Page:Swedenborgs Maximus Homo.pdf/143

 belief in and the looking to Jesus Christ as the only Redeemer and Saviour, the reverent reading of the Word, and obedience to the commandments of the Decalogue. And can there be any reasonable doubt that there are to-day a thousand times as many in the other religious bodies of Christendom as there are in our own, who are earnestly striving—and with some measure of success—to live this primary doctrine of our religion? And consequently that much the largest portion of the Lord's New Church on earth, is now outside the organization bearing its name?

If these things are really so (and can there be any reasonable doubt that they are?), how unspeakably sad and unseemly is the attitude of the New-Church General Convention toward all other Christian churches! An attitude which many intelligent receivers of our doctrines deeply deplore, and which, I should think, would come near to making the angels weep. For by its Rule and practice the Convention virtually turns its back upon them all, denies their title to the Christian name and ordinances, and refuses to acknowledge that they constitute any part of the specific or Christian Church, or that they are contributing anything to its advancement or growth. And a committee of the Convention's most intelligent and trusted ministers, with its President for chairman, justify and encourage that body in this false,