













PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF A PHYSICIAN,

WITH

AN APPEAL TO THE MEDICAL AND CLERICAL PROFESSIONS;

AND

AN APPENDIX,

A REVIEW OF "CHRIST AND THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION"
IN THE CHRISTIAN UNION.

BY

JOHN ELLIS, M.D.




CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.
PERSONAL MEDICAL EXPERIENCE OK A PHYSICIAN.

CHAPTER II.
WHY EVERY PHYSICIAN SHOULD EXAMINE HOMOEOPATHY.

CHAPTER III.
DANGERS THAT RESULT FROM THE ALLOPATHIC TREATMENT OF DISEASES.

CHAPTER IV.
PERSONAL RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE OF A PHYSICIAN.

CHAPTER V.
THE DAWN OF A NEW DISPENSATION.

CHAPTER VI.
A NEW DAY TO OUR EARTH.

CHAPTER VII.
THE WANTS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

CHAPTER VIII.
RESTRAINING AND CURING SPIRITUAL AND NATURAL DISEASES.

CHAPTER IX.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE CONTINUED AND EFFORTS.

CHAPTER X.
FINAL APPEAL TO THE CLERGY.

ADDENDUM.
A REVIEW OF "CHRIST AND THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION,"
IN THE "CHRISTIAN UNION."




PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF A PHYSICIAN.




CHAPTER I.


We all admit that every one who attempts to act as a physician, should
strive to qualify himself, or herself, for the work by obtaining the best
education which our medical schools afford; for to physicians are
intrusted, not simply the property or money, but the very lives of their
fellow-citizens. As the responsibility is great, so the duty of preparing
one's self before commencing practice, and of keeping fully abreast of all
new and valuable discoveries in the art of healing, is equally great. A
physician should not be led blindly by his teachers and prominent medical
writers, and so strongly confirm himself in the theories and views which
they proclaim that he cannot, without prejudice, examine new views and
theories with due care. It has been said that when Harvey discovered the
true course of the circulation of the blood, there was not a single
professor in the medical colleges of England over fifty years of age, who
ever believed "the heresy," as his discovery was called. However this may
have been, it is certain that professors and prominent medical writers are
not always the first to see and recognize the truth, even when it is
clearly presented to their notice.

A native of western Massachusetts, I studied medicine with an intelligent
and worthy physician in my native town, and attended two and one-half
courses of medical lectures at the Berkshire Medical College, at
Pittsfield, Mass., and graduated in 1841; and during the following winter I
attended the Medical College at Albany, N. Y., devoting a large portion of
my time to dissecting. After finishing at Albany, I visited various places
in western and central Massachusetts, and operated on eyes for strabismus
or cross-eyes,--an operation which had then been recently introduced for
that deformity; after which I settled at Chesterfield (Mass.), and
commenced practicing medicine, where I remained about one year.

One day I visited Northampton, and, calling on a physician with whom I was
acquainted, I found upon his table a homoeopathic book. "Why," I exclaimed
with astonishment, "you are not studying homoeopathy, are you?" "Yes," he
replied, "I am studying it, and trying the remedies cautiously;" and he
went on to describe cases which he had treated satisfactorily by the use of
the remedies, and among them a case of pleurisy and one of intermittent
fever, and he wound up by saying: "Now, if you will go down the street to a
book-store and purchase 'Hull's Jahr,' in two volumes, I will give you half
a dozen homoeopathic remedies, and you can try them for yourself."

Here was a dilemma. Never until that hour had I ever heard homoeopathy
spoken of, by either a medical professor or one of my professional
brethren, except with contempt and ridicule. "But," I said to myself, "if
there is any truth in homoeopathy I ought to know it, and I cannot treat
this physician's testimony with contempt; and it is a duty which I owe to
my fellow-men, and especially to my patients, to investigate the new system
carefully." I immediately went and purchased the books, and he give me six
bottles of medicine, and I took them back with me to Chesterfield. I
remember making but one Homoeopathic prescription before leaving
Chesterfield, and that was for a case of uterine hemorrhage, which I had
treated unsuccessfully for some time with allopathic remedies. I looked
over my Homoeopathic books carefully and found that China (cinchona) was
indicated. As that remedy was not among the bottles of medicated pellets
which my medical friend had given me, I directed that one drop of the
ordinary tincture of Peruvian bark should be dropped into a glass of water,
and that, after stirring it well, one teaspoonful of the solution thus made
should be given three or four times a day. The patient commenced improving
immediately, and was soon well.

Soon after that I removed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and commenced anew the
practice of medicine. I then had neither the knowledge nor the faith in
homoeopathy which I thought would justify me in treating any serious case
of disease with homoeopathic remedies; but I did not neglect to study the
new books. One day, a friend of my younger days, who was residing at Grand
Haven, came into my office and said that he had been suffering from the
toothache for several days, and that he did not like to have the tooth
extracted, and he wanted to know if I could do anything for it without
extracting it. I told him that I had recently obtained some homoeopathic
books and remedies, and that I had noticed that remedies were spoken of for
toothache. So I looked over my books and selected Belladonna as the remedy
suitable in his case, and gave him a dose of it and other doses to take
with him if he needed them. We talked in the office for a short time, and
then we walked up to the hotel where he was stopping; as we entered, he
stood still a moment and remarked: "Well, my tooth does not ache as
severely as it did." I saw him weeks afterward, and he told me that he had
not had the toothache from the hour he took the medicine.

Away in that new place, then a village of about one thousand inhabitants,
with no homoeopathic physician within a hundred miles of me, I commenced
cautiously the use of the new remedies; first in mild cases of disease, and
in cases where Allopathic treatment failed to produce the desired effect.
Among the first of the serious cases where I used the remedies was a case
of pneumonia. A young man had been very sick with that disease for many
days. I had resorted vigorously to the antiphlogistic treatment then in
vogue; a consulting physician was called, and at last we told the family
that our patient could not live until the next morning. I then said to the
consulting physician: "I have some homoeopathic remedies; suppose we try
them?" His reply was: "It does not make any difference what you try; he
will not live until morning." Under such circumstances I felt that I was
justified in trying the new remedies. I accordingly dissolved a few pellets
of Aconite in a glass of water, and of Bryonia alb. in another glass of
water, and directed that a teaspoonful of the solution of Aconite should be
given once an hour for five hours, and that a similar dose of Bryonia be
given instead of Aconite every sixth hour. I sat down by his bedside and
watched his case for two hours. At the end of that period I found that his
pulse was five beats less frequent in a minute, and that his breathing was
a little easier. The next morning all of his dangerous symptoms had
disappeared, and in a reasonable period of time he was restored to health.
I talked with the consulting physician about his unexpected recovery, and
we were, disposed to think that we had made a false prognosis, and that he
would have recovered any way. Still, the case made some impression on me;
so that in the next case of pneumonia to which I was called, I resolved to
try the same remedies in the same way. The patient was a man about forty
years of age. Under the action of the Aconite and Bryonia the patient about
held his own, neither gaining nor losing very perceptibly for about three
days. At the end of that period I became alarmed, and felt that if the
patient were to die I should be guilty of the crime of manslaughter. I
discontinued the treatment, and resorted to the then regular antiphlogistic
treatment; the patient immediately began to get worse, and at the end of
three days more he was a very sick man. I then came to the conclusion that
my patient had done much better under the homoeopathic treatment than he
had under the Allopathic, and I discontinued the latter and returned to the
former, giving the Aconite and Bryonia. The patient ceased to grow worse;
he held his own for two or three days, then he began to improve, and was
soon restored to health. From that day to this I have never bled a patient
suffering from either pneumonia or pleurisy, neither have I applied a
blister, or given a cathartic, or an Allopathic dose of tartar emetic, or
an opiate, or any form of alcoholic or fermented drinks, either during the
continuance of the above-named diseases or during convalescence; nor have I
ever regretted, in a single instance, not having done so.

During the fall of the year we had many cases of dysentery which were very
obstinate, continuing one or two weeks or longer, attended by a fever
approaching a typhoid character. I found the Allopathic treatment
unsatisfactory, as there were quite a number of deaths. So I consulted my
homoeopathic books and concluded to try the remedies; but at that time I
had only the six carefully prepared remedies given me by the physician in
Northampton, and I found that I needed some other remedies; so for
Arsenicum I used a drop of Fowler's solution of arsenic in a glassful of
water, giving a teaspoonful of the solution thus prepared for a dose, and I
also used the tincture of Colocynth and other remedies in the same manner.
Even with the help of such crude remedies I found that I could generally
control the disease far more speedily and with greater certainty and safety
than by Allopathic treatment.

I was called to attend a young man who, while stooping over to set a trap
in the woods, was mistaken for a bear by a comrade who was hunting with
him, and shot through the neck. To restrain secondary hemorrhage I was
obliged, in order to save the life of my patient, to ligature both carotid
arteries at the interval of only four and one-half days, which, at that
time, had never been done successfully at an interval of less than twelve
months between the operations. My patient did not suffer from head
symptoms, as I was fearful he would, but his lungs became seriously
congested. I resorted to the Allopathic treatment without affording any
relief; and, as he was steadily getting worse, I consulted my homoeopathic
works and gave him Aconite, a drop of the tincture in a glass of water; of
the solution thus made I directed a teaspoonful to be given every hour;
this gave prompt relief to the active symptoms of congestion. For a cough
which remained I gave a few doses of belladonna prepared in the same
manner, and all of the symptoms soon disappeared. I reported this case to
the New York Journal of Medicine, and it was transferred, even to the
homoeopathic prescriptions, to the American edition of Velpeau's great work
on surgery.

I found when I went to Grand Rapids that the intermittent, remittent, and
pernicious fevers, which prevailed in that place and in the surrounding
country, were generally treated by the resident physicians with mercurial
or other cathartic remedies, followed or accompanied by Quinine and brandy
or fermented drinks containing Alcohol, and opiates where they were
supposed to be necessary. As I began to look into homoeopathy, I first
prescribed Ipecac for the vomiting which sometimes attended these fevers,
one drop of the tincture in a glass of water, and giving a teaspoonful from
the glass for a dose. For watery diarrhoeas I gave Fowler's solution of
Arsenic in the same manner, and in both instances generally with very
satisfactory results. As my confidence in the homoeopathic treatment of
diseases increased, I sent to New York and obtained an assortment of the
remedies and more books, and was then much better prepared to prescribe
successfully. I soon found that by their use I could dispense with
cathartic remedies and thus avoid the danger of causing a medicinal
irritation of the bowels, which it is sometimes difficult to control. I
also found that I could do much better without Alcohol in any form, in the
treatment of these fevers, than with it; and I soon ceased to use brandy,
wine, beer, etc.

