Page:Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church.djvu/188

 did he know of the spiritual things of the soul? of the things of heaven, and of the Divine providence therein? In all this he was to be instructed by the Lord Himself in His Word, but with the aid of open communication with angels and spirits whose life this inner meaning is.

It is now the year 1745. The time is ripening for the judgment. The clouds obscuring the face of the Son of Man are at their darkest. It is time for the dawn of the light that is to come. The light of the Lord's presence is to begin to be seen in His written Word. The age of miracles compelling belief is past. Man is to be instructed in an orderly, rational manner. One mind has been prepared and taught its mission. Through its labors the light is to have a point of diffusion on earth, and still more by ready communication in the spirit world among the multitudes there gathered who clung to their erroneous interpretations of Scripture, from which they could not be released until the unsealing of the Book by the Lamb. That this unsealing should be, not an instantaneous, but a gradual process, and that it should have effect in the world where the letter of the Book belongs, is in keeping with