, somewhat thin and pale, perhaps, but strong and manly. His bearing was digni­

fied and venerable, his face thoughtful, re­fined and innocent, and there was about his whole person something unusual, an at­

mosphere of purity and holiness such as I

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83 A V!SJr TO SWEDENBORG

cannot exa&ly describe. On his head he

wore a powdered wig, like all other gentle­

men of that time. His mouth was large

and firm, but always softened by a gentle

smile. His nose was straight and strong,

and his eyes were large and of a deep clear

blue. They were really remarkable eyes,

gentle and soft, yet earnest and penetrating,

as if he could read beyond my face the

naked features of my very soul. 16

"My host now invited me to take a seat,

and asked what he could do for me. I

briefly told him my name, and stated that

I had not come out of mere curiosity, but

from the desire to express to him my grati­

tude for all the wonderful things which I

had learned through the books which he

had written, and that I had become firmly

convinced that the do&rines of the New

Jerusalem were the truth itself. At these

words the face of Swedenborg was lit up

with a tender light; his eyes for a moment

seemed filled with tears of joy, and he

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 84

warmly pressed my hand, saying quickly,

'Good! good !' 17 Then he added, solemnly,

'But give the thanks to the Lord alone. I

am only a servant. The truth is from the

Lord alone, who prepared me for my office

from my early youth, and who filled me

with His Spirit to teach the doB:rines of

the New Church through the \V ord, from

Him.'

"I sat silent for some moments, ponder­

ing over this statement, and then asked, 'Is

there not, then, anything in all your writ­

ings that is from yourself or from your

own genius and learning?' To this he an­

swered very earnestly, 'I can solemnly tes­

tify , in the name of truth, that from the

first day of my call I have not received

,anything whatever from myself, or from

any spirit or angel, r espeB:ing the doB:rines

of the N ew Church , but from the Lord

alone, while reading the \Vorel. \Vhen I

think of what I am about to write, and

w hile I am writing, I possess a perfeB: in-

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85 A VISIT TO SWEDENBORG

spiration, for otherwise it would be my

own, but now I know for certain that ·what

I write is the living truth of God.' 18

" Encouraged by his kindness and evi­

dent pleasure in dwelling on these great

subjetl:s, I now asked him question dter

question concerning other teachings which

were still somewhat obscure to me. To all

of these he gave most clear and convinc­

ing answers, speaking slowly, and at times

with a slight stuttering. \Vhile we were

thus conversing, another visitor was an­

nounced, in whom I was delighted to recog­

nize a former comrade of mine at the uni­

versity, Sir Carl Robsahm, who, I found,

was a great friend of Swedenborg's, and a

frequent visitor to his house.

·"He had come, he said, to invite the

Herr Assessor to his house for supper, and

he now extended the same inYitation to

myself. Swedenborg, who much enjoyed a

social gathering of friends, cheerfully ac­

cepted the invitation and ·withdrew to his

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 86

bedroom to change his dress. \Vhen, after a few moments, be appeared again, he was

dressed no longer in his usual simple cos­tume of black knee-breeches and brown coat, but in the garb of the courtier and

fine gentleman of high society. He now wore a suit of black velvet with much fine

lace at the neck and the wrists, silk stock­

ings, and low shoes with jewelled buckles. At his side he carried a small sword, curi­

ously hilted and inlaid with silver. In one hand he had his gold-trimmed three-cornered

hat, and in the other a gold-headed cane.