As to Quinine, that remedy will unquestionably interrupt the paroxysms of
intermittent and remittent fevers promptly if it is given at the proper
time and in suitable doses; and, if the attack is the first the patient has
ever had, a return of the disease may at least sometimes be prevented by
giving once a week in two or three doses, at an interval of twelve hours,
about the quantity which would be required to interrupt the disease in the
first instance. These doses should be given the day before the disease is
expected to return. I found it much better to give about two large doses of
quinine than to give the same quantity in 1 or 2 grain doses. I reported
the results of my experiments and observations in the use of Quinine at
Grand Rapids to the _New York Journal of Medicine_ (allopathic). In
all instances where life is in danger from a return of a paroxysm of
intermittent or remittent fever, the patient can be rescued from immediate
danger by giving Quinine in doses sufficient to prevent a return of the
paroxysm. In all other cases, and perhaps even in such, we can rely safely
on homoeopathic remedies in minute doses. Quinine in Allopathic doses will
rarely cure the disease, excepting, it may be, as named above, in a first
attack. If the patient has ever had more than one or two attacks, it is
almost sure to return again and again for two seasons, complicated with
symptoms caused by the remedy, in spite of Allopathic doses of quinine;
whereas by treating the patient homoeopathically, except in old cases, you
will not suddenly interrupt the paroxysms, for they may continue one or two
weeks, or even a few days longer, but when they cease there is generally
the end of the disease, and the patient speedily regains his ordinary state
of health instead of lingering along with frequent returns of the disease
for generally two seasons, as he does when quinine is used. Old cases of
intermittent fever are frequently cured promptly by infinitesimal doses of
homoeopathic remedies. I have never seen Allopathic doses of Quinine do any
good in typhoid fevers. And, as to the use of cathartics, from my
observation I soon became satisfied that a vast number of lives have been
lost by their use in cases of remittent and typhoid fevers, the tendency to
irritation of the mucous membrane, which exists especially in the latter
disease, being often fatally aggravated by cathartic remedies.

I found the prejudice so strong against homoeopathy when I commenced my
investigations, that I generally said nothing about the kind of remedies I
was using, and sometimes disguised the remedies by mixing with sugar or
pulverized liquorice root, or by mixing or dissolving them in water.

I have given the above details to show how carefully and patiently, step by
step, I commenced my investigations, and watched the action of remedies
when given in accordance with the Homoeopathic law of cure, and compared
the results with the results which followed the use of Allopathic remedies.

I remained at Grand Rapids two years. During that period I gradually
substituted the Homoeopathic treatment of diseases for the Allopathic, as
fast as I found I could cure the various diseases which came under my
observation with more safety and certainty by the former method of
treatment than by the latter.

Now I ask the intelligent, conscientious, and philanthropic reader, Did I
do right or did I do wrong in thus investigating homoeopathy and using
cautiously the remedies for the cure of the sick, as I found them more
efficacious and safe than the remedies which I had been taught to use and
had used previously? If it was my duty to thus critically examine the new
method of treatment, when my attention was seriously called to it, and to
cautiously try the remedies on the sick, is it not clearly the duty of
every Allopathic physician in our land to do the same? To thus earnestly
call the attention of physicians of every school to the importance of
investigating homoeopathy, and carefully using the remedies for the cure of
the sick, and to entreat them not to stop and be satisfied with crude
doses, such as drop doses of tinctures and the first, second or third
dilutions or triturations of remedies, as some have done, is my sole object
in writing these pages. The most decided and satisfactory cures which I
have ever witnessed have been effected by the thirtieth and two hundredth
dilutions. But, according to my experience, it is not well to confine one's
self absolutely to either high or low dilutions, as some have done; but if
you are satisfied that you have selected the right remedy, instead of
changing the remedy when you do not see relief from its use, change the
dilution from low to high or high to low, as the case may be. I could
detail many cases to show the importance of doing this. No physician should
labor specially to sustain either a theory or preconceived ideas, but to
cure his patients promptly. The health and lives of our fellow-beings are
too important to be trifled with.

During the early years of my practice of homoeopathy I was called to see a
young man recently attacked with "epileptic fits." As he was going
immediately to New York, with his sister, I advised them to call on the
late Dr. John F. Gray, with whom I became acquainted during my first visit
to New York. On reaching New York they called on Dr. Gray, and the young
man remained under his treatment for several weeks. Of Dr. Gray's treatment
of this patient, so far as remedies were concerned, I know only of a single
remedy which he gave, which was Nitrate of silver, which I understood was
given in a somewhat crude form, and not even in a low centesimal dilution.
The young man, finding little or no benefit from the treatment, went to his
home in Georgia, after which I received a letter stating that he had not
been essentially benefited by Dr. Gray's treatment, and requesting me to
prescribe for him. In response I sent him the 30th dilution of Nux vomica,
which he took and soon recovered from the disease, and never had any return
of the paroxysms. Dr. Gray was a low dilutionist.

On the other hand, during my second or third visit to New York I called on
Dr. Edward Bayard, who was a high dilutionist. I found him in poor health.
He had been suffering, as he told me, for some time from a subacute
irritation of the mucous membrane of the bowels, with loose passages, and
some febrile excitement. He asked me to prescribe for him. After a careful
inquiry as to existing symptoms I said to him, "Mercurius vivus ought to
cure you." He replied that he had taken it repeatedly without the slightest
effect. I asked him what dilution of this remedy he had taken. He replied
that he had taken the 30th and 200th dilutions. I suggested that he should
take the 3d trituration. "Why," he exclaimed, "I have not prescribed the 3d
trituration of mercury for many years, and I do not know as I have any in
my office." But, on looking around, he found a bottle of the second
centesimal trituration; and I said to him: "That will answer. You can take
a dose of that now [which he did] and repeat it three or four times between
now and to-morrow night, after which take a dose of the 30th or 200th
dilution of sulphur." The next time I saw him he told me that my
prescription cured him promptly.

That the careful treatment of diseases by the use of low dilutions of
Homoeopathic remedies, when compared with the Allopathic treatment, is
wonderfully successful I well know; for it was by the success which
attended the use of the low dilutions that I was led into the new practice,
as thousands of other graduates of allopathic colleges have been. Still, I
know very well by experience that the low dilutionists, in a very large
number of cases, fail to cure patients promptly, and in many cases fail to
cure them at all when they could cure them promptly by the use of the high
dilutions, often by the very same remedy which they have been using. I was
called to see a patient suffering from puerperal anaemia, with "nursing
sore mouth." She was greatly exhausted; her stomach, which was very acid,
would retain very little nourishment. She had been under Allopathic
treatment for some time without experiencing any relief. I gave her a low
dilution of Pulsatilla, which afforded her no relief. Then I selected other
remedies, from which she derived no benefit. After that I gave her the
200th dilution of Pulsatilla, the first dose of which produced, as she
declared, a change for the better within an hour, and she rapidly recovered
under its use. A lady who had for two winters been sent to Florida by her
Allopathic physician for a severe cough, attended by the physical signs of
induration of the summit of one of her lungs, called on me early in the
fall, saying that her physician advised her to go again to Florida, but
that she did not like to go, and wanted me to prescribe for her. After
examining her symptoms carefully I gave her a single dose of Sulphur, 200th
dilution; at the end of a week she was better, at the end of another week
much better, and at the end of the third week she had but few symptoms
remaining, for which I gave only one dose of Arsenicum, 200th, which
completed the cure.

Having practiced medicine for two years at Grand Rapids, I spent a winter
East and visited New York, making the Acquaintance of Homoeopathic
physicians, and conversing with them about the new system of treating
disease, attending medical lectures and clinics at the two Allopathic
colleges. I remember very well attending a clinic at the College of
Physicians and Surgeons, held by the late Prof. Willard Parker, when a
little child was brought in suffering from whooping cough. Prof. Parker,
looking around upon the students, said: "Here, gentlemen, is a case of
disease which, like the small-pox, measles, and scarlet fever, runs a
definite course; if you will let the patients alone they will generally get
well, but if you commence dosing them you will often bring on complications
and they will die." This statement, coming from a medical man of his
prominence, surely was worthy of consideration.

After spending the winter at the East I went to Detroit, Mich., and opened
an office in connection with Dr. P. M. Wheaton. I practiced in Detroit for
fifteen years, excepting that during the last six years of that time I
spent a part of each year at Cleveland, giving a course of lectures on the
Theory and Practice of Medicine at the Western Homoeopathic Medical
College, of Cleveland, Ohio.

When I went to Detroit the prejudice against homoeopathy was very strong,
especially among physicians. An attempt was made to pass a bill through the
Legislature of Michigan which would virtually prohibit the practice in the
State. The bill passed the Senate, but, owing to the prompt action of the
friends of homoeopathy in exposing the design of the advocates of the bill,
it was defeated in the House of Representatives. The presence of the
Asiatic cholera in 1849 in the city, and the success which attended the
homoeopathic treatment of that disease, was instrumental in calling the
attention of large numbers of the most intelligent and influential citizens
to the new practice and establishing it upon a firm basis. When the disease
first appeared in the city, we furnished the families which we were
accustomed to attend, and all others who desired them, with Veratrum album
and Cuprum metallicum, which had been earnestly recommended by Homoeopathic
physicians elsewhere, who had had experience in treating the disease, as
preventive remedies, a dose or two of each to be taken daily. As a result,
very few among the families which we were accustomed to attend were
attacked with the disease, and in such cases as occurred the disease was
generally readily controlled. As a rule, the most troublesome cases which
we had to treat were those in which Opium or morphine in some form had been
administered before we were called. In such cases it was exceedingly
difficult to get a satisfactory response from our remedies, however
carefully we selected them.

The Asiatic cholera is a violent disease and rapid in its progress, and if
severe cases of this disease are to be treated successfully, it must be by
remedies which are prompt in their action. It is here that homoeopathic
remedies show their superiority over all other remedies or methods of
treatment, for they act upon the diseased organs in the direction of the
disease, and thus excite a prompt reaction. Homoeopathic remedies, when
properly used, do not benumb, nor do they seriously aggravate existing
diseased action; and they neither cause diseased action in well organs, nor
reduce the quantity of blood, nor lessen the vitality of the organism and
the ability to react against the encroachment of diseased action, as does
the allopathic treatment; and, consequently, if a patient dies the
physician and his friends have the consolation, at least, of knowing that
he did not die from the treatment.

