The following is narrated by J. H. Jung Stilling:—“About the year 1770, there was a merchant in Elberfeld with whom, during seven years of my residence there, I lived in close intimacy. He spoke little; but what he said was like golden fruit on a salver of silver. He would not have dared for all the world to have told a falsehood. His business requiring him to take a journey to Amsterdam, where Swedenborg at that time resided, and having heard and read much of this strange individual, he formed the intention of visiting him. He therefore called upon him, and found a very venerable looking, friendly old man, who received him politely, and requested him to be seated. Explaining his errand, and expressing his deep admiration of Swedenborg’s writings, he desired that he would give him a proof of his intercourse with the unseen world. Swedenborg said: ‘Why not? Most willingly.’ The merchant then proceeded to tell that he had formerly a friend, who studied divinity at Duisburg, where he fell into a consumption, of which he died. Visiting this friend a short time before his decease, they conversed together on an important topic. The question he then put to Swedenborg, was: ‘Can you learn from the student what was the subject of our discourse at that time?’ Swedenborg replied: ‘We will see; what was the name of your friend?’ The merchant told his name, and Swedenborg then requested him to call in a few days. Some days after, the merchant went again to see Swedenborg, in anxious expectation. The old gentleman met him with a smile, and said: ‘I have spoken with your friend; the subject of your discourse was the restitution of all things.’ He then related to the merchant, with the greatest precision, what he, and what his deceased friend, had maintained. The merchant turned pale; for this proof was powerful and invincible. He inquired further: ‘How fares it with my friend? Is he in a state of blessedness?’ Swedenborg answered: ‘No, he is not in heaven; he is still in the world of spirits, and torments himself continually with the idea of the restitution of all things.’ He ejaculated: ‘My God! What! in the other world?’ Swedenborg replied: ‘Certainly; a man takes with him his favorite inclinations and opinions, and it is very difficult to be divested of them. We ought, therefore, to lay them aside here.’ The merchant took his leave, perfectly convinced, and returned to Elberfeld.”
An ambassador from Holland, named Martville, died at Stockholm. After his death, a considerable sum of money was demanded of his widow in payment of a debt. She felt certain the debt had been paid, but was unable to find the receipt for the money. Being advised to consult Swedenborg, who, she was told could converse with the dead whenever he pleased, she adopted the advice, more from curiosity than from a belief in his powers. The lady called on Swedenborg and told him her trouble; and he promised if he met her husband in the spiritual world, he would inquire of him about the matter. Eight days afterwards Martville appeared to his wife in a dream, and mentioned to her a private place in his cabinet, where she would not only find the receipt, but also a hair pin set with twenty brilliants which had been given up as lost. This happened about two o’clock in the morning. Full of joy, she arose and found them in the place designated. She returned again to rest, and slept till nine o’clock. About eleven Swedenborg was announced. His first remark, before Madame had time to speak, was, that he had, during the preceding night, seen several spirits, and among others her late husband. He had wished to converse with him, but Martville excused himself on the ground that he must go to discover to his wife something of importance. This account, attested by the lady herself, was noised through all Stockholm. It may be added that Madame desired to make Swedenborg a handsome present for his services, which he, of course, declined.
Sometimes Swedenborg’s announcements of the states of the departed alarmed his auditors. We read of a case of this kind which took place on a voyage from Gottenburg to London. The vessel staying at Oresound, the Swedish Consul invited the officers of the custom house, together with several of the first people of the town, all anxious to see and know Swedenborg, to dine with him at his house. Being all seated at table, and none of them taking the liberty of addressing Swedenborg, who likewise was silent, the Consul thought it incumbent on him to break silence, and asked Swedenborg, as he could see and speak with the dead, whether he had seen Christian VI., King of Denmark, after his decease. To this he replied in the affirmative; adding, that when he saw him the first time, he was accompanied by a bishop or other prelate, who humbly begged the King’s pardon for the many errors into which he had led him by his counsels. A son of the deceased prelate happened to be present at the table: the Consul therefore fearing that Swedenborg might say something further to the disadvantage of the father, interrupted him, saying: “Sir, this is his son!” Swedenborg replied: “It may be, but what I am saying is true.”
Such anecdotes might be greatly multiplied, but space forbids. No one, perhaps, has a lower idea of the worth of these stories, as testimonies to Swedenborg’s veracity, than the writer; yet they could not well be omitted from an account of his life. Gossip spread them far and wide in his own day, as is evidenced by the various forms in which they have come down to us; and any biographer would fail in his duty did he not show how the common world of men dealt with, and regarded Swedenborg. These anecdotes also in some degree manifest what a kind, affable, simple, and honest man Swedenborg was.
Having finished the “Arcana Cœlestia,” Swedenborg’s pen yet knew no rest. In 1758 he published in London the five following works:—1. An Account of the Last Judgment and the Destruction of Babylon; showing that all the predictions in the Apocalypse are at this day fulfilled; being a relation of things heard and seen. 2. Concerning Heaven and its wonders, and concerning Hell, being a relation of things heard and seen. 3. On the White Horse mentioned in the Apocalypse. 4. On the Planets in our solar system, and on those in the Heavens; with an account of their inhabitants, and of their spirits and angels. 5. On the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrines, as revealed from heaven. Let us now examine these works in order.
CHAPTER XII.
The Last Judgment.
To the early reader of Swedenborg’s writings, few of his declarations appear stranger, at first, than his affirmation that the Last Judgment is past, that it took place in 1757. Yet although startling at first, it is a doctrine which, on closer acquaintance, readily comes within the grasp of reason and common sense; and we discover that all its early strangeness was owing to our having looked at it through the mist of prejudice and preconceived opinion.
The treatise on the Last Judgment, (although, as to size, only a pamphlet,) is a most effective and masterly exposition of the nature of the end of the church, the new heavens, and the new earth of the Apocalypse.