THE NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE is issued monthly. Terms, three dollars per annum, in advance. All business letters should be directed to RICHARD WARD, Agent, No. 2 Hamilton Place, Boston, Mass. Contributions to the pages of the Magazine are solicited from all friends of the New Church. They should be addressed to The Editor of the New Jerusalem Magazine. ་་ No. 2 Hamilton Place, Boston, Mass.” THE NEW JERUSALEM MESSENGER. A WEEKLY NEW CHURCH NEWSPAPER. Published by the General Convention of the New Jerusalem Church in the United States, at the Publishing House. No. 20 Cooper Union, New York. Terms, three dollars per annum, in advance. AGENTS FOR THE NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE, AND FOR THE NEW THE NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE. No. DXXV. VOL. XLIV. NOVEMBER, 1871.- No. 5. "DO GOOD." And if ye do good to them Ir may be useful to rehearse the whole passage from which these words are taken. And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them that love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. that do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be called the children of the Highest: for He is kind unto the unthankful and the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful."- Luke vi. 31-36. This is but a brief example of that endearing teaching, of which the Gospels are full. The great feature and the distinguishing characteristic of the Lord's teaching in the Gospels is, that it is full of sympathy. It flows from sympathy, and it awakens sympathy: it breathes of affection, and it enkindles affection: it comes from the heart, and it touches the heart: it is the words of love, and it calls forth love. This is the way in which it speaks to us, unless our sympathies are dead, our affections chilled, our hearts stone, our love cold. VOL. XLIV. 13 Such was not only the general tenor of the Lord's teaching on earth, but such was the universal characteristic of His life. He lived only for others, cared only for others, though only of others, and acted only for others. He came, "not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him" : and He that sent Him was His own internal Divine love, which He called, and which was, His Father; and of which He says, "He doeth the works." Such is the distinguishing character of the Gospels in their literal sense -both the Lord's teaching, and the record of His life; to say nothing of the fathomless mines of heavenly and Divine love that are now unfolded in their spiritual sense. There is no such teaching as this in the Old Testament. In the literal sense of that portion of the Scriptures, and particularly in the commandments and precepts of life, and the didactic parts which teach men how to live, there is extremely little that is felt as attractive, winning, endearing, -that speaks to the heart. The Ten Commandments, to the natural man and in their literal sense they are addressed to the natural man-are forbidding and repulsive: for they are prohibitory; they command what man shall not do, things which the natural man is altogether inclined to things which make up the loves of his heart. do, The Old Testament is addressed to the natural man, to man as a sinner,- a sinking and fallen sinner, one who has scarce any sense to appeal to to arrest him in his sin, but the sense of fear. The New Testament is indeed addressed to the natural man, to man as a sinner, a sinking and fallen sinner; but to one who has some other sense to address but that of fear, to one who is capable of an awakened sympathy, who is capable of a love to be appealed to, affections to be called forth, a heart to be touched. The change was not in man. He was still a natural man, a merely natural man- still a sinner, a fallen and a still sinking sinner. But the Lord had clothed Himself with all this; had come in a nature prone to sin just like this; had removed, or was removing out of it all these in |