Page:The Life and Mission of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/22

 real Divine impersonation; in short, as Dorner says, regenerating theology. Let him see with them side by side, almost hand in hand, the advanced Catholic theologians, pursuing the same studies, with nearly the same results. And, does he ask more about the Roman Catholic Church, show him the temporal power a suppliant at every Court in Europe, but the spiritual power never so great in restraining the evil passions of men, in educating and curing souls. And, does he ask about Papal, clerical corruptions, tell him that their day is past; they are forgotten. Let him sit with us day by day and read the constantly surprising utterances of hopeful faith from the pulpit, from the press," from royal lips, from dying statesmen; and, overlooking the wide margin of lost ground yet to be recovered by the Church, will he not joyfully exclaim that he was right; that the judgment was coming, and is now passed; that the "spiritual winter" is over; that "the good and pleasant spring weather gains the upper hand, and the verdure breaks out from beneath the snow;" that the Day-spring from on high is now again visiting His people?

So Hagenbach, in his History of the Church in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries:—

"Vehement storms, quite beyond human control, have broken through the badly kept enclosure, and have borne off