Ex Libris 
 
 c. K. OGD"E\ T

 
 V ' r 
 
 /. /[.h":?' 
 I
 
 MAN AND WOMAN. 
 
 EQUAL BUT UNLIKE. 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES REED. 
 
 " Female and male God made the Man ; 
 His Image is the whole, not half." 
 
 C. PATKOEE. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 H. H. & T. W. CARTER, 
 
 No. 13 BEACON STREET. 
 
 1870.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 
 
 NICHOLS AHD NOTES, 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 RIVERSmE, CAMBRIDGE 
 STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED 
 H. O. HOUCHTON AND COMPANY.
 
 TO THE 
 
 BOSTON SOCIETY OF THE NEW JERUSALEM, 
 
 FOB WHOH 
 
 THESE SERMONS WERE FIRST WRITTEN, 
 AND AT WHOSE REQUEST THEY 
 
 ARE NOW PUBLISHED, 
 
 THIS VOLUME CONTAINING THEM IS AFFECTION- 
 ATELY INSCRIBED. 
 
 1C77170
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. THE DIVINE LIKENESS. 
 
 II. THE MARRIAGE COVENANT. 
 
 III. THE RESPECTIVE DUTIES OF MEN AND WOMEN. 
 
 IV. HEAVENLY MARRIAGE. 
 V. A LIFE OF USEFULNESS.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 fPHIS little volume is published in the sincere hope 
 that it may not be without its use in helping to 
 solve one of the vexed problems of the present day. It 
 lays no claim to originality. It is simply an attempt to 
 give utterance to thoughts expressed by Swedenborg 
 nearly a hundred years ago. With respect to this re- 
 markable man, the world is slowly beginning to discover 
 that he was a spiritual forerunner of the age in which 
 we live. He anticipated, and removed in advance, the 
 obstacles which science has placed in the pathway of 
 religion. The most reverent believer in Divine Revela- 
 tion, he is yet the deadliest foe of blind and unreasoning 
 faith. Those who are familiar with his writings can see 
 clearly that the whole course of modern religious thought 
 runs in the direction in which he points. Not the least 
 of his contributions to the stock of human ideas is what 
 he has written on the distinctions and mutual relations 
 of the sexes. 
 
 This book endeavors to set forth, in few words, the
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 general principles of his doctrine on that subject. The 
 five sermons of which it consists are printed almost ex- 
 actly as they were delivered in the regular course of 
 pastoral instruction. If they had been originally de- 
 signed for publication, they might have been somewhat 
 different in form, though hardly in substance. Especially 
 might they have been less summary in their treatment 
 of certain doctrines incidentally mentioned, which were 
 more familiar to those who heard the discourses than 
 they can be to the general public. But the author has 
 had neither time nor inclination to alter them ; and, such 
 as they are, he sends them forth, to do whatever work 
 Divine Providence may have in store for them. 
 
 BOSTON, Nov. 8, 1869.
 
 I. 
 
 THE DIVINE LIKENESS. 
 
 " In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He 
 him: male and female created He them ; and called their name Adam 
 (or man) in the day when they were created." GENESIS v. 1, 2. 
 
 /^iNE of the grandest truths of religion is that which 
 ^ declares that man is made in the image, after the 
 likeness, of God. However imperfectly it may be un- 
 derstood, it must be regarded as presenting an exalted 
 and inspiring view of human capacity and destiny. Even 
 if we think of nothing more than outward bodily resem- 
 blance, if we remember only that whenever the Lord 
 God has been seen by men, He has appeared in human 
 shape, and that He so appeared during Ids thirty years' 
 life among them, we still know enough to assure ua 
 that their rank among living creatures is that of pecul- 
 iar glory and honor. 
 
 But our thoughts on the subject are extremely super- 
 ficial, if we suppose that man's likeness to his Maker 
 extends no farther than to his physical organization. 
 The body of a man is the least important part of him. 
 It is, indeed, scarcely a part of him at all, but simply 
 the material covering which he wears during his life in 
 this world. The man himself is not a body, but a soul,
 
 10 THE DIVINE LIKENESS. 
 
 a being whose real life consists of affections and thoughts, 
 which require the body merely as an instrument for 
 giving themselves outward expression. The soul or 
 mind, therefore, must be especially designated, when 
 man is said to be made in the image and likeness of 
 God. 
 
 Surely this point cannot call for much demonstration. 
 Mere external resemblance is in itself a matter of very 
 little consequence. If we are really images of our 
 Heavenly Father, we must somehow or other resemble 
 Him in character. Our inner life our affections and 
 thoughts must bear some intelligible likeness to his. 
 But how can this be, since we are finite and imperfect) 
 and He is infinite and perfect ? 
 
 Our conceptions of the Divine Being utterly fail of 
 precision and clearness, unless we regard Him as the one 
 and only source of life. That is to say, He has life in 
 and of Himself; He alone is self-subsisting, and lives from 
 eternity. All other beings derive their life directly or 
 indirectly from Him. They have no life of their own : 
 they are only forms receptive of his life. Man is the 
 highest of these forms. He is endowed with faculties 
 of which the lower animals are entirely destitute. lie 
 is an intelligent and rational creature, or, at least, has 
 the power of becoming such. He is not a passive re- 
 cipient of mere corporeal existence. Not his body alone 
 receives life from God ; but his mind is fed from the 
 same exhaustless fountain. God is the source of affec- 
 tion and thought, as well as of outward being. The
 
 THE DIVINE LIKENESS. \\ 
 
 mind of man in some way or other draws its sustenance 
 from the mind of God. 
 
 The human mind consists of two parts, the will 
 and the understanding. The will is that which loves 
 and feels ; the understanding is that which thinks and 
 reasons. There are no mental operations which are not 
 comprehended under one of these two classes. A man 
 is in the genuine order of his creation when he wills 
 nothing but what is good, and thinks nothing but what 
 is true. The Lord God is love and wisdom. His will 
 is perfect love for every creature ; his understanding 
 is perfect wisdom exercised with respect to all. He 
 can will only what is good ; He can think only what is 
 true. As all human traits and actions are referable to 
 the will and understanding, so are all divine attributes 
 and operations referable to absolute love and wisdom. 
 From infinite love, according to infinite wisdom, does 
 the Lord govern the universe. 
 
 Man is such a form of life, that he can be spiritually 
 filled with the divine life. He can receive into his will 
 and understanding something of the love and wisdom 
 which are the Lord's own essence. His mind may be a 
 medium of pure and gentle affections, and of wise 
 thoughts. Love from the Lord may be, as it were, 
 appropriated by him, and made his own ; it may be- 
 come the ruling principle of his life, and go forth from 
 him, as from a new centre, to the Lord who gave it, 
 and to his fellow-men who stand in need of it. Divine 
 wisdom may gain entrance into his understanding ; and
 
 12 THE DIVINE LIKENESS. 
 
 his mind may be full of inner light, which diffuses itself 
 to those around him. It behooves us always to remember 
 that nothing pure, and gentle, and innocent can have its 
 origin in man. All goodness and truth must come 
 from Him who in Himself is good and true. Man, to be 
 sure, has some option in the matter. He is in the 
 midst between good and evil, between heaven and 
 hell, and has the power to turn himself to the one or 
 the other, as he shall prefer. In other words, freedom 
 is a human faculty. Men are not made to act blindly, 
 ignorantly, or mechanically. It is their prerogative not 
 only to be loved by the Lord, but to love Him in re- 
 turn. He taught them how to love Him when He said, 
 " If ye love me, keep my commandments." As they 
 have freely received, so must they freely give. Of 
 their own accord they must join themselves to the 
 Lord, and to " his angels, that excel in strength, that do 
 his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his 
 word." Unless such is the course of their lives, they 
 will inevitably sink down into evil and hell. 
 
 Man is potentially an image and likeness of God, 
 because he is capable of receiving God into himself. 
 That is to say, he is mentally and spiritually such a 
 form, that the divine love and wisdom, which are the 
 essential divine life itself, can, with his free consent and 
 cooperation, enter into, and form, as it were, a part of 
 him. He is an image, because he is a receptacle, a 
 mould, so to speak, in which the infinite divine form 
 may be finitely reproduced. The potential image be-
 
 THE DIVINE LIKENESS. 13 
 
 comes an actual one, when his will is a receptacle of 
 the divine love or goodness, and his understanding is a 
 receptacle of the divine wisdom or truth. Then he is 
 like God, he resembles Him as much as a finite being 
 can resemble the Infinite One. He is pervaded with 
 the Lord's very life, which he still uses freely as his 
 own ; and thus he is most intimately conjoined with his 
 Heavenly Father. Of little consequence indeed is mere 
 outward shape, in comparison with this interior simili- 
 tude ! 
 
 The idea that the body of man is a receptacle of 
 life is nothing new ; for every one knows that the body 
 lives by virtue of something the spirit or soul 
 within it. But the doctrine that the spirit or soul itself 
 is an organized form and a recipient vessel is as novel 
 as it is striking. It forms an essential part of the New 
 Church system of belief, and prepares the way for a 
 rational understanding of many subjects. 
 
 Our text teaches not only that God created man in 
 his own likeness, but that He made them male and fe- 
 male. In the day when they were created, He made 
 them male and female, and called their name Adam, 
 which is the Hebrew word for man. Man and woman, 
 therefore, would seem to have been created simulta- 
 neously in the very day of their creation ; as may in- 
 deed appear from the account in the first chapter of 
 Genesis, where we read as follows : " And God said, 
 let us make man in our image, after our likeness. 
 . . . . So God created man in his own image,
 
 14 THE DIVINE LIKENESS. 
 
 in the image of God created He him ; male and female 
 created He them" (vv. 26, 27). 
 
 The second chapter, it is true, gives an apparently 
 different account, from which it would seem that one 
 man, called Adam, was first created, and that after he 
 had been placed in Eden, and had received his instruc- 
 tions respecting the trees of the garden, the Lord God 
 concluded that it was not good for him to be alone, 
 and accordingly made him an help meet for him. He 
 created a woman, who was named Eve, and was given 
 to Adam for a wife. The woman, moreover, was made 
 of one of the ribs of the man, and was thus said to be 
 "bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh." From this 
 single pair it would appear that the whole earth was 
 peopled, and that the whole human race descended. 
 
 So we have two distinct narratives of the creation 
 of mankind, which seem to contradict each other. 
 Which, then, shall we accept ? Shall we believe that 
 man came first, and woman afterwards, or that from the 
 beginning God made them male and female ? Shall we 
 decide that woman was made only for the sake of man, 
 to relieve his loneliness, so to speak, or that the 
 twofold division of mankind was part of the original 
 scheme of creation ? Was there one man named Adam, 
 and one woman named Eve, or is Adam but the general 
 term for man, including both sexes, according to what 
 is said in the text : " Male and female created He them, 
 and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the 
 day when they were created ? "
 
 THE DIVINE LIKENESS. 15 
 
 On the ground of analogy, and on every rational 
 ground, we cannot help believing that the only design 
 which the Crt ator had with regard to human beings 
 was that they should exist as male and female, that 
 He so created them from the beginning, that the 
 two are coequal and complemental, that they are es- 
 sential to the natural, moral, and spiritual welfare of 
 each other, that both are necessary parts of the great 
 whole, which is known by the name of man, and that 
 in the twain made one flesh is realized the most perfect 
 image and likeness of God. All analogy, to which ref- 
 erence was just made, shows that there was nothing arbi- 
 trary or exceptional in this matter. Duality is the law 
 of the universe. Not only in the aniiml kingdom, but 
 also among the plants, we find the twofold mode of 
 being, which gives rise to the expressions male and fe- 
 male. The two- sexes are necessary for rounding and 
 completing the conditions of life, as well as for produc- 
 ing new forms of it. Creation would be but half itself, 
 if all beings were male, or all were female. But we 
 need not enlarge upon facts so obvious. The only 
 point for us to remember is that man can have been no 
 exception to the general rule. 
 
 As to the different Scripture statements before alluded 
 to, they would, like many other parts of the early chap- 
 ters of Genesis, naturally occasion much perplexity, if 
 it were necessary to receive them as literal truth. But 
 the New Church doctrines show us that they are to be 
 understood in a spiritual, not in a literal sense. If
 
 16 THE DIVINE LIKENESS. 
 
 tliere were time, it could easily be shown that the first 
 ten or eleven chapters of our Bibles were never de- 
 signed to be a history of natural events. Many of the 
 statements there made, by their contradiction of well 
 known laws of nature, and by their contradiction of 
 each other, forbid any such method of interpretation. 
 How, for instance, could there be successions of day 
 and night, before the sun existed ? How could all the 
 beasts, birds, and reptiles have lived together in the ark ? 
 Hundreds of such questions might be raised, into the 
 consideration of which we cannot now enter. Only the 
 conclusion can be mentioned, to which we are brought 
 under the guidance of New Church doctrines. It is, 
 that as the Scriptures are infinite divine truth, they have 
 within them infinite divine meaning, that within the 
 sense of the letter are spiritual and heavenly senses, 
 which relate to spiritual and heavenly things, that 
 the narrative parts of the Word have, in general, a 
 groundwork of actual history, but that such is not 
 the case with the first chapters of Genesis, which can 
 be received in their internal sense alone. According to 
 this sense, Adam is a generic term, which signifies the 
 men of the most ancient church or period on this earth 
 The six days of creation, culminating in the birth of 
 Adam, represent six successive states or stages of re- 
 generation, that is, of spiritual growth and develop- 
 ment. The account of the garden of Eden, and of the 
 primitive life of Adam and Eve there, describes the 
 pure and exalted state of the men of the most ancient
 
 THE DIVINE LIKENESS. 17 
 
 church. The temptation of the serpent, and the eating 
 of the forbidden fruit, set forth in representative lan- 
 guage the way in which that church began to decline 
 from its pristine purity and innocence. 
 
