412 Address of the General Convention of America.

are moved, and seem to be responding more distinctly than ever before to those spiritual forces which we all believe to be at work. Their operation is clearly descending more deeply into human minds; the universal conscience has received a quickening; and communities are sensibly moved by the moral bearing of all great questions.

To us these indications read an important practical lesson. They show us the world preparing for the Church; the good ground getting ready to receive the seed; a new time near, even at the doors. The Lord is evidently doing His part of the work; doing it wonderfully, rapidly, and divinely well. This, as we see it and realize it, calls upon us for our part of the work. It is calculated to lend a new impulse to the will, to stimulate our sense of duty, and quicken our labours in the vineyard; first, in removing the things which offend from our own minds and lives; and next, in the effort to extend a knowledge of the holy truths with which we have been intrusted as far as lies in our power.

With the extension of the Church new uses come into view. Some of these are of such magnitude as to require the united efforts of more receivers of the heavenly doctrines than can be found as yet in any one country. And as the numbers increase, it seems probable that the works to be done will increase in magnitude also. As the field opens and widens, we shall no doubt find many opportunities for working together in the common cause. America will need the co-operation of the Church in Great Britain, and no doubt the Church in your country will frequently be thankful for the aid of brethren on this side the water; while probably the time is not far distant when we shall behold the receivers of the different countries of the world combining their efforts in some common enterprise of general use.

These last remarks are suggested by an undertaking which we of the two countries have been pursuing in conjunction for two years past: we mean the photolithographing of some of the manuscripts of Swedenborg contained in the library at Stockholm.

Of the importance of this work we need not now attempt to form an estimate. A peculiar interest in the minds of hearty receivers of the new doctrines the world over will gather about these twelve folio volumes in white vellum, so neatly executed within and without. New feelings are awakened as we handle them, seeming, to ourselves, to be brought thus so much nearer the original penman of all the doctrines. We cannot but regard it as a happy providential coincidence, that a new art should spring thus into existence to render the execution

of this enterprise possible; and that almost the first work of this new art should be devoted to rescuing from decay the original form or transcript of truths so inestimable in value to all mankind.

It may be appropriate matter of congratulation too, that a man having the necessary literary acquirements and intellectual aptitude for the use should be found to make the proper examinations, to superintend the process, and carry forward the work to its completion.

The new interest which this enterprise, together with Professor Tafel's other labours and inquiries, has excited in the minds of the Swedish people, with reference to Swedenborg and the New Church, must be alluded to also, as among the most interesting and perhaps most important results, while the new materials which have thus been acquired for another and fuller biography of Swedenborg will be regarded with pleasure and satisfaction by all.

In a manner less systematic and official than in the above mentioned enterprise, the receivers in our two countries have also co-operated with each other, in affording some aid to endeavours that are being made to spread a knowledge of the Church in Norway, in Sweden, and in Italy. All these we believe to be important movements; the Italian mission, especially, presenting features of peculiar interest in connection with events transpiring in that country.

Swedenborg tells us in A. R. 738, while commenting on Rev. xvii. 10, that in his day there was still one divine truth which had not yet come into discussion in the Romish Church, viz., that the Lord's Humanity is Divine; but that when it comes it will not remain with them-in other words, it will be denied and rejected by them.

Some have supposed this prediction may have been fulfilled in the promulgation by that Church, not many years since, of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, whereby is logically cut off the possibilities of a glorifying work done by our Lord in the human part which he received from the mother. Whether this is its real or entire fulfilment may not be possible for us to decide, but it cannot be denied that this promulgation, with the decrees of the recent Council, from an important era in the history of that body; marking a progress in what is meant by the downfall of Babylon in the Book of Revelation.

Events now in progress indicate too an interesting stage in the development of the Italian mind. We know that many things connected with that form of religion have become exceedingly distasteful to a large portion of that people; and we know also that Italy is receiving

illustrating and renewing influences from the Lord through the New Heaven. These things point out that country as an interesting field for New Church effort, and the few faithful workers there should receive our heartfelt sympathy and support.

It is impossible to contemplate these broad general uses without indulging in sentiments of the most lively hope and satisfaction. We behold in them a field for future co-operative work; and, therefore, as offering a new bond of union between the different widely scattered portions of our Church. Mutual aid in these great and good enterprises develops a reciprocal interest and increases our mutual love; and we are taught in the Writings that conjunction through mutual co-operation in good uses is a heavenly conjunction, forming the bond which draws and cements angelic communities together.

