The Portland daily press., 1895-12-16
AT THE NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH.
Instructive Sermon by Rev. j, b. Spiers on
the Late Revelations.

'Aio 4>oW efuSaleu cnufcn yesterday
morning the pastor Rev. j. IS. Spiers
preached very strong sermon on stThe
man with bow and arrow on the White
Horse" and his text was the words 81
John, "And saw and beh Id white
horse, and the man who sat on him had
bow, and he went forth conquoring and
! to conquer"
/: John saw book written within and
! without, that is roll meaning that it
had an inward and an outward, physi-
cal and spiritual application. This
book which the Lamb alone was worthy
to open was the word of God, and what
was therein written had reference to the
closing days of the early Christian
church. The coming of Christ in the
clouds referred to his coming to the
minds of men, clouded with doubt and
sin and the last judgement referred to
has had spiritual, and not natural
meaning. and referred to spiritual and
not to ma. ural state. The color of the
horse John saw was meant to Indicate
truth, it was white, and the horse was
only type of the understanding and the
man who was called Faithful and
True" and who was followed by the,
armies OF heaven was Christ himself.
Ev ely one who goes forth in the spirit of
Christ is Il man with the bow and ar
row, but thore was special reference to
Emanuel Swedenburg.
The opening of the seals had reference
to the seond coming of Christ and he
who was, who is, and who is to be was
The Lord Jesus Christ, who always was,
who is, and who is constantly coming
to faithful souls, and to those who seek
to do his will. The unfolding of the
Christ spirit in humanity is the true Sec
ond coming of the Lord and he believed
that this would be endorsed by the great
majority of the Protestant ministers of
Portland. It is Gods way of coming to
the heart of men.
The world is indebted to the new revel-
alton to a far greater degree than it has
colnprehended. 1t has been the trumpets
Of the angels proclaiming the truth of
God 1t has proclaimed that the last judy
ment is not in the natural, but in the
spiritual world. John spoke of the rem
dering of Judgment on the souls of the
dead, in other words the separation of
good and evil in each one. At this point
the speaker read some impressive passa-
ges from the writings of Emanuel Swe-
denborg. The little the Lord taught his
deciples regarding the world of spirits
was all that they could then bear, and out
of their first conception Of that life grew
the Catholic idea of purgatory. There is
some truth in that idea for there will be
taking away of evil, purging of the
soul. A man may seem here to have an
abundance Of goodness, but there the
seeming will be separated from the real,
and there will be taken away that which
he seemeth to have, but what he is will.
remain.
John saw new heaven and new
earth, in other words new state in the:
human mind. The turning of the moon
into blood meant that all true faith
would sometime go from the world and
had specia reference to the Christian
chucrh of the middle ages.
The reformers, of whom he spoke
with high respect as agents of God, were
not raised up to teach the whole truth
for they did not understand the whole
truth. Luther, for instance, going as far
one way in teaching the doctrine of faith,
as the Catholics had gone the other in
teaching the doctrine of works, but they
were raised up to restore the word to the
world, and after there had been a clear
ing of the spiritual atmosphere the time
was ripe for the new revelation which
came through Swedenborg. Truth de-
scended from the spiritual to the natural
world, and creeds of the past are held
but family in the light of Gods truth.
''They are repeated with many reserva-
tions," as Portland minister recently
said in discussion of this matter. Even
the Catholic church is feeling this liberal
influence to a marked degree.
Some who deny the divinity of Christ.
and who will not acknowledge his Lead
ership, still retain the spirit of charity
which is part of the divine in human
ity of Christ in the life. Christ came to
save from sin, not from the wrath of God.
Doctrines are changing, and must
change in tho light that is breaking from
Gods word. The old doctrine was of a
literal second coming of Christ. the new
doctrine is the revelation of his spirit to
Non. The old body is not to live again
ON the earth, but the 81 ul is to live cp.
Hell was taught to be a place of literal
fro ht1t cto of e.
the fires are those of lust and sin. Men
will be separated from God because they
will unite that separation. Christ
will save even to the uttermost and re-
morse for sin even in hell will result in