Altogether, he appeared as handsome and

elegant a gentleman of the old type as

could be found anywhere. Just before we

started out, he produced a silver snuff-box,

which he passed around, and then with a small golden spoon ceremonious! y lifted to

his nose a few grains of the perfumed Spanish snuff, which was then the fashion

in aristocratic circles.19

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SWEDENBORG IN HIS PARLOR, STOCKHOLM

(Swedenborg was a taller man than i8 represented by the artist in this piElure)

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 88

"As we were walking along I was Wti }Dmional ~abitlt again astonished at the wonderful youth­

fulness of this very old gentleman. He was

as quick on his feet as the youngest man,

and walked, in fact, more briskly than was

my own custom. He noticed everything

about him, and entertained us young men

with his lively conversation, spiced now·

and then with bright but innocent wit.20

"\Vhen arrived at the mansion of Sir

Robsahm we found with our young and

charming hostess a small company of other guests who hailed with mt1ch delight· their

old friend, Swedenborg, for he was respected

and admired by all, whether they agreed

with his teachings or not. Among the

guests I noticed Count von Hopken, the

former prime minister of s,veden, who was, perhaps, Swedenborg's most intimate friend;

Archbishop Troilius, who agreed with Swed­

enborg in politics, but disagreed in religion, and a Russian priest, named Oronoskow, who was the chaplain to the Russian am-

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89 A VISIT TO SWEDENBORG

bassador and who also was a believer in

Swedenborg's writings.

"At the table Swedenborg ate but little,

but with much relish. He joined heartily

in the toast to his royal majesty, the king,

but filled his glass half full with sugar, and

could not be induced to take more than

two or three glasses of wine,-a thing which

rather astonished the other gentlemen, to

whom such moderation in drinking was not

a usual sight.21

"During the conversation the Russian

chaplain asked Swedenborg whether he had

ever seen the late empress Elizabeth of

Russia in the other life. To this he re­

ceived the answer that she was now in a

very happy state, as she had been a truly

good woman 2t heart, · and had always

prayed to the Lord for counsel and assist­

ance in the government of her country.

This answer so delighted the Russian that

he was moved to tears of joy in hearing

this news of 'the little mother,' as the em-

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 90

press had been called by her loving peo­ple.22

"There was a wonderful sphere about

Swedenborg's conversation. vVhenever he spoke all other voices were hushed, and

even those who were inclined to ridicule

were shamed into silence, as this most ven­

erable old man, with his smiling, innocent

eyes, told these unheard-of things, strange and yet unanswerable, concerning a world

so far and yet so near to us. 2>

"After supper, while the other gentle­

men went to enjoy a game of cards, Swed­

enborg and some of the younger men re­mained with the ladies, who seemed grate­

ful for this attention. Some of the young­

er ladies, I noticed, seemed to be rather amused at the fact that the old gentleman,

in a cert'itin absent-mindedness, had put on

odd shoes, one having a buckle of gems,

and the other a buckle of silver. But then, he had no wi£e in this world to look after

such little things.24

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91 A VISIT TO SWEDENBORG

"After some small talk on various sub­

jeEl:s, such as the pet cats and little dogs

in the room who jumped up on his knees

to show their little tricks, Swedenborg hap­

pened to see a harpsichord and at once re­

quested the ladies to favor us with some

music. During the performance of a diffi­

cult and celebrated sonata, he beat the time

with his foot and seemed to enjoy the

music greatly. This friend of flowers and

children and the gentle sex could not but

include music also in his love of all things

innocent and beautiful.25

"Promptly at seven o'clock Swedenborg

took his leave, explaining that he never

stayed out after that hour. I accompanied

him on his way. Never will I forget that

walk in the mysterious twilight of our

northern spring. The most memorable day

of my life was drawing to a close. I could

not hope to meet again this citizen of two worlds, this man among men and angel

among the angels, for he told me that he

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 92

would soon leave Sweden for Amsterdam,

where he would publish his last great work,

The True Clzristian Religion. Most useful

had this visit been to me. I felt that though he was the best and wisest among men, he

still was but a man, my elder brother 111

the Lord's New Church. I felt, when he

was explaining to me the mysteries of my

new faith, that he himself was not the in­ventor or discoverer of the Doctrines of

the New ] erusalem, but that they had been f!iven to him from the Lord Himself.

" \Vhen at last our all-too-short walk

was at an end, and I regretfully bade him

adieu before his door, he affectionate! y

pressed my 'hand, and earnestly advised me

to continue in my study of the Doctrines of the New Church, and not only to believe

in them, but also to live according to their

teachings.

the

return.

