Delaware State journal and statesman., 1862-03-04

use of wealth and from the sympathy oil
these angels, which again is the Divine
Life flowing through them, the man is
spiritually enlightened, strengthened, and
led to greater degrees of good. SO does
man, whom we have otherwise called the
brother of the worm and of the worst of
men, become again the friend of angels,
and the child of God.
Greece was once the home of Empire;
the land of the sweetest language, and OF
the most heroic poetry the mother of the
most perfect Art; the tender nurse Of
European civilization. Yet in few short
centuries from the time OF her greatest glory,
her degenerate sons sat carelessly amid her
ruined cities, and her wasted fields; oblivi-
Gus of her past glories, ignorant of the art
treasures which her ruins concealed and
her entire literature almost obliterated from
their memories Foreign genius had to cx-
hume for them their entombed statuary, al
most sacred for its beauty, to search out,
preserve, and interpret their fading manu-
scripts, and in them to show to the de
graded men the spiritual lineaments of their
noble ancestors. So do men now seem to
have grown dead to all sympathy with their
angelic ancestry; once their daily guests
and friends they sit and dream upon the
very ruins of life, ignorant of their loss.
The glories and terrors of the inner life
are alike yelled to them. Every outward
faculty is open wide, quick to catch each
movement of the external world but with
IN there reigns unbroken silence; as though
the deep sleep" Of centuries had sealed
their spiritual senses beyond the hope OF
opening. And so when Swedenborg ex-
humed in actual experience their buried
traditions, and told them that he had trod-
den the eternal world Of which they talk,
had seen HIM in whom they believe, and
of whom the prophets spake; had con-
versed with angel men, whose perfect life
surpassed their most cherished hopes, full
filed their best ideals, and whose bare pre-
sence made heaven anywhere. When he
confirmed their dim but immoyable convie-
tions, that in that world evil men were con-
spicuous in deformity and terrible even to
look upon and that sin does work out its
sad dreams of insanity to fearful conelu-
sions. In a word when he told the world
in plain language just what itself pretended
to believe always, it was shocked out Of all
propriety, and the demon of Denial rose
from the pit of its faithless loves to scofi
and ieer But to me the wonder is, nOt
that Greece once had Art and Poetry, and a
life of Joyous freedom, but that she could
ever forget them, and die in heart to the
love Of them; not that Sweedenborg, OF
John, or Isaiah should in pure hearts see
God, and hold familiar intercourse with
angel friends, or trace the lusts to their
homes of horror, but the marvel is, that il
is not oftener, aye, that it is not al,oGys so
that men should have lived so once, and
should still live to forget and deny it.
Is it not marvellous that man should
live twenty, fifty, or eighty years, citizen
of two worlds, guarded by angels, assaulted
by demons, the Lord nearer to him than he
is to himself, and yet catch no glimpses Of
and hear no whispers from, the eterna
shores? Oh God what weary, sightless
years he spends, seeing all the realities oI
life only in the dim perspective of waver.
ing faith buffeting the waves of its false.
hoods and wickedness with feeble hand
and unsteady will With what Loneliness
of heart does he tread the labyrinths Of 9
sensual and selfish and worldly life, the
ruins of which bury deep his eternal trea
sures And never, until advancing deatl
has stricken down the power of the senses
: and loosened the earthly bonds, does hi
Frightening eye, and glowing face, reaec
to us the light of that land Of peace, which
lies gloriously beyond. But in truth, he
, hardly hears the trumpet tongues o
Moses and the prophets" and so ht
would not repent, Though one rose from
the dead" All things that speak spirit
ual language are dead to him, or live bu
in hope, and faith, and deeply-buried con
viction. But in this sad feature of humai
l life, the new revelations of that world ar
destined to work mighty change. Th'
doctrine of angels, as it is known in tn
} New Church has wonderful power il
: Transforming the characters of those VIII
Q in heart believe it, from pure conviction
S that finally, the good, the true, and tn
: beautiful, are one. And if, on one hand
g sin is made to appear exceeding sinful, b
4 the character of its invisible home, and tn
. sad dwelers there, whence it comes, an
whittier it goes and if thus we see hoy
II inevitable it is, that unless we "repent,
. we musJ - All AhCmlnc poAiSh oh w
i other nand are the homes Of the regenei
d ate, whose graces charm us away froI
r selfish ends; and yet they grasp the syn
+ pathies of our truest loves, for they weT
!, men of like passions with ourselves
+ And though gifted with perfections this
e we would fall down and worship befoT
IL each one would say to us, as did the ang'
II to John of Patmos, " See thou do it not
p for | am thy ,feiloto-servant, and Of tn
brethren the prophets, and of them whic
l. keep the sayings of this book: worshi
l. God" These two types Of man, the ang
l. and the devil, stand out clearly on Il
Ie mental canvass of New Church though
m as the logical results of life, the liyir
Is epitomes of the whole doctrine, the pc
y sonal illustrations of the truths we learn
id and they are the perfect embodiments
Of our deepest convictions. The knowledl
N that every act we do, according to the Low
le We cherish, moulds us to the Divine ina
I'd in one, or to the internal likeness of q
rs other, and at last knits our destiny ind
er solubly with one or the other, is startlii
Ill to the soul brings the end and beginnil
X of life near together; and should make
er act as promptly with the internal compa
ay we keep, as with the external: more s
Ii. for we choose their eompanionship forev'
ps and their characters become ours also.
ha ---sssss---
AT GENERAL HALLECK's RETALIATION
"a THE PRISONERS