I well remember, while practicing in Detroit, attending a prominent
citizen, a lawyer, who had a severe attack of pneumonia; and, while
recovering from it, he went one night into a cold room to sleep, and this
brought on a relapse which involved both lungs, and my patient became very
sick. One day on visiting him I found an Allopathic physician sitting by
his bedside. I was told that he simply called as a friend. As I entered he
arose and walked out into the hall. I followed him, and asked him what he
thought of my patient. He replied very promptly: "He will die! he will die,
sir!! He ought to have been bled, blistered, and physicked long ago, but it
is too late now." I replied: "He will not die, sir, for the very reason
that he has not had the treatment you name; he has his blood and vital
energies, unimpaired by the treatment, to sustain him." And he did not die,
but recovered, and was appointed Governor of one of the Western Territories
long after that.

After having practiced medicine for fifteen years, except the months I was
absent at Cleveland the last six years of the time, I was invited to fill
the chair of Theory and Practice in the New York Homoeopathic Medical
College. This invitation I accepted, and removed to New York and took up my
residence there, and commenced practice again in a new field. About the
year 1868 I invented a new process for refining petroleum by the aid of
superheated steam, and spent eighteen months in developing the process at
Binghamton, N. Y., and then returned to my practice in New York City. In
the year 1873 I gave up the practice of medicine, and in connection with
two gentlemen who were interested in selling oils, I commenced the refining
of petroleum, manufacturing therefrom machinery and other oils; to which
business I have devoted my attention ever since. I have attended chiefly to
the manufacturing department and my partners to the selling.

I have been frequently asked: "Why did you quit the practice of medicine?
Was not that a useful business?" Yes, it was; but I had come to feel that
there were fields for greater usefulness--in fact, that it was vastly more
important to teach people the laws of health and life, and to strive to
lead them by precept and example to shun the causes of disease, than it was
to cure them when they were sick--that prevention was better than cure.
Consequently, when I saw before me a reasonably sure prospect of being able
to make a good deal more money at the refining business than I could ever
expect to make in the practice of medicine, I could but feel that, by the
aid of a reasonable portion of the money thus made, I could perform a far
greater use than I could by practicing medicine. This, then, was the reason
for my giving up a good and useful profession and practice for my present
business. What I have attempted to do for the benefit of suffering humanity
since I gave up the practice of medicine, I will name in a future chapter.




CHAPTER II.

WHY EVERY PHYSICIAN SHOULD EXAMINE AND TEST HOMOEOPATHY.


I was born in the year 1815, and on the 26th of November, 1891, was 76
years of age. I have not practiced medicine as a business for many years,
and I never expect to practice again. As to money, my present business
gives me all I need, and money to spare for benevolent purposes. I do not
expect, nor do I desire, to receive one cent, directly or indirectly, for
the writing of this pamphlet, or for the money which I expect to spend for
paper, printing, binding, and sending it, post paid, to every physician and
clergyman in the United States and Canada whose name I can get. I do it
because I believe and hope it will be a useful work and instrumental in
doing good, and that many who are willing and waiting will find useful
suggestions contained in its pages, and that through their instrumentality
humanity may be benefited.

A few years after I became a convert to Homoeopathy I met in a railroad car
a venerable professor from the college where I graduated. We were mutually
pleased to see each other, and after our congratulations were over I
remarked to him that, so far as the administration of remedies was
concerned, I had departed somewhat from the "general principles" which he
used to inculcate, and that I had become a Homoeopathist. The Professor
looked up with astonishment and exclaimed most earnestly: "I am sorry to
hear that! I am sorry to hear that!" He manifested not the slightest desire
to know why I had made the change, but was ready to denounce and condemn.
It would be useless to talk to such a man. Before one can see a new truth,
however plain it may be, he must be willing to either examine the question
carefully himself, or to heed the testimony of those who have examined it.
Fortunately, all physicians have not been like the above Professor; for
there have been thousands who were educated in and graduated from
Allopathic schools, some of them gray-haired men, who, like myself, have
carefully studied Homoeopathy and cautiously tested the remedies upon the
sick, who have become converts to the new practice, and who have ever after
relied upon its remedies in the treatment of the sick. No intelligent
physician of any other school has ever carefully read the Homoeopathic
works, and has to any considerable extent cautiously used the remedies in
the treatment of severe cases of various diseases, without being able to
see the vast superiority of the Homoeopathic over the Allopathic treatment
of disease; and no one, without prejudice, and willing to see the truth,
will ever do so without being convinced. Can a man, with eyes open, on a
clear day, go out at noon time and declare that the sun does not shine? He
may make such a declaration while shut up in a cellar or cavern, or if he
never opens his eyes. As one who has patiently and diligently studied and
practiced both systems, I say without the slightest hesitation that
Homoeopathy, as a system of practice, is as superior to Allopathy as the
direct light of the sun is to the reflected light of the moon; in fact,
much of the allopathic practice of to-day is but a reflection of the
homoeopathic light. What intelligent physician to-day bleeds, blisters,
salivates, or vomits his patients, as students were taught to do by
preceptors, professors, and books fifty years ago? And why is such
treatment so frequently, to say the least, discarded now by Allopathic
physicians? Is it not largely because the success which results from the
Homoeopathic treatment of diseases, has convinced Allopathic physicians and
their patients that such violent disease-creating measures and remedies are
unnecessary?

Homoeopathy is strictly a scientific system of medicine. It is based upon a
law of nature--"_Similia similibus curantur_," or the law that
remedies will cure symptoms and diseases similar to those which they will
cause when taken by healthy persons. It is wonderful with what care, skill,
and perseverance the new Materia Medica has been developed, mostly by
intelligent physicians, commencing with Hahnemann, taking the different
remedies in varying doses, and carefully and patiently watching the
symptoms that follow, and writing them down day after day; and then, when
similar symptoms occur in case of disease, giving the remedies and
carefully watching and writing down the results. Allopathic physicians, as
a rule, have not the slightest conception of the vast amount of patient and
persevering labor in this direction which has been done by physicians as
well educated as they are, and most of whom have graduated in the same
schools, who have devoted their lives to this work. Are not these facts
worthy of the consideration of every physician in the world who desires the
highest good of his fellow men? It is well known to every intelligent
physician that there is some truth in the homoeopathic law of cure, and
that it has to some extent been recognized from the earliest periods of
medical history. A cathartic remedy, even in Allopathic doses, will
sometimes cure a diarrhoea, and an emetic will sometimes cure a nauseated
stomach; but such remedies when given in large doses do not always cure, or
they would generally be used by Allopathists; they sometimes seriously and
even dangerously aggravate the disease, so that the vital forces do not
react and thus effect a cure. Nitrate of silver and acetate of zinc, which
applied to well eyes will cause irritation and inflammation, are often
applied to inflamed eyes. The kine pox, which is a similar disease, is well
known to either prevent or materially modify smallpox; and so I could go on
enumerating cases where Allopathic physicians treat their patients in
accordance with the Homoeopathic law of cure. The great discovery of
Hahnemann was not so much the Homoeopathic law of cure, for some knowledge
of that was possessed before his day, but the practical application of that
law to the cure of disease. He found by careful experiments that diseases
can be cured by remedies, which when given to the well will produce similar
symptoms or diseases, in doses so small as not to seriously aggravate the
existing disease or symptoms; and that all diseases may be thus treated
with a success hitherto unknown. This discovery was accompanied by the most
careful experiments by him and his followers upon themselves, to ascertain
with the greatest possible care the effects of various remedies upon the
healthy, so as to be able to make accurate prescriptions for the sick. Here
you have most careful scientific investigation and experiments as to the
action of remedies upon the well and sick, made, not by pretenders or
quacks, but by well educated physicians, that should command the admiration
and respect of every intelligent man and educated physician.

As to the doses given to the sick, which have been such a stumbling-block
to our Allopathic brethren, their size is simply the result of the most
careful experiments. Everyone can understand that if we give an Allopathic
dose of Ipecac to a patient already sick and vomiting, or of Veratrum album
to a patient suffering from Asiatic cholera or cholera morbus, we will
almost certainly aggravate the disease, perhaps to a fatal extent; for it
is the reaction of the vital forces of the system against the new
excitement caused by the remedy, which overcomes this new excitement and
the diseased action at the same time. Now, if the action of the remedy is
so severe that no reaction follows, then, of course, no cure follows, and
even death may result.

The great beauty and excellence of the Homoeopathic system of medicine
consists in the ability to treat patients successfully thereby, without
making well organs sick, or aggravating existing diseased action, or
creating an opposite diseased state, as you do when you give a cathartic
remedy in a cathartic dose for constipation; in that case the reaction, if
reaction follows, is not in the right direction, consequently the
constipation is often aggravated. I have hardly ever seen, excepting in
cases of mechanical obstruction, a severe and troublesome case of
constipation that had not been caused by the use of cathartic remedies. So
if we give an opiate, or an astringent, for a diarrhoea, we can see that it
is a direct effort to restrain the disease by force, as it were, and we
necessarily have to give large doses; and, if the vital forces react
against this medicinal intrusion, the reaction is not in the direction of
health. It is true that the vital forces sometimes overcome the diseased
action in spite of the medicinal action; but it does not always do this,
and subacute and chronic diarrhoeas are the result of the use of such
remedies in some cases. To create disease of a well organ for the sake of
curing disease in another organ, as is done when blisters are applied to
the skin for diseases of internal organs, and when cathartics are given for
diseases of the head or lungs, every one can see is a roundabout treatment;
and while patients may sometimes be benefited by this calling off, as it
were, the attention of the vital forces from the diseased action in other
organs, still it is not a very satisfactory treatment as a whole; for you
may lessen the vital power of resistance against diseased action, and may
even cause serious disease of the organ assailed. I repeat, one of the
great beauties of Homoeopathy lies in the fact that when remedies are given
in accordance with its law of cure, they do not have to be given in
disease-creating doses.

Hahnemann tells us that a single dose of the 30th dilution of Aconite,
which contains but the decillionth of a drop of the tincture of the remedy,
will cure acute pleurisy in twenty-four hours. I have thus treated patients
suffering from pleurisy with a single dose of that remedy (it should be
given soon after the commencement of the disease), and at the end of
twenty-four hours have found the pain and fever all gone, and the skin
moist and cool; and in one instance within two days the patient was on his
way to California. I have never seen any such satisfactory cures of that
disease from any kind of Allopathic treatment, nor from the low dilutions
of Aconite or any other Homoeopathic remedy.