 In this manner is the narrative to be explained. The 
 only conclusion to which it brings us on the subject un- 
 der consideration, is that human beings have always ex- 
 isted as men and women, that this is the very order of 
 their creation, and is essential to their happiness and 
 progress. " He that made them at the beginning, made 
 them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a 
 man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his 
 wife, and they twain shall be one flesh " (Matt. xix. 
 4, 5). 
 
 Entering thus deeply into the plan of the Creator, 
 the distinction between man and woman is in no wise an 
 accidental one. Shall we regard it as merely external 
 and superficial ? Assuredly we cannot do so. Every 
 consideration forbids it. All observation and experi- 
 ence teach that men and women possess radically differ- 
 ent natures. They are unlike in mind and character. 
 The physical dissimilarity is but a type and index of 
 the spiritual. All the instincts of humanity, if they are 
 not smothered by intellectual theories and speculations, 
 proclaim that there are certain masculine qualities which 
 render the character of a man most truly admirable, 
 and certain feminine qualities which render the charac- 
 ter of a woman most truly charming and beautiful. 
 These distinctive trails cannot be interchanged. A man
 
 18 THE DIVINE LIKENESS. 
 
 cannot by any means be transformed into a woman, nor 
 a woman into a man. That which is most excellent in 
 the one, may be quite the reverse in the other. The 
 two were born, and are by nature fitted, for wholly 
 different positions in life. Each has his own peculiar 
 duties, and his own appropriate sphere of action. 
 
 Man and woman are equal, but not alike. They are 
 equal none the less for being unlike. Each has the 
 qualities which the other lacks. Each is adapted to the 
 precise work which the other cannot do, or, at least, can- 
 not do as well. They are coordinate with each other. 
 Both are necessary for filling out the true conception of 
 humanity. So do the Scriptures plainly seem to teach. 
 Not only in our text, but in the parallel passage of a 
 previous chapter, the fact that man was created male and 
 female, is coupled with the other fact that he was made 
 in the divine image and likeness. These two great 
 truths are placed together in such a way as to make 
 them seem inseparable. And, indeed, who can doubt 
 that they are inseparable ? Who can doubt that man is 
 an image and likeness of God, for the very reason that 
 he is created male and female ? The fullest and truest 
 image of the Lord is not a single human being, however 
 far advanced on the path of regenerate life, but the 
 grand aggregate of human beings, in this world and the 
 other, who live according to divine order, and are the 
 willing receptacles and mediums of the divine influence. 
 In this great body of humanity, man is one half and 
 woman is the other. It is needless to say that if by
 
 THE DIVINE LIKENESS. 19 
 
 any means these two halves were to be separated from 
 each other, the image would be grossly mutilated, if not 
 utterly destroyed. The masculine and feminine qualities 
 are both needed, in order to complete the likeness. So, 
 also, a man and wife, who are united happily in marriage, 
 together form a more perfect image and likeness of God, 
 than either of them alone. 
 
 We have seen that the truest image of God is a 
 spiritual image. In his mind man exhibits the only 
 genuine and lasting resemblance to his Heavenly Father. 
 It is therefore the united minds of men and women, 
 which show forth his completest likeness. The Lord, 
 we have seen, is love itself and wisdom itself. His im- 
 age is a receptacle of his love and wisdom. Nor do we 
 need to look far, in order to perceive that on that plane 
 of life, at least, which is visible to us, man is preemi- 
 nently a receptacle of wisdom, and woman of love. 
 The distinctive masculine characteristics are those in 
 which the understanding takes the lead ; and the dis- 
 tinctive feminine characteristics are those in which will 
 or affection takes the lead. Man is more frequently 
 governed by his judgment and reason, woman by her 
 feelings and perceptions. Not indeed that all intellect 
 belongs to the male sex, and all affection to the female. 
 But the two classes of faculties comprised under these 
 heads, respectively predominate in them. And when 
 men and women come together in a good and orderly 
 way, they supply, each to each, just what is wanted. 
 They make good one another's deficiencies. They fill 
 out a more perfect me:isure of a man.
 
 20 THE DIVINE LIKENESS 
 
 At a future time we shall consider some of the par- 
 ticular branches of this great subject. For the present, 
 let us treasure up the grand general principle which is 
 the root and trunk of the whole matter, that when 
 the Lord God would create a being who should become 
 the spiritual image and likeness of Himself, He made him 
 in two parts, essentially unlike, yet wonderfully adapted 
 to each other, and called them male and female.
 
 n. 
 
 THE MARRIAGE COVENANT. 
 
 " And He answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that He 
 which made them at the beginning, made them male and female, and 
 said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall 
 cleave to his wife : and they twain shall be one flesh ? Wherefore 
 they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath 
 joined together, let not man put asunder MATT. xix. 4, 5, 6. 
 
 THE order of ideas in these words is worthy of 
 notice. First, we are told that " He which made 
 them at the beginning, made them male and female." 
 This was the original condition or mode of human exist- 
 ence. Then, as a consequence of this, or, as it is ex- 
 pressed, "for this cause" we are taught that a man 
 " shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his 
 wife." That is to say, the two sexes were created for 
 each other. For the very reason that they were made 
 male and female, they are to live, not separate, but 
 united. The man must cleave to his wife. 
 
 Furthermore, the relation into which they enter will 
 be the most intimate of human relations. " They twain 
 shall be one flesh." Stronger than the ties of blood 
 are those by which, under Divine Providence, a man 
 and his wife should be joined. The relation to father 
 and mother is declared to be subordinate and secondary.
 
 22 THE MARRIAGE COVENANT. 
 
 The union is designed to be of such a character that the 
 haud of God may be recognized in it, and the divine 
 benediction may rest upon it ; for it is said, " What God 
 hath joined together." And it is also designed to be 
 binding and permanent ; for it is said, " What God hath 
 joined together, let not man put asunder." So is the 
 matter summed up for our instruction and guidance by 
 Him who spake as never man spake. 
 
 The first point, suggested by the words, " He which 
 made them at the beginning, made them male and fe- 
 male," has been previously considered. We have seen 
 that the dual form of human life is of divine appoint- 
 ment. It was by no accident that man was created male 
 and female. An essential part of the very plan of crea- 
 tion was, that human beings should exist in two classes, 
 spiritually and naturally differing from each other ; and 
 that thus they should grow, both individually and col- 
 lectively, into a truer image and likeness of God, than 
 would otherwise be possible. We have seen that the 
 distinction between the sexes is a radical one. They 
 are unlike in their mental constitution and character. 
 They are dissimilar forms or receptacles of the divine 
 life. And for the very reason that they are different, 
 they are peculiarly adapted to each other, and capable 
 of conferring and receiving mutual benefits. Together, 
 not separately, they fill out the measure of our common 
 nature. 
 
 All this is very general instruction. Our text of this 
 morning introduces us to further particulars. It shows
 
 THE MARRIAGE COVENANT. 23 
 
 that the way in which men and women come into their 
 proper relation to one another is by means of marriage. 
 They were intended to lire in pairs, one husband 
 with one wife. The design of the Creator is accom- 
 plished, when the twain are made " one flesh." God 
 joins them together ; man must not put them asunder. 
 Let us then briefly consider the subject of marriage, 
 not so much what it is in the present disordered state 
 of the world, as what it was designed to be in the true 
 order of Divine Providence. 
 
 The first thing to be said is that the union of husband 
 and wife was unquestionably meant to be a spiritual 
 union. This is proved by the fact that man and woman 
 are the spiritual counterparts of each other. They are 
 able to become, as no two of the same sex can, of one 
 mind and one spirit. To this oneness of soul every 
 pure-minded person who looks forward to the possibility 
 of marriage, instinctively aspires. The acknowledged 
 ground of anticipated happiness is mutual love and re- 
 gard stronger than any friendship. It is an intuitive 
 feeling which needs no reasoning to support it, that 
 there should be a peculiar bond of agreement and sym- 
 pathy between those who undertake to go through life 
 together. They should have similar tastes and senti- 
 ments. They should love the same things, and so be 
 able to share each other's thoughts to the full. In a 
 word, they should, in all respects, feel inwardly near to 
 one another, else their connection will be a mere con- 
 ventional arrangement, devoid of all that makes mar- 
 riage a high and holy relation. 4
 
 24 THE MARRIAGE COVENANT. 
 
 The love which receives in marriage its full and or- 
 derly fruition has never been wholly unrecognized by 
 men. From time immemorial it has been the burden 
 of romance and song. Hundreds of hearts have beat in 
 sympathy with youths and maidens who, having no ex- 
 istence out of works of fiction, have, through good and 
 evil fortune, clung faithfully to each other. No "terms 
 of detestation have seemed too strong to be applied to 
 those who, for mercenary or other selfish reasons, stood 
 between true love and the accomplishment of its wishes. 
 Thus the doctrine has ever been tacitly admitted, at 
 least in theory, that marriage was a matter of spiritual 
 import, resting on the deepest and tenderest feelings 
 of our nature, and nowise to be tampered with for 
 merely external and worldly causes. 
 
 The true idea of marriage presupposes not only a 
 peculiar feeling of attachment, but also special compat- 
 ibility of character and temperament. It presupposes 
 that the tie which binds man and wife together is dif- 
 ferent from that which attracts them toward any other 
 person. And if this train of thought be carried out to 
 its full extent, the only conclusion we can reach, is, that 
 if human beings were living in the true order of their 
 creation, every man would find among women, one in 
 particular, with whom he could be most happily and 
 beneficially united. 
 
 Here let us pause a moment, to consider what a great 
 and glorious light is thrown upon the whole subject by 
 even these few general reflections. The subject itself is
 
 THE MARRIAGE COVENANT. 25 
 
 one of the highest practical importance ; for it necessarily 
 comes home to all ; and it involves perhaps beyond any 
 other that could be named, the issues of human happi- 
 ness and misery. It is a matter on which no false no- 
 tions of delicacy should force us to be silent. It is a 
 matter on which every one needs instruction. It is the 
 subject of one of the ten commandments. A sense of 
 duty, therefore, would not allow us to pass it over at all 
 times without notice. But there is no reason why we 
 should not approach it in a pure and reverent spirit, believ- 
 ing that the truth concerning it is a pearl of great price. 
 
 We say, then, that much light is thrown upon the 
 subject by the simple fact that marriage is properly a 
 spiritual relationship. This truth is of inestimable value 
 in directing the thoughts of the young. By means of 
 it they are taught to look forward to marriage as some- 
 thing which calls for the highest and best capabilities 
 of their nature. It was designed to be of heaven, 
 heavenly, not of the earth, earthy. If the right con- 
 ceptions of it are formed, it is found to be based on no 
 merely natural consideration. It is not, for instance, a 
 question of property. Dollars and cents have nothing to 
 do with it. A man should marry his wife for what she 
 is, not for what she has. Worldly ease and pleasure are 
 of little consequence in comparison with internal unity 
 and peace. To share an abundance of this world's goods, 
 and to have nothing else to share, is to be poor indeed. 
 
 Again, a young man should be taught to discriminate 
 between what is natural and what is spiritual in the
 
 26 THE MARRIAGE COVENANT. 
 
 miud both of himself and others. He should try to 
 make sure that he is drawn by other than outward at- 
 tractions. With young people of both sexes natural 
 grace and beauty are very potent influences. Charms 
 of person and manner are often allowed to engross at- 
 tention, to the total neglect of deeper and more essential 
 qualities. Too frequently no glance is cast below the 
 surface, until it is too late. Then pain and trouble, if 
 not actual alienation, are pretty sure to follow. One 
 who has learned to estimate character at its true value, 
 possesses a great advantage over others. The first 
 questions he asks himself respecting one in whom he is 
 interested will be, Do we understand each other's deep- 
 est thoughts ? Can we enter into each other's inmost 
 life ? Are we likely to sympathize truly and fully in all 
 matters of any moment ? Take religion, for example. 
 Whenever one's religion is a thing of vital consequence 
 to him, he cannot bear the thought of not sharing it 
 with his nearest friends. It engages his highest and 
 tenderest feelings. It is the subject of his inmost 
 thoughts. Shall it be forbidden ground between hus- 
 band and wife, in their dealings with each other? Shall 
 they go their separate ways to worship the Lord with 
 strangers ? But we need not enlarge upon a point so 
 plain. Every one can see how great a privation is sus- 
 tained by the man or woman, who, being deeply im- 
 pressed with a sense of dependence on the Lord and 
 the need of divine protection, or with the truth of any 
 system of religious doctrine, receives no responsive
 
 THE MARRIAGE COVENANT. 27 
 
 sympathy from the partner of his life, but only opposi- 
 tion, coldness, or ridicule. Surely, one should think 
 long and prayerfully before forming an alliance which 
 is in danger of producing such results. 
 