"I saw him no more. In July of same year he left Sweden, never to

Having published his book in Hol-

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93 A VISIT TO SWEDENBORG

land, he went to London in l7Jl, and about

Christmas time had an attack of paralysis,

which made him lame and speechless for a

few weeks. After this he recovered some­

what, and was even able to write a little;

but he knew that his time had come, and

even told the people about him the exact

day on which he would die.

"My friend, the Rev. Arvid Ferelius, was

at this time the minister of the Swedish

church in London, and often visited Swed­

enborg during his last illness. The faithful

old servant of the Lord looked forward to

death as joyfully as a schoolboy looks to­

wards his holidays. During the last visit

Ferelius asked him if in his many books he

had written what was really true. Swed­

enborg then lifted himself up in his bed,

put his hand upon his heart, and said with

great earnestness, 'As true as you see me here, and as true as I live, I have not writ­

ten anything from myself, but the truth

from God. And if you will pay attention

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E:MANUEL SWEDENBORG 94

to the truth you will come to see every­thing, and we shall some time in eternity

have important things to talk over together.'

Pastor Ferelius afterwards began to read the Writings of the New Church, and be­

came a zealous receiver of the truth.

Wi~ ~catJJ "A few days afterwards, on the after­

noon of the twenty-ninth of March­

the day h.e had foretold-he awakened from a slumber and asked the women who were

watching in his room what time of day it

was. They answered that it was about five

o'clock. He then said, 'It is well. I thank

you. God bless you;' and lovingly bade them fareweil. A few minutes afterwards

he breathed a gentle sigh, and his great

spirit passed into that world where he so

long had had his real home. Never will this world see such another man."26

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VII

Swedenborg's 'R.._ules of Life

WRITTEN FOR HIS OWN USE AND FOUND AMONG HIS

MANUSCRIPTS

I. Diligently to read and meditate upon the \V ord of God.

II. To be content under the dispensa- , tions of the Divine Providence.

III. To observe a propriety of behavior and to preserve the conscience pure.

IV. To discharge with fidelity the func­tions of my employments and the duties of my office, and to make myself in all things

useful to society.

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APPENDIX I

CHILDREN IN HEAVEN

Among all that Swedenborg heard and

saw in the spiritual world nothing can be

more beautiful than what he learned about

the little children in heayen. First of all

he found that the whole Christian world

had been totally wrong in belie Ying that

only those children could go to heayen

who had been baptized into the Christian

church. Before his time people had aEl:u­

ally believed that little children could go

to hell ; that all the innocent babies and

infants of heathen people would be con­

demned to eternal suffering, simply because

they had not been baptized before they

died ! And yet the Lord Himself had

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 98

taught His disciples: "Suffer !£ttle children

and forbid tlzem not to come unto Me, for of

such is tlze kingdom of lzeaven."

But now, in order that a New Church should be raised up which should not for­bid any little ones to come unto the Lord,

Swedenborg was allowed to learn very par­ticularly what becomes of the many little

children who pass away from this world, and he has brought us the good tidings

that not a single clzild is lost, but that all are

taken up into heaven, and grow up there and become angels, no matter who their

parents may have been, or whether they

had been baptized or not. And, what is astonishing, he found that a third part of

heaven, immense as it is, consists of those who had died when they were young.27

Now, as soon as a baby or a child dies

in this world., the little spirit is at once

raised up in the other life, and wakes up strong and well in the sunlight of heaven, as bright as a bird on a summer mormng.

