unsealed them, and, through the medium of His servant Swedenborg, proclaimed their hidden treasures to mankind. As an illustration of the internal sense pervading the Bible, let us consider a few of the most general truths contained within the Lord's Prayer.

Our Father who art in Heaven.

We

Before proceeding to the internal sense of this clause, however, let us be well assured that we have a rational comprehension of the literal sense, which is the basis, the containing vessel of the internal sense. It is a primary essential that we should know who is Our Father in Heaven. should not kneel in prayer, praise, and supplication, without trying to have a clear idea of the Being who is the object of our adoration. When our ideas of the Being whom we worship are dim and indistinct, can our worship be genuine, internal worship, which is "joyful and lucid," from the warmth of its love and the clearness of its faith? The great central truth of religion is this, that our Heavenly Father is not an inapprehensible, inconceivable being, but He is our mild, tender, compassionate Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Does not the prophet Isaiah say, in predicting His advent: "Unto us a Son is born, unto us a child is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the EVERLASTING FATHER, the Prince of Peace." What could more clearly establish the identity of the Being called Jehovah in the Old, and Jesus in the New, Testament? Does not Isaiah also say, "Thou, O Jehovah, art our Father, our Redeemer"? and does not Zachariah say, in reference to the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, "Blessed be the Lord God. of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed His people"? We must not, cannot offer genuine worship to three Divine Persons, each God and Lord by Himself—until our eyes are opened to understand all that Moses and the prophets wrote concerning the Lord-nor shall we, like the Athenians, worship we know not what, ignorant of the great central truth, which is the soul of all truths, that the Lord Jesus Christ is

the only true object of worship, in whom dwells "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," and in whom is united a trinity of essential principles, typified in the Scriptures under the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He being as to the Divine nature the Father, as to the Human derived therefrom the Son, and as to the Divine Operative Energy (symbolized by a mighty rushing wind), the Holy Spirit. In the Internal sense, the angels understand this trinity as consisting of Love, Wisdom, and Power, the term Father signifying the Divine Love, the primary and deepest attribute of the Godhead.

Hallowed be Thy name.

In the Scriptures we find that the names given are always significative. The persons treated of received their names from some predominant trait they displayed, or from some peculiar circumstance connected with them. It is even recorded that the names of several individuals were changed at different periods of their career to agree with the variations of their life and character. The various names and titles by which the Lord reveals Himself to us signify His various Divine attributes and qualities. Therefore the command to hallow His name signifies, in the internal sense, to hallow all those Holy and Divine attributes represented by His name. "Those who do not think beyond the sense of the letter, imagine that name alone is meant in those passages [where it is mentioned]; nevertheless name is not meant, but all that whereby the Lord is worshipped, all which hath relation to love and faith. Hence by the name of the Lord in the Word are meant all the things of love and faith by which He is worshipped. The reason of this, that by the name of Jehovah, or the Lord, is not meant the name itself, but all the things of love and faith, originates in the spiritual world. Names in use in the Earths are not there uttered, but the names of persons of whom they speak are formed from the idea of all things which are known concerning them, which are compacted into one expression, and

hence it is that names there, like all other things, are spiritual."-A. E. 102.

Thy Kingdom Come.

The Lord's kingdom exists in the Heavens, in the Church, and in the regenerate soul. It "cometh not with observation, neither shall ye say, Lo here or lo there, for the kingdom of God is within you." Its elements are two, Goodness and Truth, flowing into us from the Lord, who is the Sun of our spirits, as the heat and light of the natural sun flow in, to vivify and sustain all things in the kingdom of nature. The Lord's kingdom in the Heavens is immeasurably vast, containing souls from all the earths in the universe. Its perfection is increased according to the number of its inhabitants; but though this increase will continue throughout eternity, yet its "many mansions" can never be filled. Each purified spirit presents an image of Heaven in its least form, and so perfect is the order prevailing through its myriads of societies, that the whole is as one man before the Lord in His image and likeness.

