Page:Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church.djvu/282

 I drew from him by polite questions, consists mainly in what follows:—

"His doctrinal system of theology, which he in common with other Christians bases upon our common Revelation, the Sacred Scripture, consists principally in this—that faith alone is a pernicious doctrine, and that good works are the proper means for becoming better in time, and for leading a blessed life in eternity. That in order to acquire the ability or power to do good works, prayer to the Only God is required, and that man also must labor with himself, because God does not use compulsion with us nor does He work any miracles for our conversion. As regards the rest, man must live in his appointed place, acquiring the same learning, and leading a life similar to that of other honest and modest persons who live temperately and piously."

The Rev. Nicholas Collin, in 1820 rector of the quaint old Swedish church in Philadelphia—the same that was built in 1700 under Bishop Swedberg's charge—lived when a young man three years in Stockholm, at a time when "Swedenborg was a great object of public attention in that metropolis, and his extraordinary character was a