Hereafter I shall call attention of both physicians and the clergy to the
causes and different methods of restraining or curing both spiritual and
natural diseases; for there is the most beautiful analogy or correspondence
between the methods of treating natural and spiritual diseases, and they
must be considered in connection if we would clearly see the truth.




CHAPTER III.

THE DANGERS THAT RESULT FROM THE ALLOPATHIC TREATMENT OF DISEASES.


This treatment of diseases, more in the past than at present, consists
largely in giving and applying remedies in disease-creating doses. The
antiphlogistic treatment consists of blood-letting and the use and
application of reducing remedies which directly or indirectly lessen the
inflammatory or febrile action; but it is manifest that while it may lessen
the activity of the diseased symptoms it also lessens the vitality of the
system as a whole, and consequently its power to resist and overcome the
existing diseased action; so that it is a serious question whether in many
cases more is not lost than gained, and it is certain that, owing to the
loss of blood and strength, convalescence will be more tedious. Then the
use of remedies which cause active diseased action is not always safe. My
own mother, at the age of 51 years, while in delicate health, was taken
with a severe pain in her side. A physician was called. She thought an
emetic would do her good. The physician gave her one, and she died during
its operation, or immediately afterward. Her physician was so affected by
this sudden and unexpected result that he had to go and lie down. At that
time I was but 10 years old.

In typhoid fever there is a tendency to irritation of the mucous membrane
of the small intestines; and, as I have already stated, I am satisfied from
observation that when cathartics are given during this disease this
irritation is often most seriously aggravated, and death not unfrequently
follows as a result.

But the greatest danger and evil which result from the Allopathic treatment
of disease lie, not in the direction of the sudden deaths which sometimes
result from the use of its remedies, but in the liability of patients to be
led into the habitual use of a drug that has afforded them palliative
relief during sickness, and the countenance thus given for the use of such
drugs by the laity during health. Perhaps as a rule poisonous substances
palliate the symptoms which they cause, or which follow their use. A
cathartic remedy will palliate the costiveness which frequently follows the
use of cathartic remedies. Opium will palliate the sleeplessness and
suffering that follow when the patient leaves off the use of opiates which
he has been taking for disease; and alcohol and all fluids and remedies
which contain an appreciable quantity of alcohol will palliate the coldness
of the surface, craving, and distress which follow when a patient who has
been taking such remedies attempts to discontinue their use. And thus the
patient is led to continue the remedy because it makes him feel better
every time he takes it; and, consequently, he is led on as naturally as
water runs down hill, until he becomes a slave to his appetite.

Now, cannot every conscientious and intelligent man see what an immense
blessing to his fellow men it would be if all physicians were able to treat
their patients as successfully by the use of Homoeopathic remedies and
doses as by the use of the so-called Alcoholic stimulants and Narcotics,
which are enslaving and ruining so many, and thus be able to discard and
discountenance the use of all such remedies? How can honest, conscientious
physicians disregard and treat with contempt the testimony of physicians
who have been educated in the same schools with themselves, but who have
used their reason and freedom to investigate the new practice and test the
curative action of its remedies, when they assure them that they have
treated their patients far more successfully by the use of Homoeopathic
remedies than they ever have done by the use of narcotics, alcoholic and
fermented drinks, and other Allopathic remedies? How can physicians
disregard the testimony of multitudes of patients who have been thus cured?

Why should not every physician study Homoeopathy and test the remedies on
the sick? He can do it cautiously; he has all of his old remedies by him;
what has he to lose? If they do not relieve his patient's sufferings more
safely and promptly, he is not obliged to continue to use them. Is it a
sensible and rational course for any one to allow himself to be so strongly
confirmed in the views of prominent professors, teachers, and books, that
he cannot without prejudice examine new truths and new methods of treating
diseases, and even new theories? Should not a man strive to keep abreast of
the age in which he is living? Take it, for instance, in regard to the
action of alcohol on living structures. No other man has ever experimented
so carefully, patiently, and thoroughly as has Dr. Richardson, of England,
and the results of his experiments appeal to the common sense and
observation of every unbiased man. He shows conclusively by its action that
it should never have been given in a vast majority of the cases of disease
where it is given by physicians; yet what attention is paid to his
testimony and demonstrations, which every disinterested physician can see
to be true if he will?

Dr. Richardson has also shown conclusively that alcohol paralyzes the
minute capillary vessels, so that while the blood is forced into them
through the arteries by the heart, it does not flow out of these minute
vessels into the veins as rapidly as it does during their healthy action;
consequently these vessels are congested and unnaturally distended with
blood; the face and surface of the body become red, owing to the presence
of an unnatural quantity of blood in these vessels. Nor is this all. The
heat of the body is generated by changes going on in the blood and flows
with the blood, and consequently the surface of the body becomes, from the
presence of this excess of blood, unnaturally warm; but the heat is rapidly
radiated from the surface, consequently the body, as a whole, becomes
cooler. Dr. Richardson found by careful experiment that, while the surface
was warmer, internally the body was cooler and less able to stand the cold;
and he also substantiated the truth of his experiments by experiments on
pigeons.

I will allow Canon Wilberforce, of South Hampton, England, to describe his
experiment. While attending a reception during his recent visit to New York
he was asked the following question:--

Dr. E. P. Thwing: "I would like to ask the Canon, as a physician, if the
feeling as to alcoholic medication in England has changed for the better;
for instance, the aspect of the British Medical Association toward this
subject?"

Canon Wilberforce: "I believe that is one point in which we are going
furthest ahead. I think that the whole aspect of the medical question is
changing, mainly under the influence of that distinguished man of science,
Dr. Richardson. He is one of the leading scientific minds of Great Britain.
He has been successful in his experiments and as bold as a lion in his
utterances, and he is leading scientific thought in this direction. He has
proved over and over again, to use a common phrase, that from the monarch
on the throne down to the maggot in the cheese, every healthy being is
better without alcohol. The other day he was staying with me. I have the
greatest possible objection to experimenting upon living animals, but he
described to me an experiment on pigeons. It was not a very painful
experiment; indeed, there are some people who, I am afraid, would like to
have the experiment made upon them. He tried to induce the pigeons to take
peas soaked in alcohol. They refused to do so at first; but after a while
they were pleased, and they selected the peas saturated with alcohol. One
cold night he turned the pigeons out, and on the following day, when he was
examining them, strange to say, all those pigeons that ate the alcoholized
peas were frozen to death, and those that remained teetotalers were
perfectly safe and sound."

The drinking of alcoholic liquors generates no heat, it simply holds the
heat in the congested blood-vessels upon the surface of the body, where it
is wasted, and thus the temperature of the body as a whole is lowered.

The greatest mortality which results from the use of intoxicating drinks
does not result from what is recognized as drunkenness, but from what is
recognized as moderate but steady drinking. The drunkard after his sprees
usually has seasons of abstinence, during which he has a chance to
recuperate or regain strength and vigor, and consequently drunkards often
live to an advanced age; but the steady drinker has no such seasons of
rest, but his face, by its almost constantly congested appearance, shows
the condition of his internal organs; for the effect of alcohol is to
paralyze the minute capillary vessels throughout the body and fill them
with blood, which produces redness upon the surface and a sensation of
warmth. The separation of waste and worn-out materials and their removal is
largely effected through these minute blood-vessels, and it is through them
that nourishment reaches all the structures of the body; consequently, the
almost constant state of congestion of these minute vessels, which results
from regular, moderate drinking, interferes very seriously with this change
or purification and renewal of all the structures of the body. As a result,
while some drinkers die from drunkenness, many more die from apoplexy,
paralysis, laryngitis and bronchitis, heart failure, fatty degeneration of
the heart, diseases of the stomach and liver, Bright's disease of the
kidneys, etc., and especially from an inability to either resist or
withstand epidemic, contagious, or inflammatory diseases, or even
mechanical injuries.

There are life insurance companies that give special privileges to total
abstainers over moderate drinkers (they never insure drunkards). Such
companies find that they can give a bonus of from 17 to 23 per cent. to
total abstainers as compared with moderate drinkers.

I remember very well attending the family of a brewer. He was standing by
when I advised his wife not to drink beer, for it was not good for her, as
it would increase her debility and retard her recovery. With astonishment
and great emphasis he exclaimed: "Tell me that beer is not good for her!"
Striking his chest with his fist, he said: "Just look at me and see what
beer has done for me!" He was born in Scotland, and manifestly inherited a
good, strong constitution. I replied to him: "You are a large, strong man,
but a little too fleshy; what beer has done for you time will tell better
than I can." A few months, perhaps a year or two, after that conversation,
I was riding up a street which led toward his residence when I was called
in a hurry into a saloon to see a man who was said to have fallen down "in
a fit." On reaching his side I found the above brewer dead upon the floor.
Without much question he died of heart failure, from fatty degeneration
caused by the steady use of beer. I never heard of his being intoxicated.

Dr. W. B. Carpenter, who stands at the very head of the physiologists of
our century, says:--

"That the taking of alcoholic stimulants is in any way useful in keeping up
the heat of the body, may now be considered as a myth altogether exploded."

Again he says:--

"Now, it is the result of many observations that the introduction of
alcohol specially deranges the vaso-motor system; this derangement showing
itself alike in disturbance of the heart's action, and in relaxation of the
capillary vessels, which become filled with blood, especially in the
nervous system and in the skin. This causes one to feel that warmth and
exhilaration which is the first effect of the introduction of these
disturbing agencies, and which are appealed to as evidence that drink does
us good. Well, what are the facts? The fresh glow is simply the result of
relaxation of the capillary vessels of the skin, allowing a large quantity
of blood to come to the surface, so as to give the feeling of superficial
warmth. But if a larger amount of blood comes to the surface, it robs the
parts within; and the feeling of genial warmth gives way to a general
depression, especially when we are exposed to severe cold. The temporary
exhilaration of the nervous system, too, is followed by a corresponding
depression. Hence a person feels 'sick and sorry' the next morning after
taking alcoholic stimulant."

As to alcohol giving strength, it is well known that it supplies no
substance to the tissues; therefore it meets no want, and consequently can
give no strength. Every one can see that blood-vessels, when paralyzed and
congested with blood by alcohol, cannot perform their function in the
metamorphosis of the tissues of the body, or of conveying nourishment to
them and removing worn-out, effete substances from them, as during health.
If you would see the legitimate effects of alcohol, look at the permanently
congested face of the steady drinker, or his "rum blossoms," and remember
that the capillary vessels of his brain and other internal organs are in a
similar state, and then say if you think he has been strengthened by
alcoholic drinks.