 He who views marriage from its spiritual side must 
 regard it as a sacred thing. As it is not to be con- 
 tracted on any external or trivial grounds, so it should 
 not be set aside except for the gravest reasons. Nor 
 should it be lightly thought or spoken of. The offices 
 of religion are properly invoked to solemnize it, because 
 religious thoughts and feelings should be uppermost in 
 connection with it. The bonds of matrimony are rightly 
 called holy bonds. It is not becoming in men or women 
 to dogmatize on this or any other subject. It is not for 
 them to proclaim aloud that they have certainly found 
 the one partner set apart for them by Divine Providence. 
 But after the marriage is consummated, they should en- 
 deavor to think no thought contrary to this. All their 
 actions, at least, should be in agreement with this sup- 
 position. Fidelity, devotedness, and unceasing kind- 
 ness to the one whom he has chosen for a wife, are al- 
 ways the husband's duty, as long as they live together ; 
 and the same is the duty of the wife. Every tendency 
 to think that they are not suited to each other, and can- 
 not dwell together happily (except, of course, where 
 the outward life of either of them is clearly evil), should 
 be resisted as a temptation, and avoided as a snare. 
 Only by striving to be faithful, each to each, in heart 
 and soul, as well as in external conduct, can they make 
 any progress on the path to heaven.
 
 28 THE MARRIAGE COVENANT. 
 
 The idea that marriage is designed to be primarily a 
 spiritual relationship, must necessarily tend to purify 
 and elevate our ways of thinking about it. We see 
 that the happiest state of existence is that in which a 
 man and wife are joined by a perfect sympathy with re- 
 spect to all the most vital issues of life, and by a com- 
 mon love for all that is highest and holiest ; and seeing 
 this, we know that there is no way of being prepared 
 for such a state, except by trying to cherish the heav- 
 enly affections which belong to it. Evil influences will 
 turn the thoughts downwards and outwards. From hell 
 there surges up a continual stream of selfish, impure, and 
 even sensual feelings, which claim preeminence in the 
 mind. This influence is necessarily subversive of the 
 good, pure, and holy state of marriage. Only so far 
 as one shuns as sin against God, the evil forbidden in 
 the sixth commandment, that is to say, all unchastity, 
 whether in thought or deed, can he come into the true 
 order of his being. Only on this condition can his life 
 be brought into harmony with the divine life. The 
 Lord, in this as in other respects, is always striving to 
 raise men up ; and all the hosts of heaven are cooper- 
 ating with Him. Their efforts are crowned with suc- 
 cess, whenever a man is induced to turn of his own 
 accord from all sinful and merely natural desires, and 
 to take pleasure only in the idea of union with one to 
 whom he is drawn by the highest affections of which 
 he is capable. The best education which children and 
 youth can receive on this subject is that which leads
 
 THE MARRIAGE COVENANT. 29 
 
 them to esteem marriage as sacred before all other 
 human relations, and as being possible in any true 
 sense, only to those who have clean hands and pure 
 hearts. Alas, that there should be in the world so much 
 that is of an opposite character so many influences 
 which make against purity and elevation of thought in 
 the relations between man and woman so much dis- 
 position to degrade the marriage covenant to a mere civil 
 contract, and to turn all higher sentiments respecting it 
 to jest and ridicule ! 
 
 A few words now on the character of the love by 
 which, as we have seen, God seeks to join man and wife 
 together, and to make of them one flesh. In the first 
 place, it must bear a general resemblance to all pure and 
 unselfish love. It must come under the one grand head 
 of love to the neighbor. It must lead a man to desire 
 the happiness of the beloved one, as much as, or more 
 than, his own. The love of rule must be far from it. 
 The disposition to be ministered unto, must be subser- 
 vient to that of ministering. The separate wills should 
 make themselves known by tlieir voluntary blending and 
 cooperation, not by any wish to override each other. 
 Whenever the true ideal of marriage is realized, there 
 can be no trouble on this point ; for each of them, the 
 husband and wife, recognizes the other by a kind of 
 intuition, as the superior in his or her peculiar province, 
 and cheerfully, nay, even joyfully, gives up all claims to 
 any unqualified priority. A position which is never as- 
 sailed, never needs to be defended. Rights which are
 
 30 THE MARRIAGE COVENANT. 
 
 never encroached upon, do not need to be asserted. If 
 the husband is acknowledged as first in bis field of ac- 
 tion, and the wife as first in hers, there can be no ques- 
 tion of authority between them. They are alike the 
 rulers and the subjects of each other. They take as 
 much pleasure in being subjects as in being rulers. 
 They love the sphere in which they are subordinate, no 
 less than that in which they are superior. Together, as 
 king and queen, they govern a happy and united king- 
 dom ; and the chief support of either throne consists in 
 the loving encouragements and concessions which it re- 
 ceives from the occupant of the other. 
 
 To begin with, therefore, the relation between man 
 and wife should be an exemplification of the grand prin- 
 ciple, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." But 
 beyond this, their love for one another must be peculiar 
 in its character, and different from that which they feel 
 toward their fellow-creatures generally. 
 
 We saw on a previous occasion when the subject was 
 under consideration, that the masculine qualities are 
 those in which the understanding is prominent, and the 
 feminine qualities those in which the will is promi- 
 nent. Men, as a whole, are more frequently influenced 
 by. considerations which appeal to their reason, and 
 women by such as appeal to their feelings. A man re- 
 quires time and labored thought for the formation of his 
 opinions. A woman will more readily take them on the 
 authority of one whom she respects, or because they 
 accord with her perceptions of what is good and desira-
 
 THE MARRIAGE COVENANT. 31 
 
 ble. Man was designed to be the peculiar receptacle 
 and image of the wisdom, and woman of the love, 
 which together constitute the essential nature of the 
 Lord. 
 
 Whenever a man and wife are suitably united, they 
 are like understanding and will in the same mind. The 
 thoughts of the husband are to the wife like her own. 
 She loves to be guided by his clearer judgment, even as 
 she loves to lean upon his stronger arm. When he goes 
 out to his daily work, her heart goes with him. She 
 takes pleasure in his sagacity, clear-headedness, power of 
 distinguishing between right and wrong, and ease in 
 overcoming obstacles which to her appear insurmounta- 
 ble. She shrinks with all her woman's nature from the 
 rough contact of the outside world, the tumult and 
 strife, the jangling of contrary opinions, the endless con 
 flict of opposing interests ; and is thankful beyond 
 measure that she has one who is able and willing to do 
 all this hard work for her, one who possesses her respect 
 and confidence, one on whom she can depend to protect 
 her, not only from brute force, but from cunning, deceit, 
 avarice, and every other selfish influence which, in this 
 wicked world, needs to be exposed and resisted. Truth 
 is the means which men have for contending with evil. 
 The mind in which truth, or the understanding of truth, 
 predominates, is peculiarly adapted to warfare ; and such 
 a mind is that of a true man. Every true wife glories 
 in this firm support, which serves the needs of her 
 spiritual, no less than of her natural life ; and of noth-
 
 THE MARRIAGE COVENANT. 
 
 ing is she less ashamed than of owning her comparative 
 weakness and dependence in this respect. The more 
 dependent she can be in the way which has been indi- 
 c ted, that is to say, the more of manly wisdom and 
 strength she feels she has to lean upon, the greater 
 is her happiness 
 
 And what is the spiritual office which the wife per- 
 forms for her husband ? What would man be without 
 woman ? No one need be told of the condition of merely 
 natural men when cut off from female society, how 
 rough, coarse, and even brutiil they become, how devoid 
 of gentleness and refinement. The masculine character 
 by itself is hard and unlovely. The reason is, because 
 it is the tendency of mere intellect to be wholly absorbed 
 in itself. At the bottom of all the disagreeable mani- 
 festations just spoken of are overweening self-confidence 
 and self-admiration. The greatest bane of the male sex, 
 as such, is pride in their own intelligence. And from 
 this impediment to their spiritual progress and happi- 
 ness, woman was sent to deliver them. The effect of 
 her influence is to soften and refine them, to awaken 
 gentle and tender feelings where they would otherwise 
 have no existence. The pride of intelligence and the 
 spirit of self-admiration are changed into a love for what 
 is relatively helpless and dependent. Strength, which, 
 reacting upon itself, would be the source of ruin, be- 
 comes a new and utterly different thing when it is ex- 
 pended on behalf of those who need its protection. 
 Woman, by diverting man's thoughts to herself, keeps
 
 THE MARRIAGE COVENANT. 33 
 
 him from being devoured by his own pride and self-con- 
 fidence. She becomes, as it were, his second self, a self 
 out of himself, which he can love unselh>hly, and thus 
 without danger; just as the rib, in the symbolical lan- 
 guage of Scripture, is said to have been taken out of 
 Adam, and made into a woman, because it was not good 
 that the man should be alone. 
 
 We have seen heretofore that man was intended to 
 be preeminently a form and receptacle of wisdom, and 
 woman of love. But as regards the relation of hus- 
 band and wife, this statement admits of greater exact- 
 ness of expression. The man was created to be a form 
 of wisdom, and the woman, of love for that wisdom, 
 sis it exists in him. It is not for him to be enamored of 
 his own intellect, or of the aggregate of manly qualities 
 which may be comprised under the general name of 
 wisdom. But his wife may without blame love them 
 better than any other finite thing ; and he, instead of 
 them, loves her. 
 
 The following brief passage from Swedenborg con- 
 tains a concise statement of the subject. He says, 
 " The will of the wife conjoins itself with the under- 
 standing of the man, and thence the understanding of 
 the man witli the will of ti;e wife. The reason is because 
 the male is born that he may become understanding, 
 and the female that she may become will, loving the un- 
 derstanding of the male ; from which it follows that 
 conjugial conjunction is that of the will of the wife 
 with the understanding of the man, and the reciprocal 
 3
 
 34 THE MARRIAGE COVENANT. 
 
 conjunction of the understanding of the man with the 
 will of the wife. Every one sees that the conjunction 
 of the understanding and the will is most close, and that 
 it is such, that the one faculty can enter into the other, 
 and be delighted from conjunction and in it." ( Conju- 
 gial Love, No. 159.) 
 
 Such is the marriage relation, as designed by Him 
 who made men male and female. No right-minded per- 
 son can doubt that it is the most eminent state of Im- 
 man existence. That the world at present should know 
 so little of it, is nothing strange. Not until mankind 
 in general cease to prefer their own to their neighbors' 
 happiness, can the true conception of marriage be gen- 
 erally brought down into the life. Yet is it no small 
 thing that such a conception should exist in the mind ; 
 for its tendency must always be to purify and elevate 
 the thoughts on all matters touching the relation between 
 man and woman, thus helping us all, whatever our sit- 
 uation and circumstances, to perform our duties in this 
 life, and preparing us for the greater ble?sedne.s of the 
 life to come.
 
 Ill 
 
 THE RESPECTIVE DUTIES OF MEN AND 
 WOMEN. 
 
 " The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither 
 shall a man put on a woman's garment : for all that do so are abomina- 
 tion unto the Lord thy God." DEUT. xxii. 5. 
 
 fTMlE way in which this verse is regarded will depend 
 -- on the general ideas which one has of the Scrip- 
 tures themselves. Those who have no respect for the 
 Bible as a whole, will, of course, have none for any par- 
 ticular portion of it. Those, again, who look upon the 
 Jewish law as something which was originally spoken 
 and delivered by God to men, but as having now out- 
 lived the day of its usefulness and become obsolete, will 
 hardly be disposed to attach to the passage before us any 
 peculiar significance. It will be considered worthy of 
 special attention only by such as believe the Word to be 
 divine truth, partaking of the infinite and eternal at- 
 tributes of Him who gave it. 
 
 But how is the passage to be understood ? Was it 
 designed simply as instruction concerning the garments 
 which men and women should wear ? Those who 
 believe that the distinction between the sexes is funda- 
 mental and spiritual, cannot doubt the propriety of in-
 
 36 THE RESPECTIVE DUTIES 
 
 dicating it by a difference in dress. They may even say 
 " Amen " with all their hearts to the last clause, of the 
 text in its most literal acceptation : " For they that do 
 so " (i. e. assume the garments of the other sex) " are 
 abomination unto the Lord thy God." Yet we must 
 not suppose that the lesson taught is confined within 
 any such narrow limits. When the Lord speaks to the 
 men of all time, he gives them not merely natural, but 
 spiritual, instruction. 
 
 So do the doctrines of the New Church plainly teach. 
 They show that the sacred Scripture is divine in itself, 
 and has an infinitude of meaning. Its literal sense is 
 but its least and lowest part, the form in which it is, 
 or has been, accommodated to the states of merely 
 natural men. Within the letter is the spirit, not a 
 mere vague amplification of the literal meaning, but a 
 new and higher sense, quite distinct from that of the 
 letter, and yet making one with it by correspondence. 
 Or rather we should say, there is a series of such senses 
 reaching from Him who is the inmost of the Word, to 
 men who in this world are in the outermost plane of being. 
 
 We cannot now stop to discuss the general doctrine 
 of the spiritual sense, but will endeavor to find an illus- 
 tration of it in the particular subject before us. 
 
