and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years" (Rev. xx. 6). Well might the Apostle Paul depict this happy state in glowing language: "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God" (Rom. viii. 18, 19). The manifestation of the sons of God is the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit, which is "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Gal. v. 22, 23).

The meaning of the whole passage may be briefly stated as follows: -The unjust love injustice, delight in it, practise it whenever they have opportunity, and give themselves up to it. But the just, who are animated by heavenly principles, who do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with their God, have no love for injustice, nor do they allow themselves to be governed by it in the least degree. They are risen with Christ, risen into the new life of love to God and charity to man. Their old life is dead, but their new life will endure for ever, for whosoever liveth and believeth in Jesus shall never die. They are heavenly-minded, angelic in character, and being the sons of God they purify themselves as He is pure" (1 John iii. 3). As children of the resurrection they rise continually into clearer light, into higher and purer love for all things good and true and beautiful; rise above worldly things, and "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matt. xiii. 43). And Jesus gives to them "eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of His hand" (John x. 28).

66

This is a true description of the experience of all just men. They set out on life's journey as children of this world; loving injustice, possessed by unjust principles, carnally-minded, servants of sin, and "alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Eph. iv. 18). All the feelings, thoughts, tastes, and purposes of their lower nature look downwards to the world, and love the things of the world. But, some time in life, comes the test-question, Which shall serve? Shall the man find his greatest pleasure, his only life, in doing his own will? Shall the things of this world suffocate and extinguish all the pure delights of that the life beyond? Must he, for ever, marry and be given in marriage; will injustice always rule and prompt him? No! these things are not satisfying; they shall not govern his conduct; they shall not animate his thoughts. His life shall be dedicated to justice, justice to others in thought, word, and action; he is ashamed of his

past life, and becomes transformed in the spirit of his mind. Then he is accounted worthy to obtain that world, having overcome his evil inclinations, and he walks "worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God" (Col. i. 10). He obtains "that world" when he ceases to do evil; for, as unjust thoughts and purposes are put away, the spirit of justice enters his mind and abides there. Thus the kingdom of heaven comes within the man, all his thoughts and affections are prompted and governed by heavenly principles, and therefore he is "accounted worthy to obtain that world." But he obtains something else; something that indicates the mighty change wrought in him-the resurrection from the dead. This is something very different from the resurrection of the dead. All men, the evil as well as the good, the just alike with the unjust, experience the latter, but only the just partake of the former. Their resurrection is spoken of by the Lord as a distinct one, thus, "Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just" (Luke xiv. 14). This "resurrection from the dead" is a ceasing to be governed by the law of sin; and the reception of the Divine Law as the true rule of life. When Divine Truth becomes man's governing principle he rises from the dead. In that day the Lord is "King over all the earth;" in that day there is "one Lord, and His Name one." The man rises above the obscurities of earthly things into the bright light of heavenly things; leaves behind him those temporal appearances which were once his only aim, and rises to a contemplation of, and delight in, those eternal realities, which shall henceforth constitute his sole happiness. Thus he is equal unto the angels, being of similar character; and, having risen from dead works, is one of the sons of God.

How much depends on the right understanding of this passage! It has been looked upon as giving an emphatic denial to the doctrines of the New Church respecting the eternity of the Marriage Union, and concerning Marriages in Heaven. As hitherto understood, it has precluded the idea of re-union and association with those bound to us by the nearest ties of love. To New Churchmen the subject will not present much difficulty, but a knowledge of how the true doctrine may be confirmed from the literal sense of the Word, and from the writings of the Apostles, in a manner intelligible to the members of other Churches, may be of some use. He who made them at the beginning male and female said, "What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder;" and in these words declared the perpetuity of the true union, 'They are no more twain, but one flesh." JOHN STUART BOGG.

66

SPONTANEOUS GENERATION.

IN noticing a lecture by Dr. Pettigrew, we gave a long extract in which Swedenborg was named with Newton as holding the doctrine of Divine

Causation, as contrasted with Tyndall and Haeckel, who ascribe everything to physical causes. We then mentioned that the lecturer treated also of the subject of spontaneous generation; and on this we propose now to offer a few remarks.

It is still a contested question among men of science, whether it be true" that everything that lives is produced from a parent by a germ, seed or egg, or that matter can assume life in the absence of a parent." Spontaneous generation is an old doctrine. It was supposed to have been entirely disproved by modern science, but recently it has found advocates in several scientific men of some eminence. Whether it can yet be regarded as an established scientific fact, we do not venture to say. The lecturer is of opinion that Lister has fairly turned the tide against it. "In a paper communicated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh last winter" (1873), "he showed that many of the forms believed by the heterogenists to be the result of spontaneous generation were neither more nor less than the traditional or developmental forms of certain fungi which could be planted or raised from germs." Dr. Bennett, on the other hand, states that "no one can carefully watch the mode in which infusoria are developed without being satisfied that they originate from the coalescence of molecules, and not from ova or spores, as has been imagined." It is not our purpose to enter into the controversy, nor do we even presume to judge between the disputants. We only wish to show that there is nothing inconsistent with the true science of creation and of nature in the doctrine. Swedenborg held it; and it is to present his views of the subject, or to show how his philosophy of creation accounts for and explains it, that we now advert to it.

