Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/113

Rh And whoever has made himself acquainted with the general condition of the Christian Church at the time Swedenborg lived and wrote, knows that it had fallen into a very low and degraded state. It was thoroughly immersed in the things of sense. Its philosophy was sensuous; its doctrines were sensuous; its conceptions of heavenly realities and its methods of Biblical interpretation were altogether sensuous; and on nearly every subject connected with Christian theology, the minds of the great mass of professed believers and even teachers of the Gospel, were terribly be-clouded. And although many and dark clouds still linger, we are not to look at the Christian Church as it is to-day, but as it was prior to the memorable year 1757, if we would learn how indispensable to the progress and welfare of humanity was this new opening of the Bible as to its heavenly meaning—this coming of the Word of God in its divine spirit and power. All the prophecies concerning the first Christian dispensation had been fulfilled, in their spiritual sense—including this also; "Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven." For the kindling warmth of the Divine love, and the illumination of a genuine faith, and even the knowledges of divine and heavenly things, had been withdrawn,