I remember very well when a young man, when a neighboring farmer was sick
and unable to gather his hay, that the young men in the neighborhood set a
day when they would meet and gather his hay for him. When, on the day set,
we met in the field, and the neighboring young men noticed that my brother
and myself had no bottle of cider brandy with us, they exclaimed with
delight, "We will lay you out before noon." A spirited contest with our
scythes commenced in good earnest. But they did not lay us out; they were
glad to seek and lie in the shade of trees to rest, while we were able to
continue our work. It is well known that men who are preparing themselves
for, or engaging in, feats requiring great strength and endurance are
beginning to find that they must let intoxicating drinks alone. It is
something marvelous to see with what tenacity so many physicians hold on to
the idea that fermented wine, beer, brandy, and whiskey are strengthening.
This idea comes, to a great extent, from the custom which prevails of
giving such drinks to patients who are recovering from fevers, acute
diseases, and from the effects of other debilitating causes. Many
physicians have been so accustomed to give these drinks to patients, under
such circumstances, that they have not the slightest idea how much better
they would do without them.

A few years ago I met a German woman whose husband I knew well, and had
reason to fear that beer drinking was doing him great harm. I said to her
that, on her husband's account, she should never let another drop of beer
enter her house if she could help it. "Why," she exclaimed, "I cannot do
without beer. I suffer so much during and after confinement, and am so
weak, and have so little milk for my child, that my doctor says that I must
have beer to give me strength." She was then expecting to be confined
within a few months. I replied to her by saying: "I have attended a great
many more patients during confinement than your physician has ever
attended, and after the first three years of my practice, I never gave to a
single patient beer, fermented wine, whiskey, or brandy, or any other
intoxicating drink. Now, if you will follow my advice, you will have a very
different time from what you have ever had before; and my advice is that
from this time forth you do not taste a single drop of beer, wine, or any
other intoxicating drink." She said she would follow my suggestions. I met
her again when her child was a few months old, and she looked like another
woman. She came up to me and said: "Well, Doctor, I have followed your
advice strictly. I have not tasted beer, wine, or any other intoxicating
drink, and I never before had such a comfortable time during my
confinement. I never was so strong or gained my strength so rapidly. I
never had so much nurse for my child, and I never had such a good-natured
baby before." She was the mother of several children.

Such are the results of the two methods of treatment.

There is no surer way to retard and often prevent recovery than to give
patients drinks or even remedies which contain an appreciable quantity of
alcohol. Where the tendency to recovery is strong they will recover sooner
or later in spite of the treatment; but in some cases the physician may
keep a delicate, nervous patient sick as long as he gives alcohol in any
form; and in the most critical stage of typhoid fever, pneumonia, and other
diseases where the patient needs nourishment, and that impurities should be
removed, there is no more dangerous treatment than to give alcohol in any
form, which interferes with these processes by paralyzing and congesting
the capillary vessels. Hot water and nourishment, cautiously supplied, are
what such patients require, not alcoholic stimulants.

The habit of taking either opium or morphine in our country has very
generally resulted from the prescriptions of physicians. The patient may
obtain palliative relief from its use, but suffers when he attempts to
leave it off; consequently, without fully realizing the danger which he
incurs, he continues the remedy until he is enslaved.

With the exception of alcohol, I know of no more dangerous medicine to give
during the critical stages of inflammatory, febrile, and other diseases
than Allopathic doses of opium in any form. This anodyne, by its retarding,
benumbing, and stupefying effects upon the body, often destroys the power
of reaction at the critical stage of the disease when the vital forces
should be left free to act, and consequently in many cases patients die who
would not die if they were not under the influence of this drug. Patients
will often go very near to the border line and yet rally if kept free from
the so-called "stimulants" and narcotics, and simple, plain nourishment is
cautiously given and the body kept warm.

Physicians are sometimes responsible for the habit of using tobacco among
their patrons. It is generally in chronic cases of disease where tobacco is
prescribed, and, as a rule, when it is once prescribed by a physician the
patient never thinks of giving up the use of the remedy; nor, so far as I
have known, are physicians who prescribe tobacco often, if ever, careful to
direct patients to discontinue using the remedy as soon as the symptoms of
the disease from which they are suffering are relieved. Of course, a
physician who neglects to do this seriously neglects his duty. It is safe
to say that few physicians ever prescribe the smoking or chewing of tobacco
as a remedy for diseases who do not use the weed themselves, for they can
generally find much better and safer remedies.

If a physician loves intoxicating drinks and has become a slave to them, he
actually feels that they do him good every time he drinks, for by relieving
the symptoms temporarily which they have caused they actually make him feel
better; and what is more natural than that he should prescribe them for his
patients? Here, then, it can be clearly seen that there is great danger in
employing physicians who love intoxicating drinks, tobacco, or opium in any
form; for they believe in the efficacy of these poisons, and they will
often prescribe them when a physician not addicted to their use would not
think of doing so.

I have alluded to some of the dangers which attend and the evils which
often result from the Allopathic treatment of diseases. Every one can see
that they are formidable enough and that they merit the serious attention
of every lover of his race. The skillful homoeopathic physician is able to
avoid these dangers and evils, for he does not use disease-creating or
appetite-begetting doses of any remedy.

We notice that those having the management of our railroads are beginning
to see that, for the protection of the property of the owners and lives of
their patrons, it is not safe to employ men who drink intoxicating drinks
at all; for it is well known that large numbers of those who drink are
sooner or later sure to become unreliable and careless. Is it not time that
physicians should cease to accept as students, and that our medical
colleges should cease to graduate and send forth as physicians, men who
drink intoxicating drinks? Should not medical professors and teachers have
as much regard for the health and lives of men, women, and children as the
managers of our railroads?

Again, it is well known that the use of tobacco tends to prevent
development, impair health, and to make men moody, if not careless, and it
not unfrequently leads them, especially when young, to disregard the rights
and feelings of others. We see men and boys smoking wherever it is not
strictly prohibited, even lighting their cigars and cigarettes as they
leave our elevated railroad stations, and walking down the stairs before
ladies and gentlemen, thus compelling those who follow to breathe the
atmosphere which they have polluted. As a fair illustration of the spirit
so frequently manifested, I will describe a little incident which occurred
in my presence. A young man, perhaps twenty years old, stood in a line of
men approaching the paying teller's window in one of our banks, vigorously
smoking his cigar. An elderly gentleman behind him asked him if he would be
so kind as not to smoke. The young man immediately straightened himself up
in a most self-important manner and exclaimed: "What do you think I care if
it is offensive to you?"

In our railroad cars smokers have to separate themselves from wives,
children, and friends and go by themselves into a smoking-car or apartment,
and why? simply because tobacco smoke is unpleasant to every man, woman,
and child who is not accustomed to it; and the smoker's breath often smells
so strong of the smoke when his cigar is gone that it is exceedingly
unpleasant to sensitive persons. Why should our medical colleges graduate
young men to go forth for the purpose of attempting to heal sick,
sensitive, and nervous patients, who smoke or chew tobacco, and thus are
unpleasant to many and a bad example to all? Have we not enough cleanly
young men, of good habits, to supply all the physicians we need in our
country? A smoking physician, by his breath and bad example to the young,
may do a vast deal more harm than he can ever do good as a physician in the
world.

The use of an intoxicating wine as a communion wine in so many of our
churches, and the efforts of so many clergymen to justify its use, together
with the prescription of intoxicating drinks by physicians, are the chief
supports which to-day sustain our distilleries, breweries, and saloons, and
the prevalent drinking habits and consequent drunkenness. Let all of our
clergy, churches, and physicians withdraw their patronage and sanction of
intoxicating drinks, and it would not be many years before the manufacture
and sale of such drinks would be prohibited throughout the length and
breadth of our land. That day will surely come, for a new age is opening up
before us very different from the past. The Lord is coming at this day in
the "clouds of heaven" with power and great glory. Old things are passing
away and all things are being made new--new heavens and a new earth.

Sir Astley Cooper says: "I never suffer ardent spirits in my house,
thinking them evil spirits. If the poor could witness the white livers, the
dropsies, or the shattered nervous systems which I have seen, the
consequences of drinking, they would be aware that spirits and poisons are
synonymous terms."

Again he says: "We have all been in error in recommending wine as a tonic.
Ardent spirits and poisons are convertible terms."

Dr. Benj. Richardson declares it to be his opinion that the administration
of alcohol will become, like blood-letting, a thing of the past, that it is
passing into the same position as blood-letting. He, as a student, was
educated to bleed; he was educated in the employment of alcohol; he saw the
effects of the application of these tested by comparison, and he has, in
one instance as much as in the other, come to consider them as behind the
age, and both as remedies belonging to a departed and deceived
generation.--The Dawn (English), Nov. 19, 1891.

I cannot close this chapter without again earnestly calling the attention
of all physicians to the great danger to life which results from giving
alcohol in any form to patients in very critical cases, or as they are at
or approaching the crisis in their disease, in fevers and in inflammatory
diseases, such as pneumonia, etc.

Since writing the preceding pages, in fact, since most of them were in
type, my attention has been called by notices in our papers to the fact
that champagne was given to a starving man, and that a few drops of brandy
were mixed with the milk given to a child in a similar condition, or
suffering from marasmus; and within a week a physician who has traveled
extensively and lectured before medical, theological, and literary
organizations, and who has frequently been in consultation in critical
cases, described in my hearing several cases of pneumonia which he visited,
which were, as he expressed it, drunk. When asked by the attending
physician what he would suggest, he always replied, "Stop giving your
patients alcoholic liquids;" and with a single exception, out of a large
number, and that was a complicated case, recovery followed. While
practicing in Detroit I was called to see a prominent citizen who was
suffering from typhoid fever. His physicians had told his family that he
would die, but that the "stimulants" they were giving him might keep him
alive a few hours. I found him delirious, with cold, clammy extremities and
almost pulseless. I stopped his "stimulants" at once and gave him
Homoeopathic remedies and nourishment, and the next day he was out of
danger. No more dangerous treatment has ever been adopted than to give a
patient in a critical stage of disease alcohol in any form or quantity.
Every intelligent physician ought to be able to see that this is true. I
repeat, alcohol paralyzes the minute capillary vessels and veins (look at
the face of the drinker) on the surface of the body, in the brain (look at
a drinker's words and actions), stomach, lungs, and kidneys, and congests
them with blood, through which the structures are nourished with food and
drink and purified by the removal of decomposed and effete substances.
Cannot every one see that these vessels, when thus paralyzed and congested,
cannot perform their duty as well as they can in a natural state? Then,
again, the temperature of the body is lowered internally and its heat
wasted from the surface. What patients in the critical stages of disease
require are warmth applied, if needed, to the surface of the body and
limbs, and hot water (not scalding hot, of course), milk, unfermented wine,
and other simple, easily digested articles which will nourish and
strengthen the body taken internally.