 No reader of the Scriptures can fail to see that gar- 
 ments are repeatedly spoken of in some other than their 
 literal sense. How, unless spiritually, can we under- 
 stand what is said of the man who had not on a wedding- 
 garment, and was, therefore, bound hand and foot, and
 
 OF MEN AND WOMEN. 37 
 
 cast into outer darkness ? What is meant in the Apoc- 
 alypse by him that watcheth and keepeth his garments ? 
 Who were the few in Sardis that had not denied their 
 garments, and were to walk in white with the Lord ? 
 Somehow or other, garments in these passages must be 
 expressive of the state or character of those who are 
 said to wear them. The man without a wedding-gar- 
 ment could have been excluded only because his garment 
 was in some way an index of himself. The state of 
 mind in which he was, must have been contrary to that 
 which belongs to the heavenly marriage. In like man- 
 ner, not to defile one's garments must be to keep the 
 life pure and void of offence. To walk with the Lord 
 in white is to live in harmony with Him ; for his raiment, 
 when He was seen in his glory, was " shining, exceeding 
 white as snow ; so as no fuller on earth can white 
 them." 
 
 The Lord's garments represent divine truths. The 
 light wherewith He is said to cover Himself as with a 
 garment, is nothing else ; for truth is to the eye of the 
 mind what light is to the bodily vision. By means of 
 truths revealed to men, the Lord makes Himself known 
 to them. He appears, as it were, clad in truth, and 
 thus is made visible. They who but touch the hem of 
 his garment are made whole of whatsoever disease they 
 have ; that is to say, if we apply to our lives the simplest 
 literal precepts of divine truth, and do it in a humble 
 and penitent spirit, we come into communication with 
 the Lord himself, and receive of the virtue which goes
 
 38 THE RESPECTIVE DUTIES 
 
 out of Him ; thus being delivered from the evils which 
 threaten our spiritual health and life. 
 
 It is according to divine order that men also that 
 is, their minds should be clothed with truths as with 
 garments. The truths of the Word should be, as it 
 were, the vesture they put on, in order to fulfil their ob- 
 ligations to the Lord and their fellow-men. They should 
 not, indeed, assume them for the sake of pretence, or as 
 a mask to hide their inward corruption. But their effort 
 should be to make them the very form and expression 
 of their life. The unwelcome guest at the wedding was 
 one who could not be clad in the beautiful garments of 
 divine truth, because the love of truth had no place in 
 his heart. Those who walk with the Lord in white are 
 such as love divine truths, and are covered and pro- 
 tected by them. 
 
 Garments are said to correspond specifically to truths, 
 because truth is the natural embodiment or clothing of 
 goodness. If you examine any undoubted truth of 
 religion, you will see that such is the case. It is the 
 utterance or expression of good will. It has for its 
 end, and produces as its result, the benefit and happi- 
 ness of all who are affected by it. Truth is the cloth- 
 ing of goodness, in just the same way that thought is 
 the clothing of affection. There would be no truth, 
 unless goodness felt the need of garments wherewith to 
 make itself visible. 
 
 But in a more general sense, garments signify any 
 exterior covering of something relatively interior. Thus
 
 OF MEN AND WOMKN. 39 
 
 actions are the garments of thoughts. The body is the 
 garment of the soul. The external life of man is the 
 garment of the internal. The particular signification in 
 any case will depend upon the subject under considera- 
 tion, and the point of view from which it is regarded. 
 There may be those who can conceive of no other gar- 
 ments than the vesture of the natural body. Again, 
 there will be tho-e who can discern many distinct planes 
 of life, one within the other, each serving as a garment 
 to all that is interior to itself. 
 
 In this world are to be found all kinds of hypocrisy. 
 By false outward appearances men conceal in various 
 ways their genuine feelings and thoughts. They deck 
 themselves out in borrowed garments, like wolves in 
 sheep's clothing. But in the world to come we know 
 that such a state of things cannot permanently exist. 
 There the saying is fulfilled, " There is nothing covered, 
 that shall not be revealed ; neither hid, that shall not be 
 known." A man can seem to be outwardly no other 
 than he really is inwardly. The ruling affections of his 
 soul must corre forth, and make themselves visible in 
 his external actions and appearance. The objects by 
 which he is surrounded must be in agreement and corre- 
 spondence with the feelings which prevail within him. 
 Hence good things are always around the good, and evil 
 things around the evil. Each makes for himself a world, 
 either beautiful or unbeautiful, which corresponds ex- 
 actly with his inner f-tate. This perfect harmony of the 
 interior and exterior life extends even to the garments
 
 40 THE RESPECTIVE DUTIES 
 
 which are worn. The angels who were seen at the 
 Lord's sepulchre had white and shining garments. The 
 prodigal son, when he came into a state of sincere re- 
 pentance for his evil life, is said to have been clothed 
 anew, according to the direction of his father : " Bring 
 forth the best robe, and put it on him ; and put a ring 
 on his hand, and shoes on his feet." In the Apocalypse 
 we read that the armies in heaven which followed the 
 Lord were clothed iu fine linen, white and clean. 
 Similar things are said in other passages, some of which 
 have been already referred to. So we cannot doubt 
 that the clothing of angels and devils is a perfect expres- 
 sion of their interior state and character. Angels are 
 clothed according to their intelligence, that is, according 
 to the degree of divine truth that is in them. Evil 
 spirits, on the contrary, must be clothed in unsightly 
 garments, according to the degree of their insanity, or, 
 what is the same, their perversion of truth and good- 
 ness. 
 
 The distinctive garments of men and women are, 
 therefore, representative of their distinctive characters 
 and states. When in the Jewish law they ai'e forbidden 
 to wear one another's garments, the meaning is that 
 they can never become, in their essential spiritual 
 nature, identical ; they are made to fill different places 
 in the world, and to perform different offices, which are 
 not interchangeable. It is contrary to order for either 
 of them to trespass on the province of the other. 
 
 The duties appropriate to either sex are, of course,
 
 OF MEN AND WOMEN. 41 
 
 those which give occasion for the exercise of their dis- 
 tinguishing characteristics. And inasmuch as mau and 
 woman differ in general, like wisdom and its love, or 
 like thought and its affection, or like understanding and 
 its will, according to what was shown in a previous dis- 
 course, so the masculine functions are those in which un- 
 derstanding, thought, and wisdom take the lead, and the 
 feminine functions those in which will, affection, and 
 love take the lead. This is the true test to apply to all 
 questions which may arise respecting their respective 
 fields of action. If men are disposed to shrink from the 
 labors and responsibilities which priority of intellect 
 necessarily impose*, to avoid the decision of hard ques- 
 tions and contact with hard men, and to live a life of 
 domestic ease or sentimental leisure, they are justly 
 open to the reproach of becoming effeminate, and must 
 expect to lose the respect and influence which they would 
 otherwise possess. If women, on the other hand, are 
 ambitious to do that kind of work which calls primarily 
 for the exercise of the reasoning faculties for judgment 
 and intellectual effort, they are manifestly, as a gen- 
 eral rule, trying to go beyond their true sphere, and 
 should be by all proper means discouraged and restrained. 
 The best way of understanding the relative position 
 and duties of man and woman is to observe them in the 
 marriage relation. Whenever two persons are suitably 
 married, their duties define themselves. Whenever the 
 twain are made one flesh, their lives flow along united, 
 and yet distinct ; all the more closely united, indeed,
 
 42 THE RESPECTIVE DUTIES 
 
 because they are distinct. They do not trench upon 
 each other's province, nor wish to do so. There is 
 work which each prefers that the other should do fur 
 him, and is happy in not being obliged to do himself. 
 The wife, as was previously explained, loves to be 
 guided by the clearer intellect of her husband, and to 
 receive the protection of his firmer and more aggressive 
 nature. She loves to feel that in their struggles with 
 the outside world, he is strong enough for them both. 
 She loves, as it were, to see with his eyes, and to think 
 with his thoughts. She is pained when she feels com- 
 pelled to differ from him. If only he is such a man 
 that she can really act as one with him in this way, her 
 happiness is complete. And he, on his side, requires 
 this joyful dependence of hers to draw him out of him- 
 self, and to wean him from the pride of his own intel- 
 ligence. Her appreciative and affectionate response to 
 everything true and good in his thoughts and actions, 
 fills out the measure of his life. Under her softening 
 influence he becomes refined and gentle, yet no less 
 manly withal. By the support which he affords to 
 her, he is himself supported. Her confiding dependence 
 on him is the very staff on which he leans. 
 
 This spiritual relationship between husband and wife 
 finds abundant expression and illustration in their re- 
 spective duties. He goes out into the world, and does 
 the work which needs to be done there, while she 
 remains at home, and attends to duties no less needful. 
 He performs uses (o society, and shares with her the
 
 OF MEN AND WOMEN. 43 
 
 fruit of his labors. He regards her support and main- 
 tenance the same as his own. He wishes to save her 
 from all worldly anxieties and cares, as well as from all 
 harsh winds that blow across the ruffled seas of human 
 selfishness. The man who does not do his best to pro- 
 vide for, and protect, his wife and family, is universally 
 condemned and execrated. No thanks are due him for 
 taking care of them. This is simply his duty, his office 
 as a husband and father. But lie is rightly blamed and 
 dishouored for neglecting them. 
 
 And the wife, on her part, fills a place no less clearly 
 defined. The home circle belongs primarily to her. It is 
 her office to surround it with pure and gentle influences ; 
 to make it bright, cheerful and attractive, a genuine 
 place of refuge from the prevailing weariness and un- 
 rest. It is her office to rear up the children which are 
 given her, and thus commence the work which has for 
 its end that they shall become good men and women 
 here, and angels of heaven hereafter. It is folly to say 
 that this class of duties is less important than the other. 
 They are equal to any that could be named ; and the 
 highest happiness of a true woman is experienced in 
 faithfully discharging them. 
 
 There is nothing forced or arbitrary in this division 
 of labor. It is a natural consequence of the organic 
 difference between men and women. Something like it 
 is to be found throughout the whole animal creation. 
 Men are by nature larger, stronger, and more robust hi 
 mind and body. Intellectual and physical strength is
 
 44 THE RESPECTIVE DUTIES 
 
 theirs in greater measure. They are manifestly adapted 
 to a rougher and harder service. Theirs is the field of 
 battle ; theirs the public turmoil and strife ; theirs the 
 grappling of mind with mind hi hostile or friendly com- 
 bat. But woman's nature, in which affection leads, 
 is suited to other things. She is more delicately organ- 
 ized, both mentally and physically. . To her, by the 
 laws of creation, is allotted the care of children. She 
 must bring them forth, and nourish them. She must 
 watch over them by day and night, striving to keep 
 them from every harm. No one will do this, if she 
 does not. It is the precise work which calls for the 
 exercise of her peculiar faculties, a work in which 
 mere intellectual superiority would be of little account. 
 Home is, therefore, by the manifest conditions of her 
 nature, her appointed field of labor ; and the more truly 
 womanly she is, the better she loves to have it so. If 
 she is faithful to her trust, she will not suffer for lack 
 of employment. She will have enough to occupy heart 
 and hands. She will not look out with envious eyes to 
 other spheres of action. She will not aspire to mili- 
 tary glory, or political distinction. In all public affairs 
 she is content, nay, glad, to have her husband act for 
 her. His arm, his voice, his vote, shall be hers, sus- 
 tained by all the strength of her love and confidence. 
 She is not ashamed to spend her life in presiding over 
 a happy and virtuous household, and is willing to have 
 her children named as the crown and glory of her 
 womanhood.
 
 OF MEN AND WOMEN. 45 
 
 It is right to set before the mind's eye a true pic- 
 ture of marriage union and happiness, because it is the 
 only way of showing what man and woman were de- 
 signed to be to each other, and what are their respect- 
 ive positions and duties. The best education which 
 either sex, as such, can receive, is that which prepares 
 it to sustain the highest relation to the other. Not 
 by attempting to obliterate the distinctions between 
 them, but by keeping these ever in view, and giving 
 them the most complete development, must we perforce 
 believe that the divine purpose with respect to the 
 two great divisions of mankind will be most perfectly 
 accomplished. " The woman shall not wear that which 
 pertaineth unto a man, neither, shall a man put on a 
 woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination 
 unto the Lord thy God." 
 
 It is true that in the present state of the world many 
 difficulties beset those who desire the establishment of 
 heavenly principles. To a large number of people mar- 
 riage in this life is denied ; and, what is far worse, to a 
 large number it comes fixed on a false basis, and brings 
 no genuine happiness. Thus many of both sexes, but 
 especially women, are forced into unnatural positions ; 
 and they often meet with harsh and unjust treatment. 
 The duty of helping them to do such work as they are 
 best fitted for, and of giving them a fair compensation 
 for their labor, cannot be doubted by any considerate 
 and reasonable person. Yet it should be none the 
 less carefully remembered that there are vocations and
 
 46 THE RESPECTIVE DUTIES 
 
 functions to which they are not generally adapted, 
 those in which, as we have seen, " thought, wisdom, and 
 understanding take the lead.*' Their condition will 
 never be improved by imposing on them obligations 
 and responsibilities for which they are naturally dis- 
 qualified, even though this be done for the avowed pur- 
 pose of redressing their wrongs. 
 
 Doubtless there are some women who have a stronger 
 and clearer intellect than some men ; and there are 
 some men who are more under the influence of their 
 affections and feelings than some women. But these 
 exceptions prove nothing ; and in any general state- 
 ment of principles are unworthy to be taken into ac- 
 count. The vital questions to be considered are What 
 makes a man most truly manly ? What makes a woman 
 most truly womanly ? and then to cultivate in each his 
 own best characteristics. 
 
