Personal Experience of a Physician

by John Ellis

CHAPTER VII.

THE WANTS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

The Christian Church at this day, first of all, needs true doctrines which are in harmony with the Sacred Scriptures, and which all men who are willing to see and obey, using the reason with which God has endowed them, can accept and see to be true.

Second, such a law or principle of interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures, that when they are interpreted in accordance with it, every man and woman who is willing to see and obey the truth will find there is actually no conflict between the Word of the Lord and His works, and no real contradictions to be found in the Sacred Scriptures.

In the writings of Swedenborg the Lord has shown us that "all religion has relation to life, and that the life of religion is to do good;" and that, if we would enter into the heavenly life, or have heaven within us, we must strive faithfully and honestly to keep the commandments, not simply in external acts, but also in our motives, thoughts, and words, as well as in act. In the writings of Swedenborg the Lord has clearly revealed Himself and has come down to the comprehension of man—God in Christ and in His Word.

The Science of Correspondences enables us to see that the first eleven chapters of Genesis are purely allegorical, and in their spiritual and true sense treat of the regeneration of man, and his fall through the seduction of his lowest or sensual nature and appetites, as men are seduced to-day; and of a flood of evils and falses, similar to the flood which threatens to overwhelm the Christian world, at least in our land, at this day; and a New Church as an ark of safety. While the Science of Correspondences shows that there are no more contradictions in the Word of the Lord than in His works, there are apparent truths and real truths in both. It is an apparent truth that God is angry with the wicked every day; but the real truth is that God is never angry, but when man disobeys His laws and brings upon himself consequent suffering, it appears to him that God is angry. So it appears to us that night and darkness are caused by the going down of the sun, but the real truth is that the sun always shines and that night and darkness are caused by the earth's diurnal revolution on its axis. It will therefore be seen that if the Sacred Scriptures are the Word of God and in accordance with His works, they must contain both apparent and real truths.

No man who has ever diligently and faithfully, without prejudice, read the Sacred Scriptures in the light of the Science of Correspondences, as revealed by the Lord through Emanuel Swedenborg, has ever failed to be satisfied that the Sacred Scriptures are Divine and plenarily inspired, and that they differ as much from the writings of men as do the works of God from the works of men. At this day, when so many of our clergy and intelligent laymen are beginning to doubt the special inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures, a knowledge of the Science of Correspondences, in accordance with which they were written, is wanted above every thing else, that the Christian Church "may revive again and draw breath through heaven from the Lord."

The Lord speaks to man in parables, and "without a parable," we read, "spake He not unto them." The Lord intimates in many passages that the Sacred Scriptures, or His words, contain a spiritual sense, as in the following: "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."

"The early Christian Fathers, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, understood that the Sacred Scriptures have a spiritual sense; and Origen—when that shrewd enemy of Christianity, Celsus, ridiculed the stories of the rib, the serpent, etc., as childish fables—reproaches him for want of candor in purposely keeping out of sight, what was so evident upon the face of the narrative, that the whole is a pure allegory."—Noble's Plenary Inspiration.

"The idea of a spiritual sense in every part of the Scripture was the generally received doctrine of the Primitive Church—believed and taught by Origen, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Jerome, Augustine, Pantaenus, Tatian, Theophilus, Pamphilius, Clement and Cyril of Alexandria, and nearly all the early Christian Fathers. And the same belief has been held by many eminent theologians ever since. Dr. Mosheim, speaking of the illustrious writers of the second century, says: 'They all attributed a double sense to the words of Scripture; the one obvious and literal, the other hidden and mysterious, which lay concealed, as it were, under the veil of the outward letter.' But the Fathers had no recognized rule for eliciting the spiritual sense. Each one's own spiritual perception was his only guide. A hundred different expositors, therefore, might give as many different expositions of the same text."—Rev. B. F. Barrett.

Every natural object is the form and embodiment of some spiritual idea or principle; and therefore it is the most perfect expression or type or picture of that idea.

"Inasmuch as the end of the creation is an angelic heaven out of the human race, and thus the human race itself, therefore all other things that are created are mediate ends, which being referable to man, look to these three things of man, his body, his rational part, and his spiritual part, for sake of conjunction with the Lord. For a man cannot be conjoined to the Lord unless he be spiritual; nor can he be spiritual unless he be rational; nor can he be rational unless his body is in a sound state. These things are like a house, of which the body is the foundation, and the rational is the house built upon it; the spiritual comprises those things which are in the house, and conjunction with the Lord is being at home in it."

Here are outlined clearly and distinctly three fields for much needed labor.

We see above, clearly taught by Swedenborg, that "a man cannot be spiritual unless he be rational, nor can he be rational unless his body be in a sound state." The reason is plain: for the natural corresponds to the spiritual; natural diseases and natural causes of disease correspond to spiritual diseases and spiritual causes of spiritual disease.

Swedenborg says that: "Diseases correspond to the lusts and passions of the mind; these, therefore, are the origins of diseases; for the origins of diseases in general are intemperance, luxuries of various kinds, pleasures merely corporal; also envyings, hatreds, revenges, lasciviousness, and the like; which destroy the interiors of man, and when these are destroyed the exteriors suffer and draw man into diseases, and thereby into death."— Arcana Coelestia, 5712.

For this reason, if a man is to be reformed and regenerated, his reformation must commence by his shunning natural falses and bad habits of life, which correspond to his spiritual evils.

Swedenborg's writings give us a wonderful insight into the causes and cure of both spiritual and natural diseases, as we shall hereafter see, and many suggestions which it would be well for us to heed. He says:—

"The man who is willing to be enlightened by the Lord, must take especial heed lest he appropriate to himself any doctrinal which patronizes evil; for man in such case appropriates it to himself, when he confirms it with himself, for thereby he makes it a principle of his faith, and still more so if he lives according to it. When this is the case, then evil remains inscribed on his soul and his heart; and when this effect has place, he cannot afterwards in any wise be enlightened by the Word from the Lord; for his whole mind is in the faith and in the love of his principle, and whatsoever is contrary to it, this he either does not see, or rejects, or falsifies." (A. C. 10,640.)

Every one can see how true this is in regard to evil habits which destroy health, reason, and life, such as the prevailing use of tobacco and the drinking of intoxicating drinks. If a man drinks thoughtlessly, without knowing any better, he can be taught and shown that it is wrong and a sin to drink poisonous fluids which are entirely unnecessary, and which endanger health, reason, life, and the welfare and happiness of all associated with him, and actually destroy vast multitudes of those who drink them moderately. All children and young persons who are free from bad examples and false teachings can be taught and can readily see that it is wrong and a sin to use such drinks; but let a man strive to justify such habits by the Sacred Scriptures, and to make them accord with his religious principles, and we all know how difficult it is for him ever to see the truth upon this and kindred subjects.