Page:The Life and Mission of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/46

 ably the experience that was to come to his son. It is as if heaven were teeming with the instruction the Lord was about to give to men, and angels were seeking the mind fitted to receive it: nay, more, as if Swedberg himself had some of the elements of preparation. And what did he lack? Much, we shall find when we bring into comparison the breadth and depth of intellectual grasp that was given to his son. Much, very much, we shall see when we set beside his self-complacent, impulsive spirit the self-abnegated, divine spirit that shone through his son after his vastation, in the period of his illumination. We need not inquire why this change of spirit might not have been granted to the father. Enough, that the time was not yet fully come. It is easy to recognize in Bishop Swedberg a large measure of the simple Christian goodness,—love for the Lord and for doing good works to the neighbor,—which was taught by John the Baptist, and again was typified by John the Evangelist, and was to remain on earth to receive the Lord at His Second Coming. But we cannot fail to see also in him, and strongly marked, the fault of the first Christian Church from its beginning,—the desire to merit a high place in heaven by good deeds. Witness what his biographer, himself a rejector of Swedenborg's revelations, calls Swedberg's "sublime words." "At least," said he, after speaking of his persecutions by the clergy, "I know that my angel has received a command from God to have in readiness a crown, which he will place on my head when I depart hence and enter into God's kingdom. Meanwhile I shall sit down in my honorable place with greater courage, joy, and renown if possible than before."