 It is not meant to be implied that women should be 
 less carefully or thoroughly educated than men. In 
 order that the two may be suitable companions for each 
 other, they must stand on the same general level of 
 intelligence. Any great disparity between them, as 
 regards knowledge and culture, must always be a draw- 
 back to their happiness. But the education of the one 
 sex should differ from that of the other just as their 
 essential natures and their duties in life differ. 
 
 A few words more on a single point. We know 
 that the care of Divine Providence is extended over 
 all the events of our lives. In whatever position we
 
 OF MEN AND WOMEN. 47 
 
 ;ire placed through circumstances beyond our control 
 however undesirable it may seem in itself, we know 
 that it is exactly what we need, and was mercifully 
 intended for our highest good. Even though one's 
 hopes with respect to marriage be disappointed, and 
 his situation be not that which he would naturally 
 prefer, an abiding trust in his Heavenly Father will fill 
 him with the assurance that he is led in the way which 
 is most conducive to his spiritual welfare. He will 
 know that his happiness depends on cheerfully accepting 
 his position, and trying to do his duty in it.
 
 IV. 
 HEAVENLY MARRIAGE. 
 
 " And Jesus answering, said unto them, The children of this world 
 mam-, and are given in marriage. But they which shall be accounted 
 worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, 
 neither marry, nor are given in marriage. Xeither can they die any 
 more : for they are equal unto the angels ; and are the children of God, 
 being the children of the resurrection." LUKE xx. 34, 35, 36. 
 
 HPHE Lord, in these words, is replying to a question 
 *- of the Sadducees. The latter were a Jewish sect, 
 corresponding to the skeptics and rationalists of the 
 present day. They denied that there is any resurrec- 
 tion, and came to Jesus, propounding what they supposed 
 wa< an unanswerable question on this subject Full of 
 the spirit of contempt and ridicule, they brought forward 
 the case of seven brethren marrying in succession the 
 same wife, and dying childless ; and asked triumphantly, 
 " Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them is 
 she ? for seven had her to wife ? " This is the question 
 to which our text is the answer. 
 
 The example cited by the Sadducees did not sound so 
 strangely to those who heard it, as it would to men at 
 the present time. He who married the childless widow 
 of his brother, simply acted in obedience to a positive 
 command of the Israelitish law. The first child of such
 
 HEAVE SLY MARRIAGE. 49 
 
 a union was considered as belonging to the deceased 
 brother, and saved him from the reproach of having his 
 name " put out of Israel." If any man should refuse to 
 take his brother's wife, he was to be publicly disgraced. 
 In case of refusal (so it is written), " shall his brother's 
 wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and 
 loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and 
 shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that 
 man that will not build up his brother's house. And 
 his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him 
 that hath his shoe loosed " (Deut xxr. 9). The fact 
 that the six brethren did only their prescribed duty hi 
 marrying the wife of their brother, makes the inquiry 
 of the Sadducees far more pointed than it would other- 
 wise have been. For the very reason that they strictly 
 obeyed the law of Moses, they would find themselves 
 having but one wife to the seven, when they should 
 leave this world. We can imagine the sneering tone of 
 voice, the exultant glances quickly exchanged, and the 
 derisive smiles passing from face to face, as the divine 
 law itself was thus made apparently to refute the doc- 
 trine of the resurrection. The Lord's reply, unexpected 
 as it evidently was, silenced the unbelievers, if it did not 
 convince them. 
 
 It is necessary to bear in mind the state of the Jews, 
 and their ideas of the marriage relation, in order to un- 
 derstand the question and its answer. The particular 
 law to which the Sadducees alluded, reveals a condition 
 of affairs which is almost incomprehensible to us. TTe
 
 50 HEAVENLY MARRIAGE. 
 
 hardly know how to think of a nation which needed 
 such regulations. These were, of course, a reflection of 
 the minds of the people. The Lord took the Jews as lie 
 found them, and gave the divine sanction to such laws 
 as they were capable of obeying. Their views were all 
 of a natural and external kind. It was hard for them 
 to lift their thoughts above the senses. In spite of all 
 that the Lord did for them, and the repeated wonders 
 which He showed them, they continually fell away to the 
 worship of false gods. Even while He was in the very 
 net of delivering the commandments on Sinai, they made 
 d golden calf, and bowed down before it. The Lord 
 had divided the Red Sea for them ; He had sweetened 
 the bitter waters of Marah ; He was daily feeding them 
 with bread from heaven ; but they could not have faith 
 in Him forty days, till Moses came down from the moun- 
 tain. This is but one instance of events such as are 
 constantly occurring in their history. They were rightly 
 termed a stiff-necked and rebellious people. How, then, 
 could the Lord have dealings with them, except by 
 accommodating Himself to their condition ? How could 
 He establish even the semblance of a church among 
 them, except by admitting on sufferance many usages 
 which will not bear the light of higher truth than theirs? 
 What laws could He give them, with any possibility of 
 their understanding and obeying them, except those 
 which should reach down to the low plane of life and 
 thought whereon they stood ? On no other basis than 
 this can the various rites, ceremonials, and statutes of the
 
 HEAVENLY MARRIAGE. 51 
 
 Jews be reconciled with a belief in Providence, and in 
 the divine character of the Scriptures. Worship by 
 means of sacrifices, for example, is a rude and barbarous 
 kind of worship. But it was the best of which the Jews 
 were capable. Accordingly, it was allowed under certain 
 definite restrictions. But this very worship, gross and 
 external as it was, represented that which is internal 
 and genuine. And not only the worship; the whole law 
 of Moses is representative ; and spiritually regarded and 
 interpreted, is seen to contain the principles and precepts 
 of life everlasting. And not only the law, but the entire 
 Word, is written by correspondences, and is in its lit- 
 eral sense as a casket, which holds priceless jewels. 
 
 The laws of the Jews respecting marriage are there- 
 fore to be regarded in the light of divine permissions. 
 Like mankind generally at that period, the children of 
 Israel were away down amid the things of sense. They 
 had not the slightest conception of spiritual marriage, 
 any more than of spiritual worship. In their sight 
 polygamy was no sin. On the contrary it was practiced 
 by the most venerated among them. They saw in the 
 relations of man and woman little more than the merely 
 animal function of propagating the species. Almost the 
 greatest calamity which could befall any one was to die 
 without children. Their state of mind is everywhere 
 betrayed by the letter of the Old Testament. Customs 
 were therefore tolerated among them, which would be 
 inadmissible in civilized communities at the present day. 
 The infinite Father of all, hi the fulness of his goodness
 
 52 HEAVENLY MARRIAGE. 
 
 and wisdom, suffered them to do many things, solely 011 
 account of the hardness of their hearts. 
 
 In the matter of divorce, for instance, they were left 
 in very great freedom. Their laws on this subject are 
 referred to in a conversation which took place between 
 our Lord and the Pharisees, when He was in the world. 
 " The Pharisees also came unto Him, tempting Him, 
 and saying unto Him, Is it lawful for a man to put 
 away his wife for every cause ? And He answered and 
 said unto them, Have ye not read, that He which made 
 them at the beginning, made them male and female, 
 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and 
 mother, and shall cleave to his wife : and they twain 
 shall be one flesh ? Wherefore they are no more twain, 
 but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined to- 
 gether, let not man put asunder. They say unto Him, 
 Why did Moses then command to give a writing of 
 divorcement, and to put her away ? " (Matt. xix. 3-7.) 
 The Lord had presented an ideal of marriage, which 
 seemed to contradict the Law of Moses. If husband and 
 wife were to cleave to one another, so as to be one flesh, 
 if God was to join them together, so that not without 
 impiety could man put them asunder, then indeed it 
 was not strange that the Pharisees should ask why Moses 
 commanded to give a writing of divorcement, and to put 
 her away. Why, in other words, did Moses command 
 men to do that which Jesus now said that they ought not 
 to do ? Or conversely, why did Jesus condemn by im- 
 plication what Moses had commanded ? The answer
 
 HEAVENLY MARRIAGE. 53 
 
 which the Lord gives is so clear and explicit that it can- 
 not possibly be mistaken. " Moses, because of the hard- 
 ness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives : 
 but from the beginning it was not so " (Matt. xix. 8). 
 
 Because of the hardness of your hearts. This tells the 
 whole story. That which appeared like a divine com- 
 mand, and therefore like a law perfect iu itself, and never 
 to be improved upon, was, after all, only a divine per- 
 mission, which the low moral condition of the Jewish 
 Church had rendered necessary. In its spiritual sense 
 it contains truth which will be serviceable for the guid- 
 ance of men in all ages. But in its literal sense, it could 
 not continue after the Lord's coming. It could not 
 abide the brightness of the light which He brought into 
 the world. The need of any such literal precept passed 
 away with the Church or Dispensation to which it had 
 been given. Instead of it, the Lord says, " Whosoever 
 shall put away his wife, except for fornication, and shall 
 marry another, committeth adultery : and whoso mar- 
 rieth her that is put away, doth commit adultery " 
 (Matt. xix. 9). After these words had been uttered, they 
 became the law of divorce for the Christian Church. 
 But it was not easy for the first Christians to receive 
 this law. To them it seemed severe and oppressive. 
 Under the restrictions which it imposed they thought 
 that marriage itself would become undesirable. Ac- 
 cordingly his disciples said when they heard it, " If the 
 case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to 
 marry" (Matt. xix. 10).
 
 54 HEAVENLY MARRIAGE. 
 
 All these things will serve to show the state in which 
 the Jews were with respect to the marriage relation. 
 They will show what kind of an idea was in their 
 minds, when they spoke of marrying and giving in mar- 
 riage. That nothing of the sort could exist in heaven, is 
 beyond all question. If by marriages we are to under- 
 stand connections like those which the Sadducees re- 
 ferred to, connections permitted solely on account of 
 the hardness of the Jewish heart, then indeed they 
 are not to be thought of at the same time with the pure 
 life of heaven. There is nothing heavenly about them. 
 Their savor is wholly that of earth. But if, on the 
 other hand, we infer from the Lord's reply that there is 
 no mental or spiritual distinction between man and 
 woman, which will outlast the period of this natural life, 
 we carry our generalizations too far. If we infer that 
 the very idea of sex is to be blotted out, and all the 
 sweet and tender relations which spring from it are to 
 come to an end, we draw conclusions which the words 
 themselves do not warrant, and which are at variance 
 with the best feelings of our nature. 
 
 On former occasions, I have endeavored to show from 
 the Scriptures that the distinction indicated by the 
 words male and female is a radical and fundamental 
 one, extending not only outwardly through the created 
 universe, but inwardly to the very depths of the soul, 
 that throughout their entire being a man is a man, 
 and a woman a woman, that the two are comple- 
 mental to each other, equal parts of the great whole,
 
 HEAVENLY MARRIAGE. 66 
 
 which is known by the name of Man, and which is 
 made for the purpose of becoming an image and like- 
 ness of God ; that marriage was designed to be a 
 spiritual union, a blending of two souls and two lives 
 in one, the growing together of two individual men 
 into a more full and perfect man ; and finally that a 
 union of this sort, though it has been virtually unknown 
 in past ages, and is at the present day most rare, is yet 
 possible even iu this world, and is most earnestly to be 
 desired and prayed for by those who have respect for 
 the marriage relation. The reasons which led to these 
 conclusions cannot be repeated now. Our present pur- 
 pose is to consider whether the Lord, when He said that 
 in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in 
 marriage, could have intended to teach that there are 
 no men and women in heaven, and no relations there 
 existing closer than that of friendship. 
 
 In the New Church we believe fully that such was 
 not the meaning of his instruction. Only by inference 
 is this interpretation put upon his words. In an earthly, 
 and particularly in a Jewish sense, there can be no 
 ir.arrying or giving in marriage ; but that the pure and 
 unselfish love which knits two souls together, and makes 
 of them one soul, is hereafter to lose its distinctive 
 character, and to be remembered only among the things 
 that were, is a doctrine which cannot be easily received 
 by those who have any conception of the real nature of 
 that love. All the highest instincts of our hearts cry 
 out against it. Such could not have been I he plan of
 
 56 HEAVENLY MARRIAGE. 
 
 the Creator, when in the beginning He made them male 
 and female. If, indeed, it is ever true that God joins 
 them together, He cannot, after a few brief years of 
 earthly existence, put them eternally asunder. Their 
 life of mutual confidence and dependence can surely 
 have no such termination as this. 
 
 Let us only elevate our thoughts above the world 
 and the flesh, and there will be no difficulty in under- 
 standing the subject. We shall then see that all love 
 is from the Lord ; for He is love or goodness itself. In 
 its essence and origin it is perfectly unselfish. It seeks 
 only the benefit and happiness of those on whom it is 
 bestowed. From the Lord it flows down into the 
 hearts of men, and is received in its purity, or changed 
 and perverted, according to the states in which they 
 are. One form of this love is that which exists be- 
 tween man and woman. How terribly it can be per- 
 verted, how utterly gross and sensual it may become, is 
 but too apparent to any one who observes the condition 
 of the world around him, and the natural tendencies of 
 his own heart. But that it may be pure and good, is 
 equally evident. That it may rise high above the body 
 and its senses, and be in its essence a deep and true 
 affection for one of the other sex, who, in the lawful 
 relation of husband or wife, is the dearest of all human 
 friends, is a truth inscribed on the inmost tablets of the 
 soul. This love is spiritual, not natural, heavenly, 
 not earthly. It is one of the most precious of the 
 divine gifts, one of the surest means which the Lord
 
 HEAVENLY MARRIAGE. ^ 57 
 
 has provided for the happiness of human beings. It 
 looks upward, not downward. Its first thoughts are 
 of those things which relate to everlasting life, not of 
 those which pertain to this world and its comforts and 
 enjoyments. Yet is there no good thing on any plane 
 of life, which it disdains to communicate or to share. 
 