The unexampled facilities for intercourse between distant countries, so marked a feature of our times, rendering this co-operation every year more easy and efficient, presents to the mind's eye the future New Church of the world, as one man, a united, consentaneous and co-operative society; one fold under the care and auspices of the One Shepherd.

Such a union, when perfected, cannot fail to have a powerful influence on the peace, happiness, and general well-being of the world. The condition of our brethren in France too, in the terrible ordeal through which their nation is passing, calls for our sincere sympathy, and earnest prayers to the Lord Jesus Christ, that He will protect and comfort them in their trials, and bring them forth at length into a large place.

In conclusion, dear brethren, our hearty desire and prayer for you is, that your counsels may be guided by that wisdom which cometh from above, and that the blessings of Heaven may continue to descend upon the Church in your country, giving you both spiritual and temporal prosperity. W. B. HAYDEN.

THE TREE OF LIFE.

FROM THE GERMAN OF RÜCKERT.

As Adam lay in agony's weird strife,
He sent his son to Paradisal bow'rs,
To fetch a twig of the blest Tree of Life:

For still he long'd for its panacean pow'rs.
Seth the branch sever'd-homeward with it sped-
But Adam's spirit from its house had fled.

Jersey.

The twig was planted on the old man's grave,

And ever more from son's to son's again;
Its boughs shot forth when Joseph was a slave-
When Israel bore Egyptian bond and bane:
It bloom'd with fragrance, until then unknown,
When David sat a-harping on his throne.

That fled, when Solomon from God's right way
Err'd, though he held the wisdom of the Wise;
Yet from his stock men hop'd to see the day

A new-begotten David's son would rise.
In spirit, Faith beheld the Promis'd One
As she sat by the stream of Babylon.

And when th' Eternal Light appear'd on earth,
The tree burst 'mid loud sounds of jubilee ;
God's hand dealt with high favour to its dearth,
For lo! from its wood grew the Passion tree:

The blind world shap'd the Cross from its hard frame-
There stamping their salvation and their shame.

Thus bore the Tree of Life a blood-red fruit,
That peace be giv'n to man-eternal life;
And lo! its outspread branches wider shoot
And wider still, the more earth's storms are rife:
The whole world moves beneath its mighty aid-
One-half already rests 'neath its calm shade!

H. W. ROBILLIARD.

JESUS AND HIM GLORIFIED.

I

VIII. JOHN XVII.

"Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where am, that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee: but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me. And I have declared to them Thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them."-Ver. 24-26.

WHAT a wonderful thing is the Divine Love. It is an infinite desire to give itself to others, and to bless them. It finds its delight in pouring itself out, and losing itself, as it were, in the happiness it imparts. A mother's love will induce her to die for her child. The Apostle Paul declared that he would be willing to be cursed if his

brethren could thereby be saved. As all our powers must be heightened and expanded in the angelic state, when we are no longer cramped by the narrow bounds of matter, the self-devotedness of angels must be greater than that of the apostle. The seraphs of the heavenly world, the burning ones, whose glowing love leads them to prostrate themselves before the Divine Affection in lowliest adoration, would spare no amount of self-sacrifice to carry out the behests of Infinite Mercy in the salvation of men. But the stores of love in all the mothers, and in all the angels since the universe began, can be nothing to the immeasurable ocean of Divine Love in Him who is the Creator and Saviour.

This, when expressed in the Divine Man, is the purport of the words before us. "I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am;" that is, they may be with their Lord in heaven. Those whom Thou hast given Me are, as we have before observed, those who have been drawn to the Lord by Divine Love, to receive from His Divine lips the words of eternal life.

"That they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me." The Divine Humanity is embodied Wisdom and Love in glorious human form. He is the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in His wings. Angels behold His glory, in majesty beyond all thought of men. It is the glory of the Omnipotent, the glory of the All-wise, the glory of Him who said to John, "Fear not, I am the First and the Last." In Him is concentrated, and He is now known to us in, the glory of the Father, in His own glory, and in the glory of the angels, for all that makes men angels and that constitutes heaven is from the Lord, and is the Lord's. The angels abide in Him, and His love and His words abide in them. All who are in heaven adoringly behold

His glory.

The Lord continues-" Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world." The Word which was made flesh is the Divine Wisdom, which was eternally in the Lord, as His Divine Understanding. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." As the Divine Wisdom, the Divine Goodness always loved it. God loves truth, and truth ever seeks to be conjoined to good. Thus the Divine Wisdom was always united with the Divine Love of the Lord, and loved by it before the foundation of all worlds. By this God made the worlds. It is the true light that enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world, and this especially was incarnate in the Son, and when this was united in the assumed