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99 CHILDREN IN HEAVEN

In every way he or she is better off than before, being no longer clothed with the

sickly earth-body, but now in such a body

as the angels have. Here the youngest in· fants are at once able to walk and run

about, without any praetice, and even to

speak the heavenly language, though at first they may lisp and stutter a bit.28

Nor do they find themselYes alone, but

the Lord immediately sends the loveliest women-angels to nurse them and take care

of them. For the love of infants is part of

the very life of every good woman, and

those who had most tenderly loved little

children in this world could not be perf eet­

ly happy eYen in heaven, if they could not have children always about them.29 These

angels now take the young spirits in their arms as lovingly as if they were their own

children, and carry them to their beautiful

houses in heaven, and make them feel at

home there. The children at once call these angels "mother," but they are taught to call

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 100

no one father except their heavenly Father,

whose face they constantly see before them

in the glorious Sun of heaven.3°

The education of children is one of the chief delights and occupations of all the an­

gels in heaven, but there are certain socie­

ties which are especially devoted to this use, and the best and highest of these are

those which have the care of the very little ones.71 Here these live with their beautiful

angel-mothers and their kind and wise fos­

ter-fathers, and grow up under the imme­diate view of the Lord Himself.32 They still

need careful training, for not only are they

very ignorant, at first, but they also carry

with them from the earth the same tenden­

cies to selfishness and foolishness that be­

long to all the children of our fallen race.

Such weeds must be rooted out before the

children can become real angels, and this is

done in heaven far more wisely and thor­oughly than on the earth. In order, there­fore, that the children may become pure

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IOI CHILDREN JN HEAVEN

and perfeB:. as the angels are, the Lord per­

mits their evil tendencies to come forth at

times into naughty desires and bad thoughts,

but as soon as this happens they are at

once shown what such things would lead

them to, and they are then filled with such

horror for this evil that they never do it,

but flee away from it as from some fear­

some ghost.33

Each child is, of course, different from

all the rest, and each one is brought up in

a special manner most suitable to it,34 but in

general all are trained by cultivating their

affections or love of what is beautiful and

pure and holy. They are taught to pray

to the Lord Jesus Christ as to their loving

Father in the heavens, asking and receiving

from Him all that their innocent hearts de­

sire. They are taught to have great rever­ence for His holy "Word and for all things

of the Church and of worship. They are

taught to obey because they are taught to

love, and not, as so often happens on earth,

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 102

to be selfish and conceited, and to quarrel

and fight.35 They are surrounded, within

and without their homes, with lovelier things

than can be described or imagined. Their dolls and playtoys appear as if living to

them.36 Beautiful garments are given new

to them each day from the Lord. Delight­

ful gardens surround each home, and mag­

nificent paradises and parks exist in the

outskirts of each heavenly society or city. Here the children are allowed to play. Swedenborg saw them there, decked and

adorned with garlands of flowers, and when

a company of these gay little children en­

tered into one of those paradises, he not­iced that the very flowers beamed forth

with increased brightness and beauty.37 The

very air they breathe is filled with music and splendor, sometimes sparkling as if with

diamonds and rubies and rainbows, at other

times as if filled with the tiny faces of smil­ing infants.38

In such surroundings, what wonder if

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103 CHILDREN JN HEAVEN

they forget all about the less beautiful earth

they came from, and believe that they were

born in heaven as the blessed children of

the Lord. No more do they long to return

to this world of ours than a butterfly longs

to come back to his cocoon.39

Not only are they thus enjoying them­

selves, and learning to love what the an­

gels love; they are also of the greatest use

to us on earth, although neither they nor

we are aware of it. For the Lord at times

uses them as His special little messengers

to us, when we are in trouble and when

evil spirits infest us. "When the infant-spir­

its then come near, they bring with t.hem an atmosphere of innocence and peace which

is more than the wicked spirits can bear.

The evil ones hate the very smell of heaven,

and so they flee away and leave us in peace.

In this manner the little ones of heaven are

really the proteB:ors of us strong men on

earth.40 And again, these infants are very

often allowed to come and play with the

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 104

very small children on earth as with their

own dolls and comrades. The old folks

cannot see them, but the babies feel their

presence, and that may be the reason why a baby sometimes crows and laughs so sweetly "at nothing at all," when we leave

it alone.41

If people only knew and believed what

the Lord has told us through Swedenborg, they surely would not cry so hard and

break their hearts when one of their chil­dren dies. How much better for the child,

and how much better for us, who then have

become conneEted with heaven and drawn

nearer to it by a new and living influence.