 On this love is inscribed the certain assurance of its 
 immortality. Why, indeed, should we imagine that 
 any genuine love which we feel for another ever passes 
 from us ? Love is the only spiritual bond between num 
 and man. It is the only cause of true interior near- 
 ness. If, when we leave this world, we continue to be 
 ourselves, we must have the same loves, the same 
 thoughts, the same aspirations, as before. Only on the 
 supposition that we are radically changed, and lose our 
 present nature, if not our identity, can any contrary 
 opinion be maintained. 
 
 The doctrines of the New Church are very clear and 
 explicit on this point. They teach that the other life 
 is a direct continuation of this. Death is but the lay- 
 ing off of the natural body. Man is interiorly and es- 
 sentially a spiritual being. Even while he lives in this 
 world, he lives also in the other. He is surrounded by 
 spiritual companions. Angels have charge over him, 
 and devils draw near and tempt him, as the Scriptures 
 teach. He does not see them face to face, as he sees 
 his earthly friends and neighbors. He is not even con- 
 scious of their presence. The influence which they exert 
 comes forth by an internal and unseen way. Yet it is
 
 58 H HEAVENLY MARRIAGE. 
 
 none the less real and essential. When he die*, he 
 does not take a long journey, or pass into a long sleep. 
 He simply closes his natural eyes, and opens his spirit- 
 ual eyes. He lays aside his natural body, only to as- 
 sume, in full consciousness, his spiritual body. He finds 
 himself in a real and substantial world, full of visible 
 and tangible forms, like those with which he has been 
 familiar on earth, except that they are spiritual, and not 
 material. 
 
 He is precisely the same being as before. In no 
 respect is he changed, except in casting off his garments 
 of flesh. Whatever goes to make up the man, his 
 life and character, everything by which he is distin- 
 guished from other men, remains as it was. Hence 
 he can be recognized by all who ever knew him in the 
 world, and he is able to recognize them. The man is 
 still a man, and the woman still a woman. None of 
 the distinctive characteristics of either are ever lost. 
 Male and female created He them ; and male and fe- 
 male they continue forever. 
 
 Light is thrown on this question by the verses imme- 
 diately following our text. ' Now that the dead are 
 raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called 
 the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, ami 
 the God of Jacob. For He is not a God of the dead, 
 but of the living: for to Him all are living." The 
 dead are raised. Those who die live again. All are 
 living in the sight of the Lord. There are no dend 
 ones among them. When Moses called the Lord the
 
 HEAVENLY MARRIAGE. 59 
 
 God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of 
 Jacob, he called Him the God of living men. Abra- 
 ham is Abraham still. Isaac and Jacob are not trans- 
 formed into other persons. So is it with every man 
 and woman who . has at any time dwelt on the earth. 
 He wlio is the God of Abraham is the God of Samh 
 too. Remembering Isaac and Jacob, He does not 
 forget Rebekah and Rachel. To Him all are living. 
 
 It is not affirmed that those who have lived as mar- 
 ried partners here below, are of necessity to continue 
 in the same relation when they go hence. But it is 
 affirmed that no part of them except their material 
 boilies will ever die, that they will have the same 
 thoughts, feelings, and desires in that world as in this. 
 that all the qualities of mind and person which make 
 a man most truly manly, and all those which make a 
 woman most truly womanly, will remain, and in heaven 
 will be more and more fully perfected to eternity, 
 and that the capacity will also remain of being greatly 
 benefited and of having the life rounded and com- 
 pleted by union with her or him of the other ?ex 
 to whom one is most exactly adapted. Heavenly part- 
 ners may or may not be the same as earthly ones. In 
 the resurrection it is spiritual nearness, or community 
 of affection and thought, which determines all human 
 relationships. Wholly inapplicable to such a state of 
 life are the terms '' marrying " and " giving in marriage," 
 as they are commonly understood, and especially as 
 they were understood by those who interrogated the
 
 60 HEAVENLY MARRIAGE. 
 
 Lord. By marrying is generally meant little more 
 than the act or ceremony by which the agreement of 
 a man and woman to live together as husband and 
 wife is consummated and legalized. By giving in mar- 
 riage, which ordinarily refers only to the woman, is 
 meant the bestowal of her by her parents on some 
 suitor whom they select or approve. In old times 
 always, and in our own time not seldom, the woman 
 herself has had little or nothing to say about it. Her 
 father was expected to dispose of her as he pleased. 
 For reasons of family, reasons of property, and worldly 
 reasons of every kind, men and women are daily going 
 through the forms of marrying and giving in marriage. 
 When a betrothal takes place, it is by no means neces- 
 sarily assumed that the parties to it have found any inte- 
 rior or spiritual ground of sympathy, or hardly that they 
 have any peculiar affection for each other. They have 
 agreed to be married, that is, to be one another's 
 companions for the remainder of this life. The natural 
 thought ascends no higher than this. Hence it is truly 
 said, " They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain 
 that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither 
 marry nor are given in marriage." But it is not said 
 that all pure love between man and woman, whereby 
 two souls and two lives may be blended into one, is 
 utterly extinguished, or ceases to be one of the noblest 
 springs of human action, as well as one of the highest 
 sentiments of human nature. It is not said that what 
 God joins together, He makes haste, as soon as death 
 comes, to put asunder.
 
 HEAVENLY MARRIAGE. 61 
 
 As conjugial unions in heaven are entirely spiritual 
 in their character, so are they in their objects and re- 
 sults. It is their inevitable tendency and effect to draw 
 men nearer to the Lord, and to make them more truly 
 receptive of his influence. Because husband and wife 
 receive in different ways, they receive for each other. 
 Each is the gainer by that which conies to him from tl.e 
 other. They are, as Swedenborg says, like heart and 
 lungs in the same breast ; and by their separate offices 
 and united life, their cup of happiness is made full; 
 they continue growing belter and wiser forever. From 
 their intimate connection with each other, new good and 
 new truth are continually born; fresh thoughts and 
 feelings are constantly springing up with ever increasing 
 delight ; and these, with the love and kindness which 
 jointly they shower on all around them, are the sole 
 fruit of their union. 
 
 They ' neither marry nor are given in marriage. Nei- 
 ther can they die any more ; for they are equal unto the 
 angels, and are the children of God, being the children 
 of the resurrection." Another of the Gospels expresses 
 the same idea more briefly. " In the resurrection tht-y 
 neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the 
 angels of God in heaven." How is it, then, with the 
 angels ? The word " angel " literally means messenger, 
 one who is sent, one who does the Lord's bidding. 
 John the Baptist is several times called the angel of the 
 Lord, who was sent to prepare the way before Him ; al- 
 though in these passages the word is translated " mes-
 
 HEAVENLY MARRIAGE. 
 
 senger." All are angels of the Lord in the most gen- 
 eral sense, who are his messengers or agents in doing 
 good and conferring happiness. None are angels, un- 
 less they are engaged in this work. This is the office 
 of the angels of heaven, to do good, to act out 
 forever and ever the principles of love to the Lord and 
 love to the neighbor. And our doctrines teach us that 
 they were all once men and women on some material 
 earth. Man is the crowning work of creation. There 
 can be no form of life higher than that which is termed 
 the image and likeness of God. None can be so truly 
 and perfectly his angels as human beings who have 
 learned to love and serve Him. 
 
 To be equal to the angels, therefore, is to be equal to 
 our brothers and sisters who have gone before, and who 
 are in heaven. Leaving their earthly bodies behind 
 them, they have passed on to their eternal homes, being 
 in all essential particulars the same as they were here. 
 They have not overstepped the bounds of human exist- 
 ence ; they have entered into the life which is most 
 truly human, where all that is beautiful and excellent in 
 their character has the best possible opportunity for de- 
 velopment and growth. There they are, the same men 
 and the same women who have lived on earth. But 
 now we call them angels. They are angel men and 
 women. And we, if we follow in their footsteps, shall 
 become " equal unto " them. 
 
 John tells, in the Apocalypse, how on more than one 
 occasion he fell down to worship at the feet of an nngel.
 
 HE A VENL Y MARRIA GE. 
 
 But he was forbidden to do so by the angel himself. 
 " See thou do it not," are his words ; " for I am thy fel- 
 low-servant, and of thy brethren the prophet?, and of 
 them which keep the sayings of this book : worship 
 God." This declaration is very significant. It reveals 
 much in few words. The angels are not a separate and 
 superior race of beings. They are the fellow-servants 
 and brethren of men. They are not in themselves in- 
 fallible and perfect. They " keep the sayings of this 
 book." They are guided by the "Word of God. 
 
 Time was when they had to keep the command- 
 ments by shunning as sins the evils they forbid. That 
 time is past now. They have come out of those evils 
 and the desire to commit them. They keep the com- 
 mandments by doing the good things to which the evils 
 are opposed ; for these things they love and cherish. 
 There is good which stands opposed to every evil ; and 
 when the evil is shunned, and thus removed from the 
 mind, the good comes in, and takes the place of it. Pure 
 and heavenly delights take the place of lustful and in- 
 fernal pleasures. The tendency to kill or hate others is 
 succeeded by the tender love for them. ^Vhen the de- 
 sire to steal or defraud is put away, sincerity of thought 
 and purpose comes instead. So with all oilier evils. 
 The opposite good affections, with their attendant joys, 
 nil the hearts of tho^e who, with the Lord's help, have 
 fought against and overcome them. Not the least of 
 these good affections is conjugial love, the love, chaste 
 and innocent beyond the power of language to express,
 
 6 t HE A VENL Y MARRIA GE. 
 
 which finds a home in the mind, when man, in will and 
 thought, as well as in outward act, pays heed to the 
 divine command, " Thou shalt not commit adultery." 
 Who shall say that this love cannot exist in heaven, and 
 that it shall perish from the hearts of those who become 
 equal to the angels ? 
 
 It is one of the most precious of all possible beliefs, 
 that this love will continue forever with those in whom 
 it has once made its abode. It will continue ; and in 
 heaven, if not on earth, the object for which it seeks 
 shall be revealed to it. Every one shall find that other 
 one to whom he or she belongs. How great is the in- 
 centive which is thus given to lead a life of purity and 
 chastity, and to shun, as the very progeny of Satan, all 
 feelings and thoughts which tt-nd in any manner or de- 
 gree to turn the mind from its loftiest ideal of holy mar- 
 riage ! Husbands and wives are supplied with a never- 
 failing motive to be faithful to the vows they have ex- 
 changed. Those whom circumstances compel to remain 
 single, are led to see that not in vain are they endowed 
 with all the instincts, faculties, and capabilities which 
 belong to them as men or women. No part of their 
 spiritual nature will be wasted, if they but follow where 
 Providence leads. To be outwardly married in this 
 world is a matter of small moment as compared with 
 coming into a truly conjugial state of heart and life. 
 For the end is not yet. The present life is but the be- 
 ginning of existence. The time will soon come when 
 every good love which has been cherished here below,
 
 HEAVENLY MARRIAGE. 65 
 
 shall spring up like seed planted in the garden of the 
 Lord. The dews of heaven shall water it. The sun 
 of heaven shall shine upon it. And no sweet influence 
 shall be wanting which can help bring it to its full and 
 perfect fruition.
 
 V. 
 A LIFE OF USEFULNESS. 
 
 " And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that 
 bringeth forth his fruit in his season ; his leaf also shall not wither ; 
 and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." Ps. i. 3. 
 
 ^TMIIS is part of a description of a good man. Not 
 unfrequently in the Scriptures man is compared to 
 a tree, to a fruitful and good tree when his life is 
 good, to a barren and worthless tree when his life is 
 evil. John the Baptist, preaching repentance, said, 
 " And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees : 
 therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit, 
 is hewn down, and cast into the fire." The Lord him- 
 self, in the Sermon on the Mount, said, " Ye shall know 
 them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, 
 or figs of thistles ? Even so every good tree bringeth 
 forth good fruit ; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil 
 fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither 
 can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree 
 that bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down, and 
 cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall 
 know them." Many other passages of similar tenor will 
 readily occur to every one who is familiar with the 
 Divine Word.
 