It is possible that in sudden, severe cases of hemorrhage, alcohol may
sometimes rescue a patient from fainting and bleeding to death, by storing
the blood in the capillary vessels of the brain and surface of the body
temporarily while the bleeding vessels contract; but even in such cases
other remedies, if at hand, may prove more reliable.

In cases of marasmus in children, if Homoeopathic remedies and nourishing
articles fail to give relief, and the child becomes greatly emaciated, give
the child cautiously salt fat pork, fried, but not to a crisp; give him a
piece in his hand, too large for him to swallow, and see with what avidity
he will chew and suck it. The fat in combination with the salt will supply
a want in the child's system, and patients will often be restored by this
simple treatment after other measures have failed.

Even if alcohol were a stimulant, as some claim, we can certainly see that
to give it to a patient in a state of great exhaustion, either from lack of
nourishment or from an inability to take nourishment owing to diseased
action, is to most seriously endanger the life of the patient and often to
destroy life; for alcohol gives no nourishment, and all unnatural
excitement is necessarily followed by corresponding depression, which often
carries patients in critical cases below the living point, and death
follows.

I will close with the following from the _Health Monthly_:--"The
theory that whiskey is necessary in the treatment of pneumonia has received
a blow from Dr. Bull, of New York, who discovers that in the New York
hospitals sixty-five per cent. of the pneumonia patients die with alcoholic
treatment, while in London, at the Object Lesson Temperance Hospital, only
five per cent. die.--_Ex._"




CHAPTER IV.

PERSONAL RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE OF A PHYSICIAN; AND AN APPEAL IN BEHALF OF A
NEW DISPENSATION.


We know that in various ages of the world the Lord has revealed a knowledge
of Himself to man. In the Ten Commandments we have the laws of spiritual
life, in accordance with which we must live if we would enjoy spiritual
health, precisely as we must live in accordance with the laws of natural
life and health, if we would enjoy natural health.

We are dependent upon revelation for a knowledge of the laws of spiritual
health, and of the causes and methods for the cure of spiritual diseases;
but the Lord gives us, if we will keep His sayings, the ability, by careful
scientific study and investigation, to obtain a knowledge of the physical
laws of health, and the causes and methods of curing physical diseases. And
it is wonderful how the natural in all respects symbolizes or corresponds
to the spiritual.

To the Jewish Church the Lord revealed so much knowledge of Himself, and
how they should live if they would be prosperous and happy here and
hereafter, as that Church was prepared to receive; and He also promised to
manifest Himself in person. All Christians believe that He fulfilled His
promise when Jesus Christ appeared on earth; but He did not come in the
manner which the Jews at the time of His advent expected. He came, not as a
temporal ruler or prince; consequently they took Him for an impostor and
crucified Him. To His followers and disciples He promised to come again in
the clouds of heaven; but the clouds of heaven may not be the clouds of the
material earth, any more than the spiritual kingdom which He came to
establish was a natural kingdom; and it is possible that His second coming
may not be in the manner anticipated by the Christian Church at the time of
His second coming. He intimated as much when He inquired if He should find
faith on earth. Should Christians, then, not watch and pray, and heed the
signs of the times, lest they follow the example of the Jews, and reject
Him at His second coming? Should not clergymen, as well as physicians, be
led in freedom according to reason, and not blindly by prominent religious
professors, clergymen and writers, and creeds formulated in an age of
comparative darkness? Should the traditions and creeds of men be allowed to
make of none effect the Word of God? Do we not see all around us signs of a
most wonderful change going on in the world? Are these changes which we
behold from the Lord, or from man?

I was reared in the Baptist Church. My father was a deacon, and labored
faithfully to bring his children into the Church. I was taught that I must
be converted, or get religion, before being baptized or joining the Church.
What was meant by being converted I never fully comprehended, but I
inferred from the instruction I received that it meant a radical change in
one's feelings, the result of faith in the Lord's "atoning blood;" and that
when this change was effected, I should be able to tell an experience
similar to what I had heard others tell before joining the Church, which
sometimes seemed quite marvelous. I attended "protracted meetings" and
"revival meetings." And, one evening, I remember hoping and almost feeling
that I felt a little change, and I even thought of announcing my feelings
in the meeting; but caution prevailed, and I concluded to wait until the
next day and see if there really was any change in my feelings. When the
next day came, I could see no change, and consequently I made no
announcement. Thus, I grew up and continued, until I was over thirty years
of age, outside of the organized Church. I always respected religion, the
Bible, and religious teachers, but I never got converted.

I had many things during childhood and early youth to be thankful for. My
father and grandfather before him were accustomed to gather the family,
night and morning, and read, or have some member of the family read, a
chapter in the Bible, and then prayer was offered. Now, when this is done
regularly, and especially if the Bible is read, in course, with here and
there a few kindly remarks by the father or mother, no one can tell the
good impression which is made on the children; they learn to reverence the
Bible, and, what is of exceeding great moment, they hear it read through
and through several times before they reach manhood, and they become
comparatively familiar with the good and living precepts therein contained.
The Sabbath-school, once a week for an hour or two, is all very well; but,
in my estimation, it is very little, compared with daily family worship and
acknowledging the Lord, and asking a blessing. O, that all Christian men
and women could be aroused to the importance of such religious observances?

Some years ago, I went with my wife and a friend for a summer outing to the
Catskill Mountains, and spent a few days at the Mountain House. There were
a large number of guests there, of the various religious denominations.
Those religiously inclined had established the custom of meeting every
morning around a table, in a large room, when a chapter from the Bible was
read, followed by singing and prayer. There have been few, if any,
incidents of my whole life that I have more frequently thought of, or with
greater pleasure and delight, than of those large, non-sectarian, and, as
it were, family gatherings and simple services.

My mother died, as stated in the first part of this work, when I was ten
years old. After remaining a widower for three years, during which period
my grandparents, who lived with us, died and my only sister was married, my
father married a widow, the mother of several children, a good Christian
woman and a member of the Baptist Church.

I have always been thankful that I had a step-mother. No own mother could
have been more kind, or have exercised a stronger influence for good over a
son than she strove to exercise over me. She entered our home when I was
thirteen years of age, when I needed a mother's influence and care perhaps
as much as at any period of my life after I had ceased to draw my
nourishment from my mother's breasts. Tears come into my eyes as I recall
the pleasant, useful, and happy evenings and Sunday afternoons which I
spent with her, when we happened to be alone in the house, reading and
conversing about the interesting stories in the Bible and other religious
books and papers that she thought would interest me. She may have had
faults, yet I was about to say I do not remember one; but, unfortunately,
she had one--she was a smoker of tobacco. Years before she had been
troubled with "water brash," and a physician who, without much question,
was himself a smoker, advised her to smoke; so she commenced smoking. He
did not tell her to stop smoking as soon as she felt relief, as any
intelligent physician should have done, if he was so unwise as to make such
a prescription; but it is a question whether she ever experienced any
permanent relief; for she was a bright, intelligent woman, and would have
been likely to stop smoking of her own accord if she had been cured. In my
estimation the physician who made the prescription was much more to be
blamed than she was for the habit which followed. But seventy years ago
very little was known as to the fearful slavery and diseases and mortality
which result from the use of tobacco, compared with what is known to-day.
The sin of ignorance cannot be pleaded in extenuation of such habits
to-day, as it could then.

As to intoxicating drinks, I remember hearing my grandfather, when he was
over eighty years old, after taking a drink of cider-brandy, exclaim: "A
good gift of God, if taken with faith and prayer."

Fortunately, or providentially, I would say, the temperance reformation
commenced soon after, and my father and other prominent members and the
clergymen of the Baptist and Congregational churches in our town took an
active part in the new movement. My father signed the pledge not to drink
intoxicating drinks, and I followed his example; and I thank the Lord that
I did so, for it gave me the strength and courage to say, "No, I thank you,
I never drink," when invited and tempted to drink intoxicating drinks. No
intoxicating drinks have been publicly sold in that town (Ashfield, Mass.)
for many years. During a recent visit there I found that, within the past
three years, there have been 61 deaths in the town, of whom 15 only were
under 50 years of age, whereas 20 were over 80 years, of whom 4 were over
90 years of age. What do you think of that, Christian brother?

I remember very well the first ideas I had of God when a boy, which I
derived from the preaching and praying of ministers. It was that God and
our Lord Jesus Christ were two distinct Beings. We had for a time a
venerable gray-headed old man who preached one Sabbath, and a young man who
preached the next. I thought the old man represented God the Father and the
young man represented Jesus Christ.

When I arrived at manhood and came in contact with men of different
religious views, and read some of their writings, the doctrine of the
Trinity became more and more a mystery to me. At one time I was slightly
inclined to Unitarianism, but I could not reconcile their doctrines with
the Bible. Yet the Trinitarians seemed to teach distinctly that there are
either two Gods, possessing different attributes, or that Jesus Christ was
not God. It does not make any difference what we say with our lips; the
question is, What do we "think in our hearts"? When I heard a bishop of one
of the prevailing denominations stand up in his pulpit, as I have, and
represent Jesus Christ as standing with one hand upon the throne of
Jehovah, and the other hand resting upon the sinner's head, pleading with
the Father to forgive him for his (Christ's) sake, was there not in the
mind of that bishop a distinct idea of two Beings, possessing different
feelings and passions? Now, were both of them Gods, or was one of them not
God? And when I heard prayers so frequently terminated by the phrase,
"Forgive us for Christ's sake," the question naturally arose, to whom were
such prayers addressed? If there are any intelligent rational ideas
connected with the phrase in the mind of the one using it, has not his
prayer unquestionably been addressed to some God outside of the Lord Jesus
Christ? Who is that God? Can Christian men safely reject the express
teaching of our Lord Himself when on earth, when He declared: "I and my
Father are One;" "Whose hath seen me, hath seen the Father"? and the
apostle's teaching, that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto
Himself"? Is there any other way to the Father at this day except through
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ--God manifest in the flesh? Is He not
the "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last"?
Why, then, pray to an unknown God? In the Old Testament, we are told that
"I, Jehovah, am your Savior, and beside me there is no Savior," and in the
New Testament we are told that in Jesus Christ dwelt all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. He is "Immanuel--God with us." Let us, then, worship
Him--One God in One Divine Person.

