32 THE HISTORY OF THE SUPERNATURAL. a point of view; as for instance where we find the gift of second sight ascribed to the influences of mountain air; (vol. i. p. 96) a gift claimed as supernatural being thus the effect of natural, material conditions; whereas, we know that in all things the spiritual is the realm of causes; the natural only of effects. So much industry and ability are displayed in this work, so interesting are the materials it contains, especially in many of the passages from ancient authors bearing on the older philosophies, and in many of the records it offers of the lives and opinions of eminent persons, that we cannot refrain from sincere regret that the author should not have taken one step higher, as it were, mentally, so to have attained to a truer insight into and a broader appreciation and grasp of the subject to which he has devoted so much zeal and research. Each however must labour according to such light as he possesses, and with all deductions we consider this work a valuable contribution to the literature of the day, if not to the very highest class of that literature. Its weight is thrown uncompromisingly into the scale for good, for faith in and obedience to the Lord, to His Word and to Christian truth, and if some grains of dross mingle with the purer ore, we none the less gladly would extend all just praise and appreciation to a work which as not being against us, is on our side. It is pleasant, too, to find how large a meed of appreciation and reverence Mr. Howitt extends to him whom we may truly call the great spiritual philosopher of our era; as the following brief extracts, culled from a long and cordial panegyric, may suffice to show :— "Swedenborg, from his previous education (which he regarded as entirely preparatory to his seership and teachership), became therefore a more effectual instrument in the Divine hand, and in his numerous writings (which though difficult enough in places, from the very nature of their topics, are clear as diamond compared to the writings of Böhme) has laid down a system of theology which is gradually new-modelling the old systems; and from pulpits, and books both prose and poetry, where the reader least suspects it, is giving form and substance to the popular views on the condition and world of the disembodied . And all this is done not by teaching new truths, but by bringing us back to (Mr. Howitt might have added, and by opening to our spiritual apprehension) the simple and matter-of-fact truths of the Bible, which spurious theories had treated as mere phrases, instead of substantial things. . . . . The doctrines of Swedenborg, in fact, like those of Fox, were never meant for the narrow region of a sect, but for all mankind; and amongst mankind they are doing more to restore the substance and similitude of Christianity, than those of any teacher who has appeared since the apostolic ages."-(Vol. 2, pp. 389, 391, and 392.) We could wish however that Mr. Howitt did not couple with his admiration of Swedenborg, so strong an antipathy to-founded on, we must beg leave to suggest, very considerable ignorance of-those THE HISTORY OF THE SUPERNATURAL. 33 whom he calls "Swedenborgians." We are happy to take this opportunity of assuring him that he is entirely in error in the conviction he more than once expresses (vol. 2, pp. 198, 391, 402,) that Swedenborgians are violently opposed to the idea that supernatural gifts are sent to any but Swedenborg or themselves. If by Swedenborgians Mr. Howitt means, as we infer (though we object to the appellation, being not Swedenborgians but Christians) the New Christian Church which accepts as divinely given the revelations made through Swedenborg, of the spiritual sense of the Scripture, and the spiritual Second Coming of the Lord, of His sole and supreme Divinity, and of other subordinate but deeply interesting and profitable truths,—we can confidently assure him, that that Church believes in the possession of supernatural gifts by every Christian regenerate man, yea by every soul of man regenerate or unregenerate; since the faculties of the soul itself, are the first and foremost of all supernatural gifts. The life breathed into us by the Lord is in very truth the Supernatural in man, and its highest, most perfect manifestation, the best of all spiritual gifts, is that immediate personal guidance and indwelling of the Holy Spirit which is promised to all who sincerely ask it. The special gift vouchsafed to Swedenborg, the gift of illumination or opening of the spiritual sight and intellect, whereby he became an instrument for the revelation of divine truths, at that juncture to be unfolded anew to men, was no more supernatural a gift, nor higher in kind, though larger in degree, than the light infused by the Lord into any humble human soul which seeks and obtains from Him the guidance, the instruction it needs.* Nay, it was by no means so high or holy a spiritual gift as that humility of heart, that child-like obedience to and loving trust in the Lord, which preserved him from self-exaltation and spiritual intoxication, leading him to find his highest glory and his proudest title in being and styling himself "Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ." This highest glory, these choicest and most exalted spiritual gifts, we hold to be within the reach of every faithful Christian, be his nominal creed what it may; how then shall it be said, that we regard supernatural gifts as exclusively belonging to ourselves or to Swedenborg? Only are we anxious and zealous that lower things should not be confounded with higher, and that the practice of spirit-invocation, the belief in spiritwisdom and spirit-guidance should not be substituted for prayer to the Lord and trust in His Divine providential care and the teaching of His * To anticipate an objection which is likely to be raised on this point, we take the liberty of expressing our conviction that Swedenborg's condition was, in some respects an exceptional one.-ED. 34 THE HISTORY OF THE SUPERNATURAL. Word. That our apprehensions on this score are not altogether unfounded may appear from the following passage: "Every one who enters into Spiritualism very soon becomes aware how perpetually he is under the observation of invisible eyes and ears, and I have heard different persons say that they never realised it in any degree before. That the assertion that we had angels and spirits about us was a sort of indifferent or poetical idea in the mind, but was not a living truth. Spiritualism at once makes it palpable and awfully real, and people begin to say 'I can no longer say and do things as I could before. My whole being is open to these spiritual realities. A fair outside will no longer do; I see that I must be genuine and pure all through."" (Vol. 1, pp. 488, 489.) Are we to believe and desire then, that man should endeavour "to become genuine and pure all through" because of the eyes of spirits upon them, rather than because of the eye of God upon them? Is His presence to whom our whole being is indeed open as to no eye of finite spirit can it ever be, no great or