Page:Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church.djvu/276

 a common remedy for soothing the pain; but he answered at once that his toothache was not caused by a diseased nerve, but by the influx of hell from hypocrites who tempted him, and who by correspondence caused this pain which, he said, he knew would soon cease and leave him.

"Respecting his temptations, I collected information from his modest servants, the old gardener and his wife, who told me with sympathizing and compassionate words that Swedenborg often spoke aloud in his room, and was indignant when evil spirits were with him. This they could hear the more distinctly because their room was near his. When he was asked why he had been so restless during the night, he answered that permission had been given to evil spirits to revile him, and that he spoke to and was indignant with them. It often happened that he wept bitterly, and called out with a loud voice, and prayed to the Lord that He would not leave him in the temptation which had come upon him. The words which he cried out were these: 'O Lord, help me! O Lord my God, do not forsake me!' When it was all over, and his people asked him about