Delaware, provision may be made that no divorce shall be granted for an offence that occurred outside the State, unless, at the time of the event, it was a legal ground of divorce in the State where it occurred. Common terms of marriage license, degrees of relationship, methods of celebration, record, etc., are among the many subjects for such experiments in uniform legislation. Nothing, as I have said, can be done here to infringe upon the autonomy of the States; nothing need be done to the prejudice of local interests; no step need be taken that might fasten a pernicious system upon the country at large, nor any that will hinder or do aught but help on the project of national uniformity by a constitutional amendment, or an international scheme, should we by and by find that necessary.

While we are making this experiment, local reformatory legislation can go on, valuable both in the interests of strict reform and as useful experiments, like that just noted in Delaware. Meanwhile, further and greatly needed investigations would clear up the path, public opinion would be educated, and the limitations of legislation as a reformatory agent become better understood.

This advantageous position has been gained by pretty clear ideas of what was needed from the first, and a resolution on the part of the reformers to hold their own work down to a scientific method, and trust to the people to appreciate its value when they saw its results. So far as the organized movement for divorce reform is concerned, the reform is certainly in a most healthful, hopeful condition; and those who have for any reason indulged in ill-considered theories or demands have become silent, or much more reasonable. Plenty of room is thus made for that great educational and religious work which is the very soul of reform.

4. What may be called the theoretical or speculative discussions of marriage, divorce, and the family, such as have become very common the last two or three years in both English and American reviews, are chiefly valuable as showing the unrest there is on these subjects, and the need of severe study of their problems on a broader basis than the various traditional methods afford. "Symposiums" and other contributions to its literature. generally do little more for the real student than air the opinions of eminent persons, which are rarely of exceptional or scientific value. They often mislead the ordinary reader and the newspapers. The real work on these problems is going on elsewhere, in the universities and other places, where scientific aims and methods control the student, or where religious training is leading to better use of the home.

III. THE BIBLICAL TESTS APPLIED TO RECENT CLAIMS. BY C. B. HULBERT, D.D., ZANESVILLE, O.

PART I.

SOME years ago the writer was an attendant for a few days upon the Summer School of Philosophy at Concord, Mass. Among the papers read

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was one by Mr. Alcott, on Swedenborg. Our attention was called to the fact that in his earlier authorship Swedenborg had been a prolific writer in the department of science; and that not till he had passed his fifty-fifth year did he begin his writings in theology and spiritualism. Having read his paper, which was largely biographical and commendatory, opportunity was given for questions. What can you say of Swedenborg's scientific treatises, were they ever used as text-books in schools and universities? "Never," said Mr. Alcott; they were accounted of no value whatever." Upon this the inquirer waxed bold, and wanted to know how it happened that Swedenborg should be an authority in speculative and transcendental theology, and become the founder of a religio-philosophical sect—that is, a leader in a realm from which we are all excluded in default of not being inspired seers like himself—and yet be of no authority in departments of knowledge where we can all accompany him? "Excuse me," was Mr. Alcott's prompt response, "if I say this is no place for controversial inquiry;" a response which gave great relief to not a few of the disciples of the great Swedish apostle who had come in to hear the paper. But the inquirer insisted that the test to which he would subject the religious writings of Swendenborg was not discourteous; that a greater than Swedenborg not only submitted to it, but was the first to suggest it, and staked His entire authority upon the strength of it, Mark ii. 8-10: "You say that I am an impostor: suppose that I am; which would be the safer thing for Me to do as such, to say, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee;' or to say, 'Arise, take up thy bed, and walk?' If I say, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee,' you cannot tell whether they are or not; and, as an impostor, I beat a successful retreat under the covert of your ignorance; but, on the other hand, if I say, Arise, take up thy bed, and walk'—an event cognizant by your senses and the sick man does not do it, then I remove the disguise and stand exposed. If I am an impostor, I must be careful as to what I say ; but since I am not, I am not careful, and am more than willing to have my authority to forgive sin put to the test, and in a demonstration which appeals to your senses; therefore I say to the sick of the palsy,' Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way to thine house.'"'