It is selfish to mourn too much over the

good fortune of those we love. Nor is it

true that we will never see them again. vVhen we ourselves die we can see our lit­

tle brothers and sisters and sons and daugh­

ters who have gone before us. Swedenborg witnessed many such meetings, and tells us especially of a grown-up man who in the

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105 CHILDREN IN HEAVEN

other life met a brother who had died in infancy and had been brought up in heaven.

This one spoke so tenderly to the newcom­

er, and showed such a brotherly affection, that the latter was moved to tears in his

presence. For children and angels are loves, and love can never forget.42

But the children in heaven do not always

remain infants. As in this world, they grow

older, and as they develop they need a dif­

ferent kind of training at each different

age. \Vhen, therefore, they are about sev­

en years old, they are transferred to differ­

ent homes and societies.43 The boys are given into the care of angel masters or teachers, who instruct them most carefully

in all the things that are necessary to know

for their future uses and life in heaven .

.:\lost of the man-angels are teachers, in one

way or another, and the schools in the spir­itual world are far more numerous and per­

£ ect than those in this world. Nearly every­

body, old or young, who comes from the

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 106

earth, has to go to school for some time in the other. life, before he is fit to enter heaven. Think of all the good people who die all about us and who are in the deep­est ignorance about true religion and heav­enly life! All such are taught and prepared in places of instruetion, but the children have schools of their own, where they are

taught especially by means of representations or living piCtures which present to the eye the very image of that about which the teacher is instruCting them.44 Everything is thus illustrated, everything is quickly un­derstood, and the school-children can learn ten times faster and many times more than they can learn in the same time on earth. Then, as they grow older, they are sent to other and higher schools, called "gymnasi­ums," where the young men: are taught es­

pecially by means of discussions on some given subjeet. The younger pupils express their opinions first, then the older and wiser ones, and finally the head master sums up

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107 CHILDREN IN HEAVEN

the discussion, and tells the real truth on

the subject. At such discussions about spir­itual things, beautiful flames of lightning

are seen above the "temples of wisdom" in

which the meetings are held, and when the conclusion is reached a gentle murmur of

thunder is heard, as a sign from the Lord that the truth has been spoken.45

But their sports are not only intellect­

ual; they also have games of physical skill of various kinds, with balls and other things,

and trials of skill of all sorts, at \vhich the

boys who are the brightest and quickest receive the prize. Finally, when their edu­

cation is completed, which is when they are

about eighteen years of age, they are sent forth from their schools, arrayed in the "wedding garment," and they are then called

no longer boys or youths, but "disciples of the Lord."46

The young girls are educated in a some­what different manner.47 After they leave

their first nurses, they are given into the

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 108

hands of married women teachers, and are

kept in their homes, three or four together, each one having her own bedchamber, where

she keeps her clothes and keepsakes. Here

they are regularly taught, in ways most suitable to girls, not so much about the

mere facts of science and the particular

reasons and arguments of doctrine, as about what is becoming and wise in life. They

are thus educated especially by cultivating their affeDion of truth and of wisdom, to­

gether with the love of embodying these in

corresponding beautiful forms. They are

particularly instructed in the art of embroid­ery and decoration, in music and the fine

arts, and, as they grow up, they are also taught how to take care of the little infants

whom the Lord is ever calling from this

world. Every girl naturally loves fine cloth­ing, and so they find new dresses in their

closets every day, but if they should desire or think anything that is wrong, they sud­

denly discover spots on their garments which

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109 CHILDREN IN HEAVEN

cannot be removed until they have exam­

ined their hearts and repented of the evils

that caused the spots; then the blemishes

vanish of themselves.

