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 who were celestial, the serpent signified circumspection, and also the sensual principle by which they exercised circumspection so as not to be harmed. It is in this sense that the Lord said to his disciples, 'Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye, therefore, prudent as serpents, and guileless as doves." (A. C 197.)

Prudence and circumspection, therefore, are Christian virtues. And are they not to be exercised by those who are called to proclaim the Gospel? Does not the Lord Himself counsel their exercise? And what does circumspection mean? "Attention," says Webster, "to all the facts and circumstances of a case; caution; prudence." And "genuine charity consists in acting prudently, and for the sake of an end to promote good." (A. C. 8120.)

Now wherein does this teaching differ from the policy commended in "Independent Witnesses" and in my "Suggestions to Ministers," for which I was so promptly ruled out of the New Church by the editor of the New-Church Mesenger? And do not those who object to the course I advise, and who, in the pride (as it would seem) of self-derived intelligence, counsel a different policy, manifest a culpable disregard of the Divine injunction to be "prudent as serpents and guileless as doves"?

But the policy I advise is called "deceitful"