SWEDENBORG'S DOCTRINES. 583 Revelation in the New. The others, he says, are good books of instruction for the church, but are not inspired in such a sense as to form a part of the very Word of God. The spiritual sense lies concealed within the letter, as the soul in the body, the Word having been written by correspondences of natural things with spiritual. The science of correspondences was known to the ancients, hence arose the hieroglyphics of Egypt and the mythologies of Greece and Rome. To restore this long lost science and thus to reveal the hidden or spiritual meaning of the Word, is declared to be the main object of his mission. Indeed Swedenborg says that by the second coming of the Lord is not meant a coming in person, but a coming in the spirit and power of His Word. This is what is meant by the "Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven, with power and great glory" (Matt. xxiv.); the "clouds of Heaven" denoting the literal sense, and "power and great glory" the spiritual sense of the Word. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is a primary principle, but salvation depends not on a mere profession of belief, but upon a life of obedience to the commandments. The old dogma of justification by faith alone is rejected, and charity and good works are insisted upon as necessary. As to the Resurrection, Swedenborg teaches that when man dies he puts off the material body never to resume it, and rises in a spiritual body. He is then judged in an intermediate state, called the world of spirits, the judgment consisting in an unrolling of his book of life, in which all his secret motives are written. After this, his state is fixed either in heaven or hell, according to his life in the world. The last judgment, he says, has already taken place in the world of spirits, having consisted in a separation of the good from the evil, who were gathered there from the time of the Lord's first coming. The date is fixed at 1757. When this judgment was effected a new order of things began to prevail in heaven and on earth. A new heaven and a new earth (that is, a new church,) began to be established, and the New Jerusalem began to descend. The effects of this judgment, it is said by believers of these doctrines, may be seen in the vast changes that have taken place during the past century in the civil, social, and religious condition of the Christian world. For particulars respecting Swedenborg's philosophy of the future state, the reader is referred to his work on Heaven and Hell. It may be stated here that there is little sympathy between the members of the New Church and Modern Spiritualists, as Swedenborg teaches that seeking intercourse with spirits is attended with danger to a man's soul. As to forms of worship he prescribes none, but teaches that Baptism and the Holy Supper are Divinely appointed ordinances. The members of this church are baptized "into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." At the time of Swedenborg's death but few had received his doctrines, but believers gradually increased, a number of the clergy in Sweden and England openly or secretly teaching them. No attempt was made to form a separate organization until the year 1787, when Robert Hindmarsh and others formed a society for worship in London. Soon afterwards twelve men were chosen from the male members of the society to ordain, by the laying on of hands, James Hindmarsh and Samuel Smith as ministers of the New Church. In 1789, the General Conference, composed of representatives from different places in Great Britain, first met and has continued ever since. In the year 1885, England and Scotland reported 65 societies; Austria, 1; Denmark, 4; France, 11; Germany, 8; Hungary, 1; Italy, 9; Norway, 2; Sweden, 13; Switzerland, 6; Australia, 12. THE CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. The doctrines were introduced into this country by means of books brought by James Glen into Philadelphia, in the year 1784. The first permanent church was formed in the city of Baltimore, in 1798. The growth of the denomination in the United States has since been quite slow. As there are, doubtless, many believers who hesitate to avouch their faith, no accurate estimate of their strength can be THE CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. 585 formed. An approximate idea, however, is found in the fact that in 1885 there were 115 societies in the United States, and five in Canada, each with a minister or leader. The localities were Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin, which returned an aggregate of nearly 5,000 professed members. They have a General Convention meeting annually, and State Associations. They have a university at Urbana, Ohio; a theological school, and a correspondence school (established 1884), at Boston, Mass.; an academy of the New Church, at Philadelphia, Pa.; and three publication societies. CHAPTER XLVI. THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS. Joseph Smith, Jr., and the Book of Mormon-Brigham Young chosen Prophet— The Edmunds Law of 1882-The Anti-Polygamy Bill of 1886-The Faith and Doctrine. JOSEPH SMITH, JR., AND THE BOOK OF MORMON. OSEPH SMITH, JR., was born in the town of Sharon, his parents, then living in Royalton, Vermont, moved to Palmyra, New York. In 1828 he began to assert vague claims as the founder of a new religion, or the restorer of the genuine faith. According to his claims he began to have visions at the age of fifteen. He declared that on September 21, 1823, Moroni appeared to him, announcing that he had a work for him to perform; that, buried in the earth in a certain spot, was a record inscribed upon golden plates, giving an account of the early inhabitants of America, and of their fate; and that with these plates would be found a kind of spectacles through which they could be read. Schemes of money-digging, which were carried on at midnight with many solemn mummeries, were started by him over and over again for several years, always drawing what THE BOOK OF MORMON. 587 ever gold there was in the case from the pockets of his dupes. He was also gifted at telling fortunes, and describing the whereabouts of lost property, by the use of a seer-stone, which was found in digging a well, and was a piece of milky quartz, rudely shaped like a baby's foot. These matters having been often ridiculed in papers, Joseph Smith, Jr., became known for his impostures, and was visited by Rigdon, who suggested the scheme of producing a new Bible, or "Book of Mormon," the foundation for which should be "The Manuscript Found." This was the work of Rev. Solomon Spaulding, who had retired from the pulpit on account of ill-health and to while away the time engaged in the study of archæology, visiting many of the Indian mounds in the West. He conceived the idea of writing a romance which should pretend to give a history of the ancient inhabitants of the American wilderness, and account for the mounds that have so long baffled the researches of scholars and archæologists. His theory was that the Indians were descendants of the lost ten tribes of Israelites, and a lively imagination, aided by a classical education, developed this into a very entertaining romance, full of mythical and legendary inventions. The work was not kept secret, the author delighting in reading parts of it to friends, at different times, during three years, when, in 1812, he offered it to Mr. Patterson, a printer in Pittsburg, Pa., for publication. "The Manuscript Found" was declined, but not returned at once to its author, and one of Patterson's employés, Sidney Rigdon, made a copy of it for himself. Mr. Spaulding died in 1827, leaving the work with his widow, who was then living in Amity, Otsego Co., N. Y. Rigdon then ventured to use his copy, and called on Smith, near Palmyra, where the business of making the Book of Mormon was soon begun. The "saints," Joseph, Cowdery, and Rigdon, said that the plates were actually found by Joseph, and translated by him, being aided only by a very large and curious pair of spectacles, made of precious stones. The title will give an idea of the style of the work. |