if they see any of

In the same way,

their garments miss-

ing from their rooms, they know at once

that they ha,·e aB:ed wrongly, but if they

receive a new garment they recognize it as

a sign that they have aB:ed well. Each one,

also, has her own little garden, in which the loveliest flowers grow in abundance,

but as long as she is an unmarried girl only

flowers grow there, but no fruit, until she

becomes a wife. Now if she notices that

the flowers in her garden seem drooping or

less bright than before, or if coarser plants

appear there, she knows that something

needs to be amended in her own heart and

mind, but if the flowers seem bright, and

new and nobler plants appear, she knows

that it is well with her. Coins and orna­

ments of silver and gold are giYen to the

girls as keepsakes and rewards for diligence

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG I IQ

and virtue. Each one has a copy of th~

written \Vord, and also hymn books and

other books for instruction and spiritual de­

light. They read daily in these, but if some­times they neglect to read, they find that

some of their garments are missing, or their

little gardens vanish.48 The boys and the

girls are brought up separately, but still

those who are in the same society sometimes meet, and have plays and games together, under the supervision of their masters and

governesses.

Finally, when they are full-grown maid­ens, which is when they are about fifteen

years of age, the Lord leads each one to meet the youth who has been born and

educated for her and for her alone. They meet as if by chance, but both instantly know that they are intended for one another.

Then, after considering this for some time, they meet again and declare their love, and

are betrothed.49 The marriage itself is cele­brated in the heavenly society where the,

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I II CHILDREN IN HEAVEN

young man has been brought up, but after­wards he follows his bride into her society, where a home is provided for them by the

Lord. They are now angels and members of the Heavenly Kingdom, and they remain

with one another as husband and wife, in a confidence and love and bliss that increase

to eternity .50

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APPENDIX II

LIST OF REFERENCES

For the convenience of .those who may desire to investigate further in respeB: to

some of the statements made in this little

work, we add the following list of authori­ties referred to by numbers in the volume

itself. D. stands for the Documents concern­

ing Swedenborg, by Dr. R. L. Tafel; A.C.

for the Arcana Ca:lestia; H.H. for Heaven

and H ell; C.L. for Conjugial Love; and

S.D. for the Spiritual Diary: all of these

by Swedenborg.

1. (p. 3r.) D . i. p. 699. 2. (p. 47.) D. ii. 158. 3. (p. 48. ) D. i. 36; ii. 426; S.D. 397. 4. (p. 73-) D . i. 31, 32; ii. 398, 400. 5. (p. 73-) D. ii. 730.

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I 1.3

6. (p. 73. ) D . i. 33, 57. 7. (p. 75.) D. i. 7; ii. 56o. 8. ( p. 75. ) D . i. 36, 42 , 64.

9. ( p. 76. ) D. i. 33; ii. 56i. 10. (p. 76. ) D. i. 32, 40. II. (p.'n. ) D. i. 32.

12. ( p. 78. ) D. i. 32 ; ii. 545.

13. (p. So.) D. i. 33 ; ii. 714. 14. (p. So. ) D . ii. 446.

15. ( p. 82. ) D. i. 32; ii. 725.

LIST OF REFERENCES

16. (p. 83. ) D . i. 33; ii. 399, 403, 423, 450--455. 17. (p. 84~ ) D . i. 4r. 18. (p. 85. ) D . ii. 404.

19. (p. 86.) D. ii. 435, 459, 544, 714. 20. (p. 88.) D. ii. 450.

2i. (p. 89. ) D . i. 32; ii. 449.

22. ( p. 90. ) D. i. 37.

23. (p. 90. ) D . i. 34; ii. 445, 446, 485.

24. (p. 90. ) D . i. 33.

25. (p. 9i. ) D. ii. 435- 438.

26. (p. 94. ) D. ii. 535, 542, 546, 549, 557, 558. 27. (p. 98. ) H.H. 4, 416. 28. (p. 99. ) H.H. 331; S.D. 5668.

29. (p. 99· ) H.H. 332. 30. (p. loo. ) T. C.R. 729; C.L. 4II; S .D . 5668.

3I. (p. IOO. ) H. H. 391. 32. (p. IOO. ) H.H. 333- 335. 33. (p. IOI. ) S .D. 5668. 34. (p. IOI. ) A . c. 2301.

35. (p. 102. ) A. C. 2309.

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36. (p. 102.) A. C 2298.

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I 14

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