 A LIFE OF USEFULNESS. 67 
 
 We may be sure that the comparison here made is 
 no mere superficial or fanciful analogy. Such a sup- 
 position is forbidden by the character of the Scriptures 
 themselves. Furthermore, the doctrines of the New 
 Church enable us to see that all things in the created 
 universe bear a direct relation to man ; not merely to 
 his natural life and physical necessities, but to the 
 spiritual part of his being. The world within him is in 
 a general way typified and embodied by the world 
 around him ; and each particular object of nature has 
 its spiritual counterpart in the affections or thoughts of 
 his mind. Material things are the outbirth and expres- 
 sion of spiritual things. Thus regarded, the whole visi- 
 ble creation becomes instinct with spirit, and full of 
 meaning. It is evidently by virtue of their interior 
 significance, that natural objects produce an impression 
 on the mind. We intuitively classify them as good or 
 evil, beautiful or repulsive. The mountains stand in 
 solitary grandeur, saying nothing, doing nothing but 
 rear their snow-clad peaks to heaven ; and yet the heart 
 must be indeed dull and insensate which is not deeply 
 affected at the sight of them. The robin trills his 
 simple lay, and awakens a response in all gentle souls. 
 The streamlet goes dashing and foaming down the hill- 
 side, or purling through the green grass of the meadow ; 
 and we need neither book nor teacher to tell us that it 
 is " a thing of beauty, and a joy forever." Out of the 
 thicket, with noiseless, sinuous motion, glides the ser- 
 pent. Why do we start and shudder, even though we
 
 fi8 A LIFE OF USEFULNESS. 
 
 do not flee ? His eyes are bright,; his skin is glossy 
 and beautifully marked ; and in all probability he is 
 quite harmless. But there is something about him 
 which excites feelings of repugnance. So also of many 
 other forms of life that might be mentioned. There is 
 no difficulty in understanding what the Scriptures mean 
 when they distinguish between clean and unclean beasts 
 and birds. It is not a question of morals which is involved 
 in the distinction, not a matter of good or evil con- 
 duct, according to the standard of human responsibility. 
 The visible form itself is without flaw, like all the works 
 of nature. But the life which is within, and of which it 
 is the outward expression and embodiment, is often felt 
 to be something which cannot have sprung from good- 
 ness, truth, and innocence, and which is essentially at 
 variance with them. 
 
 This doctrine of correspondence, or the relation of 
 natural things to spiritual, transforms our ideas not only 
 of the works of God, but also of his Word. The volume 
 of divine revelation, which from the time of Abraham 
 has been the stay of the Church, and the chief connect- 
 ing link between earth and heaven, is at this day 
 redeemed from misconception, perversion, and con- 
 tempt, by the knowledge which is now given of the in- 
 ternal or spiritual sense within that of the letter. In 
 other words, the Scriptures are written by correspond- 
 ences. The language throughout is symbolical or rep- 
 resentative. Where natural things, such as the jour- 
 neyings of the Israelites or their subsequent history,
 
 A LIFE OF USEFULNESS. 69 
 
 form the outward and ostensible subject of discourse, the 
 affairs of spiritual and everlasting life are interiorly 
 treated of. Thus there is no part of Scripture which is 
 useless, no part which was given to subserve a merely 
 temporary purpose. But it is all divine ; divine not 
 only in the fact that it was revealed by the Lord God 
 himself, but in the far more important fact that it par- 
 takes of his nature and attributes. Everywhere it tells 
 us of one Heavenly Father, of his coming into the world, 
 of the work which He did on our behalf in overcoming 
 the evils of his assumed humanity, of the way to follow 
 Him in the regeneration, and to be truly happy here and 
 hereafter. It tells us of the infinite love which He has 
 ever had for men, and of the infinite wisdom wherewith 
 lie has dealt with them. It tells of the successive 
 churches which He has established on earth, and of the 
 ways in which He has provided for the spiritual welfare 
 and progress of mankind. 
 
 In accordance with these principles, therefore, we say 
 that the comparison of man to a tree is no empty simile ; 
 and the same is to be said of all the particulars of the 
 comparison. In every point that is mentioned, the 
 spiritual state of a good man is represented by the tree 
 that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. 
 
 The first thing to be noticed is that the tree cannot 
 come to perfection by its own unaided strength. Help 
 must reach it through the soil in which it stands. If it 
 were set out in the midst of the desert, it would not 
 grow. It would wither and perish. It cannot live
 
 70 A LIFE OF USEFULNESS. 
 
 without moisture. The condition most favorable to its 
 existence is that it should be planted by the rivers of 
 water. 
 
 Thus situated, it is never deprived of the sap which 
 is its life's blood. Though the clouds withhold their 
 usual supply of rain, the perennial streams go rolling 
 by ; and where they are, there can be neither drought 
 nor thirst. Fed from the distant mountain- tops, they 
 descend to the lowest parts of the earth, bringing, as it 
 were, the blessing of Heaven with them. All their 
 banks smile with verdure ; and no tree planted by their 
 side sends forth its roots to them in vain. 
 
 It need not surely take a long time to discover what 
 the rivers represent in human experience. The ability 
 to be regenerated, or prepared for heaven, is not in 
 man himself. Though from within there is a perpetual 
 influx of life into his heart and mind, which seems like 
 his own, because he has no consciousness of its source, 
 he still needs help from without. This help is that 
 which comes from revealed truth. If we were born 
 into the perfect order of our being, we should have an 
 intuitive knowledge of everything relating to our life, 
 both natural and spiritual. We should be as all other 
 creatures are in this respect. As the bird builds its 
 nest, and the bee its cell, having no teacher, and need- 
 ing none, so should we instinctively, and without instruc- 
 tion, do all the work required of us. But, as every one 
 knows, we do no such thing. Whatever may have been 
 the case in the infancy of the world, the fact regarding
 
 A LIFE OF USEFULNESS. 71 
 
 our present condition is, that we are born wholly igno- 
 rant of the life here, and the life hereafter, and of what 
 is needed for their proper direction and development. 
 Little by little the infant must learn to use his hands 
 and feet, and all his bodily faculties. He must be 
 taught by experience or some gentler teacher respecting 
 the qualities of the objects around him. He cannot of 
 himself select suitable food, or distinguish between that 
 which will sustain life and that which will destroy it. 
 In these, and all other matters relating to his earthly 
 existence, he must receive instruction and guidance. 
 Precisely so it is with regard to his spiritual life. He 
 does not know by nature or instinct what good and evil 
 are, and how he must live in order to be most happy. 
 God is not revealed to him in the depths of his inner 
 consciousness. But some outward means must be pro- 
 vided, in order that his understanding of these and all 
 kindred subjects should be opened. He must some- 
 where find a teacher. If spiritual knowledge were in- 
 tuitive, then should the children of cannibals refuse to 
 eat human flesh. Then should the Mohammedan give 
 birth to Christians, and the Jew to those who condemn 
 the love of money. But we behold no such phenomena 
 as thee. Unless light breaks in from some source out- 
 side of their own thoughts, that is to say, unless in- 
 struction can be imparted by some one competent to 
 communicate it, the children will go on in the foot- 
 steps of the fathers, never dreaming that they have any 
 occasion for improvement.
 
 72 A LIFE OF USEFULNESS. 
 
 In other words, man stands in need of a revelation 
 of truth. Without it, he must forever abide in dark- 
 ness. And since there is but One who has truth in 
 Himself, and from whom all truth comes, the Lord 
 alone must directly or indirectly impart it. The need 
 which men have of truth corresponds to that which 
 trees have of water ; and the rivers of water, by which 
 the flourishing and fruit-bearing tree is planted, can 
 mean nothing else than divine truth revealed by the 
 Lord God from heaven. That such is its meaning, no 
 attentive and devout reader of the Scriptures will be 
 disposed to question. What but the truth can be de- 
 noted when the Lord says by the prophet, " Ho, every 
 one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters," or when with 
 his own divine-human lips He declares, " Whosoever 
 drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never 
 thirst ; but the water that I shall give him shall be in 
 him a well of water springing up into everlasting 
 life ? " " The water of life," which all are exhorted 
 to drink freely, " the river of water of life, proceed- 
 ing out of the throne of God and of the Lamb," can 
 surely mean nothing else than the abundant truth 
 which the Lord gives to men to strengthen and support 
 them on the heavenly journey. 
 
 It is needless to add that the Word is the grand re- 
 pository of these truths. Nay, even, according to what 
 was said in an earlier part of this discourse, the Word 
 is divine truth itself. It is revealed as a means of en- 
 abling all who come under its influence, to shun evil
 
 A LIFE OF USEFULNESS. 73 
 
 and do good, and thus to be made truly happy. There 
 is no occasion to argue the point of its divinity. To 
 those who receive it with the humble and contrite spirit 
 which it inculcates, it speaks for itself. He who has 
 but a child's powers of understanding, can yet compre- 
 hend many of its lessons ; and if he observes its sim- 
 plest precepts with the feeling that they are the com- 
 mandments of God, and with the purpose of yielding 
 submission to them, they do indeed become in him, ac- 
 cording to a text already quoted, " a well of water, 
 springing up into everlasting life." 
 
 As the tree sends out its roots in search of moisture, 
 in order that it may accomplish the end of its creation, 
 and bring forth fruit, so the regenerating man seeks 
 earnestly for the truth which shall enable him to 
 become an angel. This, as was previously shown, is 
 not in himself. He must look to other sources for 
 it. Happy are they who are planted by the rivers of 
 water ; that is, who have direct access to the Word of 
 the Lord. If they do not possess this advantage, they 
 may not indeed perish ; they may not be wholly fruit- 
 less, even in this world. It is impossible to believe 
 that He who is infinite in love and goodness, should suf- 
 fer any one to receive essential and lasting injury, 
 simply on account of ignorance of the truth. But 
 few, if any, are altogether ignorant. Few, if any, are 
 utterly without ideas of right and wrong, and without 
 a sense of accountability to a higher power. There are 
 not many spots on the earth's surface which will not
 
 74 A LIFE OF USEFULNESS. 
 
 support some kind of vegetation. Out of the driest 
 and most sterile soil some stunted trees or shrubs will 
 yet draw nutriment enough to sustain their own life and 
 perpetuate their species. But for all this, the best 
 place is by the rivers of water. The most perfect 
 specimens of vegetable growth are to be found there. 
 And though man is never saved by truth or faith alone, 
 yet there can be no doubt that the more of truth one 
 has, who is willing to live according to it, the better it 
 must be for him, the higher must be his state of 
 spiritual development. To such a one the saying is 
 applicable : " For unto whomsoever much is given, of 
 him shall be much required ; and to whom men have 
 committed much, of him they will ask the more." 
 
 The tree to which the good man is likened, brings 
 forth its fruit in its season. Not in vain is it planted 
 by the rivers of water. It drinks of them, as they 
 flow by; it draws some infinitesimal portion of them 
 into its own substance, and applies them to its own 
 life ; and the result is that its mission is accomplished, 
 its branches are laden with fruit. Does any one ask 
 what the fruit of a human life is ? Can there be any 
 doubt on this point? When a man imbibes the truth, 
 and puts himself under its influence, the effects are seen 
 in good affections, wise thoughts, and kind actions. 
 Love to the Lord and his fellow-men becomes the rul- 
 ing motive of his being. And those whom he loves 
 he desires to benefit. Like Him whose finite image 
 and likeness he is, he finds his greatest happiness in
 
 A LIFE OF USEFULNESS. 75 
 
 making others happy. He brings forth fruit for them, 
 rather than for himself. Herein also he resembles the 
 tree with which he is compared. His fruits are good 
 deeds, full of the spirit of love and kindness. 
 
 " His leaf also shall not wither ; and whatsoever he 
 doeth shall prosper." The leaves are the lungs of a 
 tree. By means of them it breathes, or appropriates to 
 itself what it needs in the atmosphere. They are essen- 
 tial to the life of every plant. If they wither or fall 
 off, the tree either dies or continues in a state of sus- 
 pended animation, until fresh leaves appear. The lungs 
 of man correspond to his understanding, as his heart 
 corresponds to his will. The understanding has relation 
 to truth, as the will has to goodness. The operations 
 of the understanding are called thinking, as those of the 
 will are termed loving. Like the lungs of men or beasts, 
 the leaves of trees represent the understanding or think- 
 ing faculty of the mind. Each particular leaf denotes 
 some particular thought, or the truth of which it is the 
 expression. First in the process of spiritual growth, 
 some knowledge of truth is received into the memory 
 from the river of water of life. Soon the leaves begin 
 to appear ; that is to say, the understanding, or rational 
 faculty is developed ; the general knowledge of truth, 
 acted upon by divine and heavenly influences, is con- 
 verted into living principles, which produce a state of 
 genuine intelligence. Last of all, the fruit is brought to 
 its perfection ; goodness of heart and life comes as the 
 crowning glory of all preceding operations, as the
 
 76 A LIFE OF USEFULNESS. 
 
 very end to which from the beginning they conspired. 
 And the state of a man to whom this description applies, 
 is one of unqualified spiritual prosperity. He has no 
 will but to do the Lord's will. Therefore whatsoever 
 he doeth must prosper. 
 
 Of all the points of comparison suggested between 
 man and a tree, that which relates to the bringing forth 
 fruit seems most important, and worthy of the most ex- 
 tended consideration. It is a prominent doctrine of the 
 New Church, that the end and object of human exist- 
 ence is the performance of uses. Every one is created, 
 in order that he may fill a place in the grand aggregate 
 of humanity, where he may be of the greatest service to 
 all the rest. Nothing can prevent the fulfilment of this 
 purpose but his own refusal to cooperate in it. Eternal 
 happiness itself the happiness of heaven consists 
 in the active exercise of love to the Lord and love to 
 the neighbor ; that is, in doing good. This is the very 
 joy of the angels ; and even our imperfect experience 
 may prove to us that there is no other joy to be com- 
 pared with it. 
 