To demonstrate the fact that an event the forgiveness of sin-had taken place which was not within the realm of demonstrability, He established its certainty by proof that was within that realm. He recognized our human dependence upon phenomenal proof. This is the demand imposed upon Swedenborg. If he has revelations made to him in a sphere from which common mortals are excluded, it is reasonable that these common mortals should require of him proof fitted to their low estate. If he writes "three massive folios entitled 'Opera Philosophica et Mineralia,' '' and these are followed by other works in the departments of human anatomy and physiology, and these treatises, all told, written in departments of knowledge where we can all follow him, are absolutely worthless, may we not account it a presumption in him to ask us to accept him as an authority

in his "Arcana Cœlestia," and wherein he takes his position amidst the profound mysteries of the eternal world and pronounces upon them with an oracular boldness not to be exceeded had he been a private secretary to all the prophets and the first assistant to the recording archangel? It may not be becoming in us to deny his claims; but we are permitted in all humility to demand of him that he establish their validity. As our Lord justified and satisfied the human mind in its demand for proof fitted to its comprehension, so we demand of Swedenborg that he condescend to do the same. To secure our acceptance of his teachings, he ought to have said, "That ye may know that I have power on earth to reveal the mysteries of heaven and hell, I furnish these signs, to wit ;" but here follows a significant blank. Not only so; his utter failure in the department of natural science is presumptive evidence that his claims to authority in supernatural science are invalid. We call for the accrediting signs.

It is to be noticed here that faith is not an unmixed spiritual force. It has its law of working. It must have its antecedents in an intellectual acceptance of truth, and proceed on the basis of intellectual certainty. Faith is no fool. It is truth, but more than truth; intellectual light and vision, but other and more than these. Our Lord recognized and honored this law of faith. He did it in the passage above; He did it when He said, "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe ;" and IIe did not blame His hearers for asking for this evidence. He who created the intellect gave it a place to work in, in religion as well as in science. Put faith, then, as much above reason as you please, but remember that it takes up into it and utilizes all the reason it can get and hankers for more; for faith is perfected reason. They tell us in Persian fable of a remarkable bird, the Jaftak, which has but one wing. On the side opposite the wing in the male bird there is a hook; opposite the wing in the female bird there is a ring. Hence it comes to pass that they never rise into the heavens and sing except as they are joined together. Reason and faith are the two birds, male and female, and each the complement of the other; and they twain, one.

Hence, when Swedenborg goes sky-larking among the stars of heaven, or gleans from the fields of burning marl, and comes back to us to tell us what he has seen, we call for the divine signature inscribed unambiguously upon his record. We can accept his testimonies in a realm where we cannot follow him, only as they are verified and sustained by the biblical criteria" with signs following"-and which are within our reach.

But advance to notice that this rule of faith which our Lord honored, and which Swedenborg ignored, and which, therefore, rules him out, is interesting in its reach of application to certain recent claims to authority in the department of the religious consciousness. We cannot interpret 1 Cor. ii., and other Scriptures affirming the same spiritual vision, without justifying the emphasis which, in these recent times, has been laid upon this power of insight. The fact that this claim to spiritual illumination

and discovery has often asserted itself in forms so extreme as to compel our instant dissent does not disturb in the least our conviction at this point. We not only believe in the religious consciousness, we stand among the foremost to exalt it in Christian experience to a supreme importance as the psychological substrata and source of all rest and hope. Without it the Christian life would be a frigid and barren thing, devoid of all exhilarating and impelling force.

But alongside of this truth we bring another which, while it does not impair, yet limits its range. This religious consciousness as an authority is confined in its benefits to home uses. It is intensely individual, personal, and private. Only indirectly and remotely has it an objective and public value. It appertains to that department of the Christian life which is hid with Christ in God. It comes to the believer's soul in the intimacies of his personal acquaintance with God in Christ. It is the hidden wisdom which God ordained. It is just here that we find the vein for the silver. The vulture's eye hath not seen it. It is the reflex of the union of all the graces upon the heart of the believer, and is the choicest of all his treasures. It is the pearl which he is forbidden to cast before swine. It dreads exposure, and only gives out hints of its existence with the utmost delicacy of expression. It is as shy as a first love, and only whispers its secret to souls that show signs of having it.

