Page:Swedenborgs Maximus Homo.pdf/172

 progress, or that which tends to strife and division? If the latter, then the editor shows an utter disregard of the teaching in A. C. 6047.

It is needless to say more (though much more might be said) in vindication of the policy so sternly proscribed by the Messenger. That policy, when carefully considered, is seen to be most reasonable, wise, and just, and in perfect accord with the teaching of Scripture and of the divinely authorized Writings. It is the policy which hundreds of the best ministers in all the denominations—and their number will soon be counted by thousands—are steadily pursuing at this time; and they have the witness of the Spirit in their own souls that what they are doing is not "essentially dishonest," but wise, prudent, and essentially righteous. It is a policy by which the new and precious truths of heaven are being disseminated as by the direct agency of all the professedly New-Church periodicals and missionaries—though we would by no means discourage or disparage the work of these. And does not the fact that some hundreds of thousands of volumes of New-Church works have been sent free to ministers in our country, and thankfully received by them, within the last few years, plainly enough stamp this policy with among the people a hundred times as fast with the Divine approval?

There are several other mistakes in the Mes-