 No one can lead an orderly and happy life, unless he 
 is engaged in the performance of regular duties which 
 tend to the benefit of others. These duties may be 
 modest and humble. They may attract no more atten- 
 tion than the clover-bloom feeding the bee with honey 
 amid the undisturbed solitude of the dawn. Indeed, if 
 they are performed with any special desire of attracting 
 attention, the charm of them is destroyed, the delight in
 
 A LIFE OF USEFULNESS. 77 
 
 them is lessened, their celestial beauty is lost. But 
 definite duties, done as far as possible in a spirit of 
 usefulness, for the sake of the good to be accomplished 
 by them, and not for the sake of reward, are essential 
 to true happiness. They are absolutely necessary for 
 rounding and completing the life of a human soul. 
 
 No man, or woman either, should rest content without 
 doing something directly or indirectly for the good of his 
 fellows. To be idle and useless is against the very order 
 of Providence, and one of the most serious impediments 
 to spiritual progress. Parents who do not impress on 
 their children's minds the surpassing excellence of a use- 
 ful life, however unpretending, and the utter worthless- 
 ness of a life devoted to ease and pleasure, commit a 
 grievous error, and may inflict a lasting injury. The 
 public opinion which makes it polite or fashionable for 
 any class of the community to hang their hands in idle- 
 ness, is worthy of severest condemnation and rebuke. 
 
 So far as any discontent respecting the work and 
 position of women arises from the fact that legitimate 
 fields of activity are not open to them, and they are 
 prevented from conforming to the divine law of use, it 
 is founded in justice it furnishes a grievance which 
 all should unite to remedy. Nothing can be more in- 
 jurious to young women, or indeed to any one, than to 
 have no object outside of their own immediate whims 
 or fancies, to which their unselfish energies can be de- 
 voted. Surely in a community like ours, where suffer- 
 ing so much abounds, and the milk of human kindness
 
 78 A LIFE OF USEFULNESS. 
 
 is so rare, there must be a thousand methods consistent 
 with their womanly nature, in which they can do a work 
 in the world, and leave it better than they found it 
 Only let them be inspired with the desire to do good 
 to others in their own best way, and for the sake of 
 helping them, instead of being seen by them, and tin-re 
 can be no doubt that the want of occupation which they 
 feel, can be supplied, and the happiest results \\ill 
 follow. 
 
 The one thing which human beings should not be 
 content to do, is to do nothing. Those who are sur- 
 rounded by pleasant outward circumstances have some 
 of the accessories of happiness ; but those who are liv- 
 ing and enjoying a life of true usefulness, have happi- 
 ness itself. Since man is like a tree, it is impossible for 
 his nature to be fully developed, or his life to be any- 
 thing but incomplete and imperfect, until he has a 
 chance, and avails himself of it, to bring forth his fruit 
 hi his season.
 
 LIST OP BOOKS 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 NICHOLS AND NOYES, 
 
 117 Washington Street, 
 
 HENRY P. NICHOLS. 
 HKNBY D. NOYM. 
 
 Keligion and Life. By JAMES REED. 1 vol. 16mo, pp. 85. 
 Price 75 cents. 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Introduction. The Way of Life. 
 
 How to think of God. The Life Hereafter. 
 
 How to think of the Scriptures. 
 
 Our Eternal Homes. By A BIBLE STUDENT. 1 vol. 
 18mo. Price $1.25. 
 
 Contents. 
 
 I. What is Heaven. 
 II. Guardian Angels. 
 III. Heavenly Scenery. 
 
 V. Do the Departed forget us. 
 VI. Man's Book of Life. 
 VII. Infants in Heaven. 
 
 IV. Death the Gate of Life. 
 
 " This is a charmingly written book, on a very important sub- 
 ject. The chapter entitled ' Infants in Heaven ' is especially beau- 
 tiful. To those who wish for strikingly original views on this 
 most important of all subjects, verified constantly by appeals to 
 Bible texts, conveyed in clear and beautiful language, and in a 
 tone devoutly reverential, we confidently recommend this hand- 
 some little volume." English Paper. 
 
 Life : its Nature, Varieties, and Phenomena. By 
 
 LEO H. GRINDON, Lecturer on Botany at the Royal School of 
 Medicine, Manchester. 1 vol. 8vo. Price $2.25. 
 
 " To those who care for the illustration which physical science 
 casts upon the science of mind, and upon the truths of revela- 
 tion, there will probably be much that is both novel and inviting. 
 .... Science without religion is empty and unvital. True
 
 wisdom, finding the whole world expressive of God, calls upon us 
 to walk at all times and in all places in the worship and rever 
 ent contemplation of Him." Preface. 
 
 Sex in Nature. An essay proposing to show that sex and 
 the marriage union are universal principles in physics, physiol- 
 ogy, and psychology. By the same author. 1 vol. 12mo. 
 Price $1.25. 
 
 Phenomena Of Plant Life. By the same author. Price 
 $1.00. 
 
 The Little Things of Nature, considered especially in 
 relation to the Divine Benevolence. By the same author. Price 
 $1.00. 
 
 A New Book for Pastors and Sunday-school Teachers. 
 
 God's Thoughts Fit Bread for Children. By Eev. 
 HORACE BUSHNELL, D. D. Price in paper covers (by mail, 
 prepaid), 20 cents. Price in cloth (by mail, prepaid), 50 cents. 
 If ordered in quantities, $2.00 per dozen ; $15.00 per hundred. 
 
 Pater Mundi ; or, Modern Science Testifying 
 to the Father in Heaven. By the Author of " Eire 
 Ccelum." First series, 1 vol. 12mo. Price $1.50. Second 
 series (in Press). 
 
 The Life of God in the Soul of Man. By HENBT 
 
 SCOUGAL. Price $1.25. 
 
 The Pastor's Wedding Gift. Containing a Marriage 
 Certificate, etc. By Kev. WILLIAM M. THAYEE. A new 
 
 edition, bound in fancy cloth, gilt. Price $1.50. 
 
 The New England Tragedies in Prose. I. The 
 
 Coming of the Quakers. II. The Witchcraft Delusion. By 
 ROWAND H. ALLEN. Price $1.25.
 
 A REMARKABLE CCOK. 
 
 ECCE CCELUM; 
 
 OK, 
 
 PARISH ASTRONOMY. 
 
 BY REV. E. F. BURR, D.D. 
 
 I vol. lOmo, 198 pp. Price, $1.25. New Edition. Sent prepaid by mail 
 on receipt of price. 
 
 NICHOLS AND NOYES, 
 
 117 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON. 
 
 The Publishers request special attention to the following un- 
 solicited testimonials, which have been received from sources 
 worthy of regard. 
 
 From Rev. W. A. Stearns, D D , LL.D , President of Amherst College. 
 " I have read it with great profit and admiration. It is a grand 
 production, very clear and satisfactory, scientifically considered ; 
 very exalted and exalting in spirit and manner ; and exhibiting a 
 wealth of appropriate emotion and expression which surprises me. 
 May the Hie and health of the author be spared to show still 
 further that God is and that His works are great, sought out of 
 them that have pleasure therein." 
 
 From Rev. Horace Bushntll, D.D. 
 
 " I have not been so much fascinated by any book for a long 
 time, never by a book on that particular subject. It is popu- 
 larised in the form, yet not evaporated in the substance, it 
 tingles with life all through, and the wonder is, that, casting off 
 so much of the paraphernalia of science, and descending, for the 
 most part, to common Language, it brings out, not so much, but so 
 iiuch tnere of the meaning. I have gotten a better idea of Astron-
 
 omy, as a whole, from it than I ever got before from all jthet 
 sources, more than from Enfield's great book, which I once care- 
 fully worked out, eclipses and all. 
 
 " I trace the progress made, and the methods of the same, and 
 seize on the exact status of things at the point now reached." 
 
 From the Biblintheca Sacra. 
 
 "This is a remarkable book, one of the most remarkable 
 which has proceeded from the American press for a long time. It 
 lifts the reader fairly into the heavens and unveils their glories. 
 The presentation is very full though concentrated, very clear and 
 animating, with a command of language and a glow of eloquence 
 which is quite extraordinary. The last lecture is hardly less than 
 a Te Deuin. The only adverse criticism which, on reading the 
 preparatory lecture, we were inclined to make, was, that the almost 
 impassioned eloquence with which it opened would have be?n 
 more impressive further on, and after the imagination 'had been 
 excited by the facts. But, after finishing the last Lecture, we 
 could not wonder that a mind so full of the great facts, and of the 
 emotion which they necessarily kindle, should, on seeing his own 
 parish charge assembled to listen, break forth in strains which, none 
 but a mind fully roused by his theme and his audience would 
 have been able to utter. No person can read through this volume 
 without mental exaltation, and a conviction of the peculiar ability 
 of the author." 
 
 From the Xtw Enylandtr. 
 
 "It presents an admirable resume' of the sublime teachings of 
 Astronomy, as related to natural religion, a series of brilliant 
 pen-photographs of the Wonders of the Heavens, .as part of God's 
 glorious handiwork. The first five lectures pass the science in 
 rapid review ; the last treats of the Author of Nature, as relate'! to 
 its leading features. There is not a dry page in the volume, but 
 much originality and vigor of style, and often the highes' elo- 
 quence. It is, withal, evidently by an author at home in his sub- 
 ject, not " crammed " for the task. It affords a fine example of 
 what an intelligent pastor can do, outside of his pulpit, towards 
 training an intelligent people, and by imparting to tliem Nature's
 
 teachings, leading "through Nature up to Nature's God," the 
 God of Revelation as well. To such a book the author need not 
 hesitate to affix his name." 
 
 Frcm Rev. A. P. Peabody, D.D., LL.D., Preacher to Harvard University, 
 and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals. 
 
 " Permit me to thank you for a work in which you have effected 
 a rare union of scientific accuracy, eloquent diction, and rich de- 
 votional sentiment. It is attractive, instructive, and edifying. It 
 appears at a time when science needs, as never before, to be 
 redeemei and sanctified by faith in Him, in whom are hidden all 
 the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And, best of all, it does 
 not make Religion cringe to Science, but maintains her in that 
 queenly status which is the only position she can hold. The book 
 must do great good, and I heartily congratulate you as its author." 
 
 From Rev. S. II. Hall, D.D. 
 
 " Ecce Coelum is much more than a book-success. It will be 
 honored as a most timely and admirable treatise to put into the 
 hand of thoughtful young people, to ' turn off their minds from 
 vanity,' and lead them to God." 
 
 From the NeiD- York Evangelist. 
 
 " This unpretending, though elegant little volume, gives a most 
 admirable popular summary of the results of Astronomical Sci- 
 ence. The author has evidently mastered his subject, and he has 
 presented it in a most striking manner, adapted to the comprehen- 
 sion of the common reader, and enriched with pertinent illus- 
 trations. The book is perhaps the most fascinating treatise on the 
 science which has been published of late years, ranking indeed 
 in many respects with that of the late lamented and eloquent 
 Mitchell. One of its excellencies is that it does not hide God 
 'behind his own creation.'" 
 
 From the Religious Herald. 
 
 " A New Book, and one that is a book, worth its weight in 
 gold or diamonds, for it is full of gold And precious gems, dia- 
 monds of law and fact, truths beaming with celestial light. I
 
 speak of 'Ecce Coclum,' from the pen of Rev. ENOCH K BURR, 
 D.D., of Lyme, Conn., published by Nichols & Noyes, Boston, a 
 duodecimo of 198 pages. Mr. Burr modestly signs himself 'A 
 Connecticut Pastor,' but some college has rent the vail and written 
 out his full name, and added to it a D.D. So much the better for 
 Connecticut and for the world. Such light as the book contains 
 ought not to be under a bushel. 
 
 '* These six Parish Lectures are a masterly, vivid, easy, sub- 
 lime presentation of the enchanting facts of Astronomy. They 
 are adapted to all classes, the learned and the unlearned. The 
 astounding glories of the skies are tempered to our humble eyes. 
 
 " Let all read the book, old and young. Let it be found in 
 every school, in every library, and .in every home where wisdom 
 is invoked. Read it, and you will exclaim, what glorious light it 
 sheds from the throne of God upon the lonely pathway of man ! " 
 
 From C. Jl. Bnlsbaugh, of Pennsylvania. 
 
 "It is certainly a wonderful little book. How the world 
 shrinks into an atom as we follow the lofty soarings of the ' Con- 
 necticut Pastor.' I never knew rightly what Dr. Young means 
 by saying, ' an undevout Astronomer is mad ; ' but I now see and 
 feel the power and beauty of the expression. Such a book cannot 
 be read without laying upon us the responsibility of a new charge 
 from heaven. After contemplating such grandeur, we instinctively 
 exclaim, ' What is man that Thou art mindful of him ? ' " 
 
 From Hon. S. L. Selden, Late Chief Justice of New York. 
 " A beautiful book. I admire it for the elegance of its style, as 
 well as for the lucid and able manner in which it presents the 
 noblest of the sciences. It will prove, I think, very valuable, not 
 merely for the knowledge it communicates, but as suggestive of a 
 line of noble and elevated thought. And I am much pleased to see 
 from the numerous notices which have come under my observa- 
 tion that my estimate is confirmed by many persons of the first 
 capacity for judging. To have written a work which receives 
 and deserves such very high praise from scholars and men of 
 ecience cannot but be a source of great gratification to the 
 author."
 
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