The doctrine of election and predestination early troubled me. I could not
reconcile it with the loving kindness which the Sacred Scriptures proclaim
as characteristic of our Heavenly Father.

The doctrine of justification by faith alone, "without the deeds of the
law," as the old hymn read, was not a doctrine which appealed to my reason,
but it was a very consoling doctrine. Every young man who has been
carefully reared by religious parents, and under the influences of a
church, expects to be converted and get religion some time before he dies,
and to join a church. But if he enjoys good health and the prospect of
living for many years, especially if he is taught that, by merely believing
or having faith at any time in the "atoning blood of Christ," he can escape
the consequences of his evil deeds, there is great danger of
procrastination.

A clergyman once said to me: "If a man repents and gets converted one hour
before his death, the worse he has been or lived, the happier he will be."
It seems to me better to be guided by the Word of the Lord, and to believe
that the evil doer shall not go unpunished. The Lord came into the world to
save men from sin and from the penalty only so far as they co-operate with
Him. Sin is the cause, the penalty is the effect; and effect follows cause
as a normal and necessary consequence.

The young, as well as the old, should be taught the great truth, that every
thought we harbor, and every word we speak, and every act we do, aid in
building up our spiritual organism, and will tell on our eternal destiny,
just as the natural food and drink we use, and the exercise we take, will
tell on the future health of our material bodies, for good or evil; and
there is no avoiding it. If a man or woman, young or old, would be right in
the future, he must do right in the present. No one should forget that,
even if we reach heaven, the mansion which we will occupy there will depend
on our lives here--every one will unite with those like Himself. No one can
tell the immense harm which has been done to our race, by teaching that
either by faith alone, or through the influence or efforts of the clergy,
men can be saved from the penalties or consequences which are sure to
follow an evil life. The "willing and obedient" shall eat the good of the
land. Our blessed Lord tells us: "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall
abide in my love" (John xv: 10). Thus beautiful, symmetrical, spiritual
organisms are built up, not by "sowing wild oats" during youth, and
disobeying the divine commandments during the subsequent period of life. It
is well for all, young or old, to remember the Word: "Be not deceived; God
is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Gal.
vi: 7.) At this day we need practical doctrines, which shall unite religion
and life, or faith and charity, and such alone will command the respect of
non-churchgoers.

While a young man my attention was early called to the doctrines of the
Universalists, but their doctrines did not seem to me to accord with the
Sacred Scriptures; nor did I think that all men could be equally happy
hereafter, when there is such a vast difference in their conduct and lives
here. Genuine happiness is the result of right willing and doing; in other
words, of keeping the commandments. I have no doubt but the Lord desires
that all men should thus live and be happy; but we know that all men are
not willing. Having created them free agents, God does not compel them here
to love the Lord and their neighbor, which loves manifestly constitute
heaven; what reason, then, have we to think He will compel them to do it
hereafter? If a man deliberately leads an evil life here, growing ever
stronger and more confirmed in that life, until he has made evil his good
and rejoices in it, what reason have we to suppose or assume that he will
change when he enters the next life? I am willing to leave him in the hands
of the Lord--he has passed from my sight. I well remember the remarks of my
grandmother when she was eighty-six years of age, a few days after the
death of her husband, my grandfather. She said: "I do not fear to die, for
I feel that God will do me no injustice." Within a few days she departed in
peace.

The Millerite excitement commenced when I was a young man. When I was about
twenty years old I was traveling in central Massachusetts. One night there
was a meeting of Millerites in the neighborhood where I was stopping, and I
attended the meeting. The speaker was very zealous and earnest in his
remarks. There was a comet with quite a long tail then visible, and he
seemed to think that that comet, with its tail, might sweep across the
track of our earth and work its destruction, which he anticipated. I
remember very well my reflections on leaving that meeting. A few days
before I had stood upon the side of a hill near the track, and had seen for
the first time a railroad train on its way from Boston to Worcester. I said
to myself: "Now we have railroads, steamboats, friction matches, temperance
societies, Sunday-schools, the Bible translated into various languages,
which but a few years ago were unknown. This great continent, from being a
wilderness, inhabited by a comparatively few wild Indians, has been
discovered and is being developed and cultivated by civilized and Christian
people, and gradually being made capable of containing and sustaining
hundreds of millions of inhabitants." With all these facts before me, I
said to myself, "It looks a great deal more as though the world is just
beginning to live; in fact, that a new era is dawning, than it does that
the world is going to be destroyed." From that night the Millerite doctrine
never troubled me any more, for I felt that I beheld, in all the wonderful
inventions being made and changes going on in the world, the dawning light
of a better day for the inhabitants of our earth.




CHAPTER V.

THE DAWN OF A NEW DISPENSATION.


We behold the dawn of a new day before we see the sun, from whence the
light proceeds.

The young in the Baptist Church, not having been baptized in infancy, are
brought up to feel that they are out of the Church, and that they have to
be converted, or "to get religion," before they join the Church, instead of
being brought up to feel that, having been baptized, they belong to the
Church and must believe its doctrines, and live the life which they teach.
Thus I remained out of the Church until I was over thirty years of age.
After I was twenty-three years old I attended different churches, as was
most convenient. For a time I attended the Episcopal Church, while studying
medicine; and after I graduated I attended the Congregational Church for
several years more frequently than any other; but I had no thought of
joining that Church, for during those days I always thought that immersion
was the only true mode of baptism.

While practicing medicine in Detroit, a gentleman whose family I was
attending asked me if I would not like to read a work on "Heaven and Hell,"
written by Emanuel Swedenborg, who claimed, he said, to have had open
intercourse with the spiritual world, and to have written of what he had
seen and heard in that world. He said that he had read it, and believed
that the views therein contained were rational and true. If I had ever
heard of them at all, at that time, I had never heard the writings of
Swendenborg spoken of favorably before. Out of respect to the gentleman, I
took the book home with me, but did not feel sufficient interest in it to
attempt to read it through in course, but read here and there a few pages;
and, after keeping it a few weeks, I returned it to the owner, feeling from
what I had read no interest in its contents. Not long after this a lady
whom I was attending asked me if I would not like to read Professor George
Bush's reasons for accepting as true the revelations contained in the
writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Well, I thought to myself, if the gentleman
who lent me "Heaven and Hell," if my patient here, who is a very
intelligent woman, and Professor Bush, whom I had understood was a very
learned man, believe that Swedenborg's writings contain truths good and
useful, it may be well for me to read the pamphlet then before me. So I
took the book home with me and commenced reading it. About that time Rev.
George Field commenced the delivery of a course of lectures on Creation and
the first chapters of Genesis, treating the subject from the standpoint of
Swedenborg's writings. I attended his lectures, which added very much to my
interest, and I read Bush's reasons with care. Then I obtained "Heaven and
Hell," and read it carefully through with the greatest interest. When a
small boy I remember very well listening with fear and trembling to a
discourse delivered by a clergyman, on "God is angry with the wicked every
day," in which the speaker dwelt upon the fearful sufferings which the Lord
had in reserve for the wicked in a hell of fire and brimstone, where they
were to be tortured forever and ever.

When I came to read Swedenborg's "Heaven and Hell," I found a very
different and more rational doctrine taught--that heaven consists in loving
the Lord and the neighbor, or in religious obedience to the divine
commandments; and that hell consists in loving one's self and the world
supremely, or sensual and selfish gratification, without regard to use;
that either heaven or hell is within us, according to the character of our
ruling love; that the Lord casts no one into hell, but does all He can,
without interfering with man's freedom, to prevent men from going to hell;
if they go there, they go of their own free choice, among their like, where
selfishness in some form rules the hearts of the inhabitants; they would
not and could not be happy among those who are ruled by love to the Lord
and the neighbor; or by obedience to the divine commandments. The spiritual
world is a more real world than this; therefore, in that world the motives,
thoughts, and intentions of men cannot be hidden as readily as in this
world; consequently, there is a great gulf between heaven and hell. One is
opposite to the other. When love to the Lord and to the neighbor rules in
the hearts of all the inhabitants, there is no need of penal laws or
punishments, for each one is a law unto himself, and all are striving to do
good to each other and to all; consequently, unity, peace, and harmony
prevail.

How different from this is hell, where selfishness prevails; where the love
of dominion over others, or the love of vain show, the love of acquiring
unfairly that which belongs to others, the love of riches for the sake of
being rich, and of selfish and sensual gratification without regard to use,
rules in the hearts of all the inhabitants. We know that such perverted
passions make a hell hot enough here; and, as death does not change the
character of a man's ruling love, they will make a hell hot enough
hereafter. But the Lord, in His mercy which endureth forever, by His angels
governs the hells as well as the heavens, and does not permit vindictive
punishments. All punishments are for the benefit of evil doers, to restrain
and prevent them from doing evil to others and themselves, and from sinking
to greater depths of wickedness; we may, therefore, safely leave the
inhabitants of that world in His care.

No man or woman can read "Heaven and Hell" attentively, carefully, and
prayerfully without great benefit. It is clearly shown that, to escape
hell, an evil man has but to repent, to look to the Lord and shun evils as
sins against Him, and that the Lord is no respecter of persons, but that He
gives to every man the ability to do this, if he is willing. When we
examine ourselves carefully in the light of the Sacred Scriptures, and
discover an evil, if we shun that evil as a sin against the Lord, He keeps
us in the effort to shun all evils, and enables us more clearly to see
other evils to which we are inclined. Here is an open door for approaching
the Lord, free to all; there is no mystery about it. If an evil man is to
be reformed, he must repent or face about and commence a life of shunning
evils as sins against God; otherwise, there will be no radical change, but
a miserable shuffling from one evil habit to another. Even if a man shuns
one evil habit, like the smoking or chewing of tobacco, because it injures
his health and is likely to destroy his life, and not because it is a sin,
and without the acknowledgment that it is a sin, he is almost sure to seek
as a substitute some form of intoxicating drinks--opium, strong coffee, or
tea. We make a great mistake, as Christians, if we try to substitute
coffee- or tea-houses for saloons; not that the effects of coffee and tea
are as pernicious as intoxicants, but they are unnecessary, and often
diseases and great suffering result from their use. We should strive to
show men and women, in the light of this day, what substances are
unmistakably injurious to health and endanger life, and strive to lead
them, by precept and example, to shun their use as sins against God.

