Page:The Life and Mission of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/32

 and pious Edzardus, delighted with his zeal in converting the Jews, and with his patriarchal simplicity, as he laid his hands upon the heads of his grown-up children and blessed them, "just as the patriarch Jacob blessed his sons Ephraim and Manasseh, and just as Christ blessed the little children." "I am unable," said he, "to describe in what a godly and earnest manner this man lived; may God bless his soul in His eternal kingdom!" Such were the forming influences that the young preacher sought and found, while others found but sinks of iniquity. In them we must see mirrored his own heart's delight.

Returning home in August, 1685, Swedberg was ordained and appointed chaplain to the King's Regiment of Life Guards. In the absence of the regiment in Upland, he took up his residence at Stockholm, where he often preached as royal chaplain, though he did not receive formal appointment till 1689. Not satisfied with occasional preaching to his regiment, he taught the soldiers their catechism. At first questioning they trembled, much more than under fire of the enemy. But soon they pressed upon him, and could not hear enough. In his zeal he promised to give a catechism to every man of the regiment who could read it at the next annual inspection. There were then three hundred who could read. The next year there were six hundred, and our poor preacher had to beg the King's assistance to pay for his catechisms. An uncounted handful of ducats was the royal response. The straightforward honesty of Swedberg, frank and blunt to a fault, always gained the sovereign ear, wearied with the hypocrisy of the Court. Charles XI., in want of public funds, trenched severely on the manorial rights of his people. Swedberg, as royal chaplain, preached from the text, "Ye hate the good and love the evil; ye pluck off their skin from them and their flesh from off their bones, and eat the flesh of my people; and when ye have flayed their skin from off them, ye break their bones also in pieces,"—making the application plain. "Shall the parson speak in this style?" asked an officer of