Dr. Pettigrew mentions Swedenborg's doctrine, that the spiritual world is the world of causes and the natural world is the world of effects. This doctrine, understood and accepted, would show the true nature of the distinction between life and organization, and, as a consequence, between religion and science. The tendency of the scientific mind is to regard organization rather as the cause than the effect of life. And even some who admit a Great First Cause, yet consider that the Creator originally impressed certain laws upon His works, which now act and will continue for ever to act of themselves. It is the doctrine of Swedenborg that nature, including even the sun of nature, in herself is dead, and that all the life which animates her, so far from being an original gift or an inherent possession, is from the presence of the same life and power that created her. It is a doctrine of Swedenborg's that life is not creatable, and therefore constitutes no part of creation. Organisms can be created, but life comes as a constant stream from the fountain of life, and cannot be separated from its source. The distinction between life and organisms is like that between light and the eye. The eye is created for the reception of light, but light forms no part of the organical structure of the eye. Indeed, light, like life, is not creatable, it is not a substance but an activity. It appears as if the sun were the source of terrestrial life as well as of light. We know that if the sun's heat and light were

absent or even greatly diminished, all vegetable and animal life would cease. And we very naturally conclude that, as the sun's absence would be death, his presence is life. But the sun is only a medium through which life acts upon matter. Life acts through the sun externally upon nature. But life acts upon nature internally as well, and this is its really vitalizing action. Life enters by influx into the inmost and purest parts of nature, and thence pervades the whole. And it is from this inward presence and activity of life in nature that she exhibits marks of design or of beauty and utility. For what has the natural sun to do with any act which shows intention, and still more with instinct and intelligence? But the presence of divine life, which life is love and wisdom, acts intelligently, and through means to ends, producing and animating forms which are, in different degrees, images of itself, each perfect in its kind. Yet the inward activity of life from the Creator, and its outward activity through the sun, must coincide before any effect can be produced. The activity of the inflowing life is constant, but it produces effects only when the sun's influence comes, so to speak, to its. aid, and disposes the external of nature to yield to the force of life within. The internal is the plastic force. The sun does nothing but lends that outward aid which he was intended and created to supply. According to the Scriptures, God is himself a sun; and the solar orb is his representative and analogue in nature. Nothing can be known respecting creation without a knowledge of these two suns. The one is living, the other is dead; the one is active, the other is passive-passive, we mean, in respect to the Creator, who alone is active, because He alone is life. We therefore recognise the distinction which the lecturer makes between life, energy, matter; and we recognise the further distinction between vital and physical force. Matter itself is dead and inert; but there is a vital force acting upon it immediately from the Creator through the sun of the spiritual world, and a physical force from the Creator acting through the sun of the natural world. "That the physical forces are not," as the lecturer well observes, "the only ones, is evident from this, that they cannot of themselves, or in the hands of the most expert physicists, produce a living organism."

The distinction between substance and life, and between organism and life, is the only ground of a rational apprehension of creation, either in its beginning or in its continuance. Life creates forms from itself and for itself, forms which it may animate, and to the nobler of which it may give the sense and enjoyment of life. For as the Creator is love, and as it is the very nature of love to desire to confer happiness, the very end or purpose of creation was to produce beings capable of enjoyment.

But the manner and not the purpose of creation is that which now engages our attention. God first created a sun or suns, which were images and representatives of Himself, and by means of suns He created earths; and from earthly matters, by means of earthly suns, He created organized material forms for the reception and conscious enjoyment of His life. These were created with reproductive organs,

so that, once produced, they could reproduce themselves, and so perpetuate their species. As preservation is perpetual creation, procreation affords us the means of forming an idea of the nature of creation. It is not necessary or even reasonable to suppose that God originally created the subjects of either the vegetable or animal kingdom by causing them to spring at once into existence in a state of maturity. As every plant and animal in its derivation from parents has its beginning in a microscopic germ or cell, it is reasonable from analogy to conclude that such was the original beginning of them all. Whether a few types were created and one was afterwards developed from another, or each was a distinct and separate creation, does not alter the case, either in regard to their being originally the work of an intelligent Creator, or to the mode of their original production. If there is in the universe no life, and therefore no vital force but one, and organization is the effect of life, it matters not where and in what organization has its beginning. The further back science can push its inquiries and make discoveries, the more will it aid true religion; it will not carry us further away from, but bring us nearer to, the Creator, whose wisdom as the Great First Cause will be the more brightly displayed the more fully instrumental causes are brought to light. So far from feeling any jealousy of science, religion or theology has every reason to hail its triumphs, as certain to help forward the triumph of religion. For if nature leads us up to nature's God, the more intelligently nature is regarded the more certain she is to aid the mind in its upward progress. It may be that the study of physics apart from psychology, and of nature apart from revelation, has an opposite effect upon some minds; but such is not its necessary effect. And we can thankfully accept the facts of science, and leave the conclusions of scientific men, when their conclusions either do not belong to the domain of nature, or are such as science itself does not justify.

THE TRINITY BEFORE AND SINCE THE INCARNATION. IN T. C. R., 166, we read, "That these three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are the three Essentials of the One God." In 170 we read, "That before the creation of the world this Trinity did not exist, but that it was provided and made since the creation, when God became incarnate, and then centred in the person of the Lord God, the Redeemer and Saviour, Jesus Christ." A correspondent desires to have some light thrown on this subject, especially as it has been made the ground of an objection to the doctrine of a Trinity in the Divine nature altogether. The second statement in the T. C. R. is sometimes felt to be difficult to understand; so that some remarks on the subject may be justified on the score of general usefulness.

In the section of the work from which we have quoted the author is arguing against the doctrine of the Eternal Sonship of Christ, and showing that there was no Son of God till Jesus was born of the