Page:Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church.djvu/24

 reward in His kingdom the Lord saw the tares sown with the wheat and foresaw the sad end of this first age of His Church. None knew so well as He the slow and painful steps by which man must be led out of the natural self-seeking life of this world into the spiritual self-devoting life of the Father's kingdom.

Man was yet but in early youth. A great step was gained in teaching him to set his heart, not on the riches and honors of earth where moth and rust doth corrupt, but on the treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and thieves do not break through nor steal. The tares must be let alone until a riper age, when their fruit should be manifest and the developed reason should be ready to bind them in bundles and burn them. But this acceptance of the Gospel mainly through fear of torment or hope of reward in heaven gave every opportunity to self-seeking leaders for gaining control of their converts to their own personal advantage. Retaining the Gospel in their own hands, in a language which none but themselves could read, they devised creeds and canons to maintain their own supremacy. They took away the key of