Nor do we pause here; we say that this Christian consciousness, so essentially the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and hidden from the world, is, for each individual who has it, the ultimate ground of certitude as to the divine origin and truth of the Christian religion. The creeds of Christendom, elaborated from the Bible, are the impregnable outworks of Christianity, but its citadel, the stronghold to be demolished before it is overthrown, is the self-evidence of the believing heart itself. The conviction that has been read into it from the Scriptures, and preached into it from the pulpit, and sung into it in our hymns, and wrought in it by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, the everlasting Shechinah, is a conviction. which no enginery can extirpate. Satan may rally his hosts and sound his imperial clarion along the whole line of battle, and bear down with fell purpose and with unwonted wrath upon the Redeemer's church militant, but the dwellers in this citadel of the Christian consciousness may not learn that there has been any assault without in progress. The utmost the enemy has accomplished is in "the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain." We go yet further; we accord to the religious consciousness the power to give to its possessor a supernatural insight into the mysteries of the kingdom of God; and where it is limited only by the measure of its development. It enables believers to say without presump. tion, "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.' Over against spiritual aptitudes in us we find placed the

spiritual things of the kingdom as corresponding opposites, and we take them in. Thus, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit we search all things-yea, the deep things of God; have a spiritual consciousness of our own, but wherein we can be judged correctly by no natural man."

We believe, then, in the Christian consciousness. When legitimately derived and confined within its appropriate sphere, we accord to it for the individual a supreme authority. Thus defined, we dare to exalt it as the ultimate test of the genuineness of the Christian faith, and trust it as the great organ of spiritual insight and illumination. It is the key which the Spirit has committed to the possession of the believer and wherewith he unlocks the mysteries of the Word of God, and secures admittance into its "deep things."

It affirms the written

It believes that if all

But while it is all this, we reaffirm our statement that it is the Lord's secret given to the individual, and is the sole occupant of the heart that knoweth its own bitterness, and with whose joy the stranger doth not intermeddle. While exalted to the privilege of expounding the oracles of God, and when correctly doing this, "speaking as the oracles of God," yet it is not, and can never claim to be, itself an oracle. Word to be the ultimate rule of faith and practice. Christian consciousnesses could be reduced to a common denominator, that denominator, pure and simple, would be, as far as it goes, identical with the Word of God, but not that Word. Its appeal, therefore, is never to itself, even at its best estate in the individual or in the aggregate of individuals, but always to "the Law and to the Testimony;" to which, as the standard for all believers, it so subordinates itself as to say, concerning all self-constituted oracles, "if they speak not according to this Word, surely there is no morning for them;" the day-star of the genuine Christian consciousness has never risen in their hearts.

It is obvious that this religious consciousness is a power unmatched in the earth. Outside the direct divine influences it sways human souls without a rival. It strikes so deep into them that there are no depths below. It is the very marrow of the Christian life and the centre of all its quivering nerves; for the believer, it is the magazine of power, the impelling energy. Cicero says, "Motus animorum duplices sunt; alteri, cogitationis; alteri, appetitus. Cogitatio in vero exquirendo maxime versatur ; appetitus impellit ad agendum." The impelling power accorded to human souls by Cicero in his term appetitus reappears, regenerated and transfig. ured, in the Christian consciousness. It is the deposit of all mental and moral judgments. It is the seat of all mental and moral conviction. Without it there can be, for the individual, no sense of certainty, no spiritual rest, and therefore no Christian activity. But observe that, like all power entrusted to finite and imperfect beings, it is not exercised without peril. In such beings it is never unmixed with error, unwarped by prejudices and passion; at every stage of development it is crippled by "oft infirmities." Its power to command, in uninspired minds, is pro