Year: 1871

SWeGenbOFgian BeIief-The Fu-


ture Of our Children.


The adherents to the doctrines of
Emanuel Swedenborg have within the
last few years been gaining strength
numerically in the Christian world
Many doctrines of that church-or
the New Church, as it is called-are
peculiar, being, as it is claimed, the
deduction of the spiritual or inner
view of the Scriptures. We give be-
low the doctrine of that denomination
upon the subject of departed infants,
as given by one of their leading min
listers in a sermon preached in the
city of New York, on Sunday even.
ing, Jan. 21st. Whether true or false,
the theory has pleasant view of the
future of the innocents. The speaker
took for his text:


Mark K. 14-"Suffer little children
to come unto Me, and forbid hem not,
for ofsuch is the kingdom of Heaven"
He remarked


ga third part of the human race
die young. There are few parents
who must not feel an interest in the
subject for there are not many who
have not been called upon to surren-
der one or more dear objects of their
affections to the Good Shepherd of
souls. AS the poet has beautifully
sung -


There is no flock however watched and tended,


But one dead lamb is there;


There is no fl estde, howuo'er defended,


But has vacant chair"


After dwelling upon the divine pur-
pose of God in calling children away
from earth, the minister proceeded to
define the condition of children dying
in infancy, as taught by Swedenborg.
He teaches US that all who leave this
life in infancy and childhood are
saved. The children of heather, as
we'll as the children of Christian, par
ents are saved and cared for by God.
The multitude who are exposed to the
+ superstitiOns OF the crowded popula-
/ tions Of the East; the ff,pring of sin
and shame; OF the worst as we'll as the
best of parents-all are saved. Here
we have a third part of the human
race sure of salvation. If the Good
Shepherd has taken lamb from your
fold you are sure that it cannot be lost
that your highest hopes for your child
have been realized you could not sur
round it with so much beauty, nor
surround it with such means of COM
fort and delight as it now enjoys
I When little children pass into the
other life they are infants and chill
dren still. They gain nothing by the
mere transition. The child which
goes from its mothers arms to the
arms of the angels is the same little
child when it reaches them that it.
was when it left you. If you were to
see it after it is raised up out of the
material body you would know that
it was your child, for it has the same
features, the same character. We ad-
minister to it as long as we can reach
it through the material body. The
other company Che angels stand
with gentle hands to lift it out of the
grave of the body and convey it to
their own home. They see nothing
but life new affections are awakened
in their hearts, new joys fill their
souls as they see new opportunities
! for the exercise of their Affections
new being to love and to care for. The
thoughts and affections of the angels
are of the same nature, only fuller,
clearer, and more ardent, as those
with which the parents heart greots
the new born child. The angels
could but look with compassion upon
the bereaved parent and say, o Sorrow
ing mother! grieve not so blindly;
the dear child of your heart is not
lost, but saved. We will love it with
an affection as deep and as pure as
your own. We will keep the precious
trust for you, and restore it to you
when you are ready to receive it
We will more than fulfill your fond
est hopes and largest expectations
Our doctrines teach us that "as soon
as infants are raised from the dead
they are carried up into heaven and
delivered to the care of angels of the
female sex, who in the life of the body
loved infants tenderly and at the same
time loved God" Since these angels
when in the world loved all infants
from a sort of maternal tenderness,
they receive them as their own, and
the infants love them as their own
-, ,,fI,,vg Tb,,- ,,1 Fr,v, n N oori h IL 70