awful spiritual reality, no sufficient constraining influence? If this be so, and such an inference from the above is inevitable,-though we firmly believe unintentional, overlooked in the enthusiasm of the writer,-then indeed here is the highroad open to spirit, instead of saint-worship and invocation; to a new and more subtle form of idolatry than any prevalent in popedom or heathendom. And it is of this and cognate dangers that we would so earnestly warn all interested in this subject to take heed. We do not give further extracts, because it is impossible by extracts to convey any just idea of a work of this extent and nature, which we should be glad to think our readers will peruse and ponder for themselves. The subject of which it treats is forcing itself more and more on the attention of the public, and every attempt to treat and investigate it in an earnest and reverent spirit, deserves to be received with respectful consideration, even though we may not be able wholly to accept. and endorse the views therein propounded. A WORD FOR THE SEASON. M. C. H. THE human mind can form no judgments but by comparisons. Comparisons are made, and judgments are formed, by means of relatives and opposites. Relatives have reference to variety; opposites to contrariety. While the earth's revolutions give birth to the grateful and useful variety which is experienced by the day progressing from morning through noon into evening, and by the year passing from spring through summer into autumn, it also produces the opposite of day, which is night, and the oppo A WORD FOR THE SEASON. 35 site of summer, which is winter. Although these negative states-which night and winter may be called-do not exist as opposites till after the cessation of the positive states, yet something of the negative enters into every state of the positive,-darkness forming the ground of all the varieties of light, and cold the ground of all the varieties of heat. We can form no judgment respecting heat without comparing it, however remotely, with cold, nor of light without comparing it with darkness. It is the same with all the other perceptions of sense. The perception of beauty does not exist without that of deformity, nor of harmony without that of discord, nor of pleasure without that of pain. Revelation brings to our knowledge entirely new classes of truths, which enable us to institute other and still higher degrees of comparison, and to form still higher and more important judgments. It reveals to us the spiritual principles of heaven and the church, all which have relation to goodness and truth; and shows us, not only that these exist in indefinite variety, but have their opposites, which are evil and falsity. Every judgment we form respecting truth, involves a comparison of what is true with what is false; and every judgment we form respecting goodness, involves a comparison of what is good with what is evil. But Revelation brings to our knowledge still higher truths. It makes known to us the existence of God, His immensity and eternity, the infiniteness of His love and wisdom; and thus enables us to judge of the finite by its relation to the infinite. The material universe presents the largest possible natural idea both of immensity and duration that can enter into the human mind; but vast as this idea is, it falls immeasurably short of that which is conveyed by the knowledge of the infinite. Although creation carries the mind back through countless ages, what is this in comparison with Him of whom it is written-"Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth or the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God"? But if the whole material universe sinks into insignificance when compared with the Most High, man, when compared with the same Infinite Being, must appear as less than nothing, and vanity. The beautiful language of the Psalmist expresses this most impressively:-" When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy hands, the moon and stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that Thou visitest him?" And brief indeed must be the longest term of man's existence upon earth, when considered in reference to the eternity of God, with whom "a thousand years are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." We must not indeed rest in the idea that God's immensity is infinite space, or that His eternity is infinite time, 36 A WORD FOR THE SEASON. neither of which has any existence; but we may nevertheless compare the Divine immensity with our own narrow sphere, and His eternity with our transitoriness. The striking contrasts which are so frequently drawn in the Word between the Creator and the creature, are evidently intended to restrain the pride and self-exaltation of man, and produce in him profound humiliation in the sight of God. And nothing can be better calculated to annihilate all his natural self-importance than seriously and often to view himself in relation to, and in the presence of, that Being who created him; and to reflect, that while God remains in His own infinite and unchangeable nature, He turneth man to destruction, and saith, Return, ye children of men; that He carrieth them away as with a flood; that they are as a sleep: in the morning they are as grass that groweth up, in the morning it flourisheth and groweth up, in the evening is cut down and withereth." 66 But such a view, necessary and salutary though it be, is not the only one which man is required to take of his own condition. If unrelieved by other and more encouraging reflections, this view would entirely overwhelm him. The Word which reveals the Divine greatness, declares also the Divine goodness, and encourages man, with all his feebleness and imperfections, to look to the Lord as his Father and Saviour, who, while He sets the sins of men in the light of His countenance, is yet compassionate and ever ready to forgive. The Scriptures also, while they teach the brevity and uncertainty of the present life, reveal the existence of another world, where man's existence will be continued, and will never end. And thus they enable him to judge of the present life by comparison with the future, and to employ his temporal life as a preparation for life eternal. The future life is indeed but obscurely revealed in the Old Testament, where such expressions as those we have quoted occur, of man as withering like the grass, and fading as the flower of the field. Yet in all these and similar predictions we are privileged to know there is an inner and living sense, which teaches us that these declarations of man's frail nature and transitory life are intended to apply to those acquisitions of the natural mind which, however fresh and beautiful they may seem, are in themselves so frail that they perish in the using. And even if man's acquisitions consist of spiritual truths, yet if they remain in the natural mind, under the direction of natural ends, they perish with time, and leave the mind empty and void. But however obscurely man's immortality may be revealed in the Old Testament, it shines out in all its splendour in the New, which thus in |