Page:Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church.djvu/213

 it to see with some clearness the true purport of what is read. How truly does this explain the return of the Christian mind to the simple Gospel and the right understanding thereof!

The new heaven was formed of those gathered by the judgment into the fold of the Good Shepherd. The new earth, its child in the world, is being born and nurtured. But the holy city, the new Jerusalem, what is that? A city is the abode of a community of men, with separate dwellings but with common streets in which they walk in concert, and public grounds and buildings for common interests. The city of men's minds is a system of thought or, spiritually speaking, of doctrine, in which, while each mind has its peculiar abode, the general lines are held in common, with common centres for assembling, for common interests. And as in the centre of a city resides its government, so in the centre of a common cult or doctrine resides its object of worship, its Lord. So was it with the old Jerusalem, with the Law of God in its central most holy place. So is it with the new. The Holy City is to be the new Christian faith, the resurrected faith, as declared in the Gospel, and as newly called to our