When we pray, "Thy kingdom come," we should desire that it may come within our souls, that the Lord's Goodness We have no Goodness nor

and Truth may dwell within us. Truth in ourselves, but the Lord Jesus Christ is more willing to bestow them on us than we are to receive them. Let us open wide the windows of our souls to Him who is the Light of the World. Let us open the door of our hearts to Him who stands and knocks.

Thy Will be done.

"By will, when spoken of the Lord, is signified the Divine Love. . . . Inasmuch as the will of man is his love, and the will of God is the Divine Love, it may be manifest what is meant, in the spiritual sense, by doing the will of God and the will of the Father, viz.: that it is to love God above all things, and our neighbor as ourselves ; and whereas to love is to will, thus also to do, for what a man loves, this he wills, and what he wills, he also does; hence, by doing the will of God or the Father, is meant to do the precepts, or to love according to them, from the affection of love or charity."—A. E. 295.

This petition is generally uttered in times of deep calamity and disaster, and is used as an expression of resignation to suffering. The truth is that the Lord, although He permits such things, never wills them. If His will were done, we should be perfectly and exquisitely happy - blessed to our fullest capacity of receiving blessings. It is His will that we should come unto Him, and receive the rich and full tides of joy and peace which He yearns to communicate to us; that we should suffer Him to lead us into Heaven and Eternal Life. Not only does He will to bestow Heavenly and spiritual blessings upon us, but He would fain give us all the blessings of earthly life, which we, however, have warped and perverted, filling it with diseases, disorders, and imperfections, corresponding to our evil passions. Crime, care, and suffering are the outflowering of a deadly root deep within the soul. When we consent to listen to the awful remonstrances, the tender persuasions and pathetic entreaties of Our Heavenly Father, and tear up this fatal root of self-love, then can His Divine Mercy perform its will in making us most blessed forevermore; for nothing else but this supreme love of self shuts Heaven on us, and warps and blights our earthly life.

On Earth, as it is in Heaven.

Besides the obvious, literal meaning in this clause, Earth is used to signify the natural or external man, Heaven the internal or spiritual. Our higher nature, compared with our lower earthly nature, is as Heaven to Earth. Man could not be in freedom, and thus could not be regenerated and saved, if he did not possess both an internal and external nature. Every spiritual affection and truth is stored in the higher nature. The lower nature is gross and selfish, and nothing but combat can bring it into subjection to the internal man. The Lord's will cannot be done alike in the Heaven and the Earth of our being, until our outward life is regulated by the good affections and true thoughts which He implants in our internal mind.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Beneath the literal sense of this passage lie deep and wonderful treasures of wisdom. When the angels read it, they think not of that bread which supports the life of the earthly body, but of that Divine Goodness which is the life of our souls. "I am that Bread of Life," says He who is Goodness itself. "This is the bread which cometh down from Heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven. If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live forever." Could there be a more striking type of that Divine Attribute, for which every soul, not wholly buried in the dust, hungers so deeply? There are myriads of passages in the Bible which grow radiantly bright when we have learned the interior signification of bread; for instance, the parable of the prodigal son, who wanders into a far country, and reaches such a state of destitution, that he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat. Swine correspond to what is sensual, and, on account of this representation, were forbidden to the Jewish Church as an article of diet. Could a more vivid picture be presented of a soul trying to stifle its immortal hunger with the empty and perishing things of sense? How simply and how touchingly is the awakening of his higher nature described; his resolve to return to his father's house, where there was bread enough and to spare, while he perished with hunger. How glorious the thought that there is bread enough and to spare forever in our Father's house; that though myriads of souls are constantly passing into the Heavens, there is a Divine Nourishment sufficient to satisfy and sustain them all to Eternity-the Divine Goodness freely bestowed on all who will receive it. Instead of immersing ourselves in worldly cares, pleasures, and ambitions, which quickly pass away, and even whilst possessed leave a deep and yearning void in the soul, formed for angelic life, let us heed the loving appeal of our Heavenly Father: "Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken dil