Page:The Judgment Day.pdf/190

 Last Judgment which would close the Apostolic or first Christian Dispensation;–if these points be made clear, as we believe they are in the paragraphs quoted above,—then we ought to be prepared to examine candidly and impartially, the question whether that Last Judgment has also taken place in the spiritual world. Has any light been thrown upon this exceedingly important question? Does any one know when that judgment took place, or what were the attending circumstances? These are questions which demand and deserve the investigation of every candid and intelligent mind.

Even independent of the declarations of Swedenborg, there are strong reasons for believing that the Last General Judgment took place in the spiritual world nearly one hundred years since.

In a former section I endeavored to show that the natural world is only a world of effects, that the spiritual world is the world of causes. This principle being admitted, it will be seen that all movements or changes, either great or small, which take place in the natural world, must be the effects of corresponding changes in the spiritual world. There is in fact, a very general, although vague and indefinite impression of this truth. The extraordinary revolutions that are now taking place in the political and social relations of the human family, as well as those discoveries and improvements which are continually and very rapidly advancing our natural comforts and enjoyments, are constantly spoken of as the "signs of the times;" and are regarded as portending some much greater revolution, about to break forth from the spiritual world. And yet every reflecting man ought to know that signs are always effects. The truth of this principle is constantly recognized by every intelligent man, except in regard to spiritual things;—the reason of which, as we suppose, is, that while men are wise in regard to those natural things which they love, they do not earnestly seek for true wisdom in regard to those spiritual things which