Page:The Life and Mission of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/45

 credulity. In his first year at the university "he had such a wonderful dream that he did not know whether he ought not to call it a revelation. 'No human tongue can pronounce, and no angel can describe, what I then saw and heard. When he first began to preach, he and all in the village heard in the church towards evening loud voices, singing hymns. From that time he felt profound veneration for holy worship, convinced that "God's angels are especially present in this sacred ofiice." "God preserved me," he says, "during the whole of my student life from bad company. My company and my greatest delight were God's holy men who wrote the Bible, and the many other men who have made themselves well-esteemed in God's Church, and whose names are farspread in the learned world. God's angel stood by me and said, 'What do you read?' I answered, 'I read the Bible, Scriver, Lütkeman, John Arndt, Kortholt, Grossgebaur, J. Schmidt, and others.' The angel said further, 'Do you understand what you read in the Bible?' I answered, 'How can I understand, when there is no one to explain it to me?' The angel then said, 'Procure for yourself Geier. J, and S. Schmidt, Dieterich, Tarnow, Gerhardi, and Crell's Biblical Concordance.' I said, 'A part of these books I have; the rest I will provide myself with.' The angel further said, 'Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.' I sobbed, 'Oh, grant us. God—a stanza of a Swedish hymn. "And thus he departed from me, after he had blessed me and I had thanked him most humbly."

It is of great interest to note this readiness on the part of Swedberg to receive spiritual instruction; and this very vision, dream, or impression, whichever we regard it, suggests remark-