Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/223

Rh in order to gain credit; while others will make other objections. To all such objections, however, I am quite indififerent; for I have seen, have heard, and have had sensible experience of what I am about to declare." (A. C. n. 68.)

And he tells us why this intercourse was granted him. It was, that the tide of skepticism in regard to the reality of a spiritual world, might be arrested; that men's faith in immortality might be strengthened and confirmed; that the nature of both heaven and hell might be clearly understood; and that men might be encouraged and helped on their heavenward way, by more definite and vivid conceptions of the Future Life. Referring to the prevalent ignorance among Christians respecting the spiritual world, he says:

"The angels heartily rejoice that it has pleased the Lord at this time to reveal to mankind many things respecting heaven and hell; and thereby to dispel, as far as possible, the darkness which is every day increasing."

But it should be carefully borne in mind, that Swedenborg's alleged intercourse with spirits has never been discredited by any who have candidly and thoroughly studied his pneumatology, so as to fully comprehend it. This is a fact worth considering. The Bible, we know, has been discredited, and its Divine authorship denied; but rarely, we believe, by men who have reverently studied the