Page:Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church.djvu/264

 "Most noble, venerable, and beloved in Christ our Lord:—I have taken the liberty of writing to you a second time, as it is likely you may not have received my other letter, on account of your travels; but I have at last learned by what means this will probably reach you.

"I revere the wonderful gifts you have received from God. I revere the wisdom which shines forth from your writings, and therefore cannot but seek the friendship of so great and excellent a man now living. If what is reported be true, God will show you how much I seek to converse with you in the simplicity of my mind. I am a young man, not yet thirty years old, a minister of the Gospel; I am and shall remain employed in the cause of Christ as long as I live. I have written something on the happiness of the future life. O, if I could exchange letters with you on this subject, or rather converse!

"I add some writing: you shall know my soul.

"One thing I beg of you, Divinely inspired man! I beseech you by the Lord not to refuse me!

"In the month of March, 1768, died Felix Hess, my best friend, a youth of Zürich, twenty-four years of age, an upright man, of a noble mind,