Personal Experience of a Physician

by John Ellis

The result of sending the Address was so satisfactory that I wrote and compiled a work of 260 pages, entitled, "Skepticism and Divine Revelation," with the intention of sending it to the clergy. My aim was to present a hasty view of the application of the science of correspondences in the interpretation of the first chapters of Genesis, and some other parts of the Word, and to meet the arguments of skeptics, and thus to show that the Sacred Scriptures are Divine revelations from God to man, and plenarily inspired, consequently differing as much from the words of man as God's works do from the works of man. In that work the attention of the reader is called to the creation of the world, the creation of man and woman, Eve, the Garden of Eden, its trees and river, the fall of man, the serpent, Cain and Abel, the flood, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the flood of waters, the Ark, the Tower of Babel, Sun worship and idolatry, spiritualism, the little reliance to be placed upon communications from spirits, and why. Next, the doctrines of the New Jerusalem—God, the Incarnation, the Divine Trinity, sacrificial worship, the Cross, a true and heavenly life, the end of the world and Second Coming of the Lord, the resurrection, state of infants in the other life, the state and condition of the Heathen and Gentiles in another life, the New Jerusalem—the Church of the Future—the Crown of all Churches, the Divine promise to those who receive the New Jerusalem at the Lord's Second Coming as revealed through Emanuel Swedenborg.

Such were the subjects discussed in the light of the revelations made by the Lord's chosen servant. My aim was to produce the best work I could. Consequently, when I found in the writings of others passages, or even whole sections, in which the ideas that I desired to present were as well or better conveyed than I thought I could present them, I selected them, giving the writers credit for the same, and the sixteenth and twenty-third chapters were written at my request by the Rev. William B. Hayden, who assisted me materially in seeing the work through the press. About one-half of the matter in the volume was selected from other writers.

I commenced to send this work in editions of 10,000 to the clergy of our country, and when I had sent about 50,000, I had the "Address to the Clergy" printed and bound with it, and both were sent to the Catholic clergy, to whom the Address had not previously been sent. From that time both works have been printed and bound in one volume. About 65,000 of the above works, containing a notice of the gift books, named in preceding pages, on the second page of the cover, have been sent to the clergy of America, about 10,000 have been sent to physicians, and as many more have been circulated among laymen. The sending of this book to the clergy immensely increased the orders for the gift books.

The above works have been translated into the German language, and about 48,000 copies sent to German-speaking clergymen in Germany and other parts of Europe, and in our own country. They have been translated into the Swedish language, and about 6000 copies have been sent to the clergy of Sweden and Norway and circulated among the laity; and they have been translated into Italian, and 10,000 sent to and circulated in Italy. And more recently they have been translated into French, and 20,000 printed which are now being sent to the clergy of France and the French-speaking clergy of other European countries, and of our own country.

Then, I have aided materially in sending other works to the clergy of our country, either explaining or containing the doctrines of the New Jerusalem, upon the second page of the covers of which will be found a notice of the gift books offered to clergymen. I aided with money the Swedenborg Publishing Association in sending Rev. Mr. Ravlin's "Progressive Thoughts on Great Subjects" to all the clergy of our country whose names could be had; and, later, I have aided the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society in sending, first, "The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrines;" second, "The Doctrine of the Lord;" third, "The Doctrine of Life"—all three Swedenborg's own works—to all the clergy in our country whose names could be readily obtained; in all 82,500. So that almost every clergyman in our country has had an opportunity to acquire some knowledge of the doctrines and revelations made by the Lord through Emanuel Swedenborg for the benefit of men in this new age—doctrines very different from those formulated in the creeds of bygone centuries—and thousands of our clergy are beginning to realize, that we must return to the rational and plain doctrines taught in the Sacred Scriptures, and summed up by the Lord when on earth in the Two Great Commandments, Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy might and strength, and thy neighbor as thyself, and that we must commence the new life by repentance, or by being willing to see our evils and to shun them as sins against God.

As a result of the efforts made by others and myself to make known to the clergy the offer of the gift books, 32,831 clergymen have sent for and obtained "The True Christian Religion," 30,887 have obtained "Heaven and Hell," and 25,522 have obtained "The Apocalypse Revealed," according to the report of the Trustees of the Iungerich fund (May, 1891).

COMMUNION WINE.

For several years after I joined the Church I paid little attention to the subject of communion wine. But at last an article appeared in a New-Church paper, in which the writer claimed that fermented wine was a good and useful article to be used as a beverage, and he tried to justify its use by the teachings of the Church. Such views were so contrary to what I regarded as true, that I immediately commenced a more careful and critical examination of the writings of Swedenborg, to ascertain what is taught therein as to wine. I soon found that he distinctly recognized two kinds of wine, as does the Bible: one kind unfermented, a good and nourishing fluid to which he always gives a good signification when its use is not abused; and the other kind, known by its effects on man when he drinks it to be fermented, to which he has never given a good signification when it is clear from the context that reference is had to fermented wine. And I will here say that my opponents in the Church have done precisely what the advocates of slavery, intoxicating drinks, and skeptics have done in their appeals to the Bible to sustain their views. They find here and there a comparison and passage which, by placing their own construction upon them, they think will justify their views, while they totally ignore a large number of passages which most clearly and positively teach a totally different doctrine; and they ignore scientific facts, the well known effects of drinking fermented wine, and the testimony of ancient writers whenever such testimony does not accord with their own views. Thus they uphold the use of the drunkard's cup as a beverage and even as a sacramental wine; and within my knowledge more than one poor man in our Church who was struggling to reform his life has been led back by partaking of it to drunkenness.

A distinguished clergyman said in a letter to the writer:—

"I can never forget the experience already related to you when Mr. ——, my wife's brother-in-law, a gentleman of classical education, had become a sober man through my efforts and received the heavenly doctrines … Then came the Lord's Supper and we had fermented California wine. I handed him the cup, he drank, and after church he fled to some place where wine could be had, came home late in the evening drunk, and continued drinking for three months, until he died one evening after being brought home beastly drunk. Unfermented wine is no seducer, and had Mr. —— been given such in the Sacrament, he might be living, a sober man, to-day. Your books on the 'Wine Question' deserve, therefore, all that you have done and expended under the Lord's guidance for their publication and circulation, and God only knows how much good they will yet have to do."