After reading "Heaven and Hell" I read the "True Christian Religion," which
is the last work that Swedenborg published, containing the essential
doctrines of the New Christian Church, or the New Jerusalem now descending
from God out of Heaven, "making all things new." In this work it is clearly
shown that God is one in essence and in person, and that in the Lord Jesus
Christ that one God is manifested to men. God is love. "In the beginning
was the Word and the Word was, with God and the Word was God." Here we have
the Father or Divine Love, the Son or Divine Wisdom, and the Holy Spirit or
Divine Proceeding, flowing from the Father because He is a being of
infinite love, wisdom, and power, through the Son, a trinity in unity. The
Divine Being is no more three persons than a man is three persons, because
he is created in the image of God and has affection or love, an
understanding, or thoughts, words, and acts that flow from his love through
his understanding out toward his fellow men. All the doctrines of the New
Christianity are based upon the Sacred Scriptures and appeal to our highest
reason; and we are to receive them because we see them to be true and in
strict harmony with the Word when the latter is correctly understood.

But I have neither time nor space to discuss these doctrines here. I will
simply say, that when we come to see clearly that there is but one God
whose name is one, who was manifested in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and that whoso seeth Him seeth the Father, then a number of false
doctrines which proceed from and cohere with the doctrine of a tri-personal
Deity will disappear like mists before the rising sun; and we shall be
prepared to see and understand the rest of the beautiful and rational
doctrines taught in "The True Christian Religion," and the mystery of
Babylon and all man-made creeds will disappear before this new revelation
from our Lord Jesus Christ.

After reading the "True Christian Religion" I read the work on Divine
Providence, which gives such a clear view of the Lord's providential care
over men that it strengthens and encourages the earnest seeker after truth
wonderfully. It is a book which should be read by every Christian man and
woman.

Next, "The Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and Wisdom" throws a
flood of light on the origin of the material universe and all created
things. In this work we are clearly shown that the Lord is Love itself,
because He is Life itself: and "that angels and men are recipients of
life;" and "that all created things in a certain image represent man," and
"that Love is the life of man."

But Swedenborg's "Apocalypse Revealed" was one of the most satisfactory
works I ever read. It opened up to me a new world of thought, of
expectation, hope and joy. The reading of this work and the first volume of
his "Arcana Celestia" satisfied me that the Sacred Scriptures are divine or
a special revelation from God to man, and differ from all merely human
writings as much as a living man differs from a statue; for they are filled
with a Divine spirit. The Lord says: "My words are spirit and life."

The Sacred Scriptures are written in accordance with the law of
correspondence between spiritual and natural things. The spiritual is the
cause, the natural is the effect; and effects must correspond to their
causes in every particular. The Lord is the sun of the spiritual world and
the creator of all things: consequently our natural sun corresponds to the
spiritual sun, or the Lord. From the Lord, or the spiritual sun, love and
wisdom proceed, and give life to man's spiritual body; from the natural sun
flow natural heat and light which enable the natural body to live; natural
heat and light therefore correspond to spiritual heat and light, or to love
and truth, which are heat and light to the spirit of man. Through the
natural clouds and atmosphere which surround the earth we receive natural
heat and light from the natural sun, as we receive spiritual heat and light
or love and truth from the Lord through the literal sense of the Sacred
Scriptures; Consequently the clouds of heaven in which the Lord was to come
are the literal sense of his holy Word, unfolding its spirit and life and
manifesting the Father clearly to His children. The sun which was to be
darkened was not the natural but the spiritual sun, or the Lord obscured to
man's spiritual perception. When men in their creeds separated the Lord
into three persons, and framed doctrines in accordance therewith, which, in
their estimation, would enable them to reach heaven by believing certain
dogmas, instead of by a life according to the Divine Commandments, then was
the sun indeed darkened in the minds of men. Then a true faith or knowledge
of the Lord was destroyed and the moon became as blood. A true faith
reflects the light or wisdom of the Lord upon man, as the natural moon
reflects the light of the natural sun. Water corresponds to truth upon the
natural plane of the mind, for it cleanses the natural body as truth
cleanses his spirit; it also circulates throughout the natural body,
conveying nourishment to all the structures of the body as truth circulates
through the spiritual body, conveying that which is good and true to
strengthen and develop the spiritual body. It is owing to this
correspondence that water is used in the ordinance of baptism, for it
performs the same office for the natural body that truth does for the
spiritual body; it cleanses and conveys nourishment; and therefore baptism
by water signifies that man is to be regenerated by receiving and living
according to the truth. It is also the Christian sign--a sign that one
baptized is of the Christian Church, or professes the Christian religion.

The "Fruit of the Vine," or pure unfermented or unleavened wine, has been
organized by the Lord in the vegetable kingdom; it therefore not only
contains water, but also organized nourishment for the structures of the
body, which supply in a most remarkable degree the wants of the body, like
a mother's milk to her infant child; it therefore most beautifully
symbolizes blood, and corresponds to spiritual truth, united with good from
the Lord, which nourishes and builds up the spirit of man, when he drinks
or appropriates it, or when he lives as divine truth teaches, shunning
evils as sins against God. It is consequently used appropriately in the
Most Holy Supper.

It has been my aim above to simply give the reader a glimpse of this most
wonderful and beautiful of all sciences, and really the foundation of all
sciences-the science of correspondence between natural and spiritual
things. He who reads carefully and without prejudice the "Apocalypse
Revealed" and the "Arcana Celestia," with a desire to know and live
according to the truth, cannot fail to see that the Sacred Scriptures are
plenarily inspired, and are a special revelation from God to man; and that,
different from all merely human writings, they contain within the letter a
connected spiritual sense. That the science of correspondences was once
understood by the inhabitants of our earth, is to be seen in the relics
which remain in a more or less perverted form in the hieroglyphics of
Egypt, the idolatry among many nations, and sun-worship, where the
spiritual signification has often been lost and men have come to worship
the natural objects instead of the spiritual, which they represent. The
mythological writings of many nations, and even Masonry, contain remains of
this once well known science. The first chapters of Genesis and the entire
Word are written in strict accordance with this science. The first chapters
of Genesis, like the Parables of our Lord, were not intended to be
understood literally; the very names therein show this clearly. A tree of
life, a tree of knowledge of good and evil, a talking serpent, how can any
man for a moment suppose these to be natural trees and a natural snake? Do
serpents ever talk? the garden eastward in Eden, and an Ark which would not
hold the hides and teeth of all the animals on earth--were these to be
understood literally?




CHAPTER VI.

A NEW DAY TO OUR EARTH.


"'Behold He cometh with clouds,' signifies that the Lord will reveal
Himself in the literal sense of the Word, and will open its spiritual sense
at the end of the church."--_A. R. 23._

A church, we are taught, comes to its end when the true doctrines of the
Word are falsified by its members, to justify evils of life; or when the
members of a church who are in the love of ruling over others in civil and
ecclesiastical affairs, for their own aggrandizement, or for vain show, or
who love money or sensual gratification without regard to use, strive to
justify the gratification of their perverted loves and appetites by an
appeal to the Sacred Scriptures, and thus frame creeds and doctrines which
exalt faith and ceremonials above a life of charity, and when men come to
live in accordance with such false doctrines the church comes to its end.
At the same time, there remain some who are still in the good of life, or
striving to live good lives in obedience to the Divine commandments. Such
comprise the common people who receive the Lord with joy at His coming, and
follow Him, among whom a New Dispensation of Divine Truth commences. Such
may be found both among the clergy and laity. The end of the world is the
end of the Dispensation or Age, and not of the material earth--"The earth
endureth forever."

We are told by Swedenborg that the angels rejoiced greatly that it had
pleased the Lord to reveal a knowledge of correspondences so deeply
concealed during some thousands of years; "and they said it was done in
order that the Christian Church which is founded on the Word, and is now at
its end, may again revive and draw breath through heaven from the
Lord."--_Conjugial Love_, 532.

So we are not to look for the destruction of the prevailing religious
organizations, but for the rejection of their false and irrational
doctrines, and the receiving of new light and life from the Lord. And how
is such a result to be brought about?

It was apparently the opinion of Swedenborg that his writings would be read
by the clergy, who would teach the doctrines therein contained to their
congregations; and thus the glorious truths for this new Era or crowning
Church would be spread among the people; for, in speaking of the descent of
the New Church, or New Jerusalem, from God out of Heaven, he says it can
only take place "in proportion as the falses of the former Church are
removed; for what is new cannot gain admission where falses have before
been implanted, unless those falses are first rooted out; and this must
first take place among the clergy, and by their means among the laity."

That Swedenborg's anticipations are surely and somewhat rapidly being
realized at this time seems beyond question; for over 30,000 clergymen of
the various religious denominations of our country have already sent for
and obtained Swedenborg's "True Christian Religion" and "Heaven and Hell,"
and over 25,000 have received his "Apocalypse Revealed." It is known that
large numbers are reading the above works with great interest, and that
hundreds if not thousands are full receivers of the doctrines therein
contained, and that they are teaching them to their people as fast as they
find they can receive them. In fact, many of Swedenborg's writings were
translated into English by the late Rev. John Clowes, Rector of St. John's
Church, Manchester, England, who, for many years, without ever being
required to sever his connection with the Church of England, openly and
boldly taught the doctrines revealed through Swedenborg. Mr. Clowes says:--

"Nothing, therefore, can be plainer than that the New Jerusalem
Dispensation is to be universal, and to extend unto all people, nations,
and languages on the face of the earth, to be a blessing unto such as are
meet to receive a blessing. Sects and sectarians, as such, can find no
place in this General Assembly of the ransomed of the Lord. All the little
distinctions of modes, forms, and particular expressions of devotion and
worship will be swallowed up and lost in the unlimited effusions of
heavenly love, charity, and benevolence with which the hearts of every
member of this glorious New Church and Body of Jesus Christ will overflow
one toward another. Men will no longer judge one another as to the mere
externals of church communion, be they perfect or imperfect; for they will
be taught that whosoever acknowledges the incarnate Jehovah in heart and
life, departing from evil, and doing what is right and good according to
the commandments, he is a member of the New Jerusalem, a living stone in
the Lord's new Temple, and a part of that great family in heaven and earth
whose common Father and Head is Jesus Christ. Every one, therefore, will
call his neighbor _Brother_, in whom he observes this spirit of pure
charity; and he will ask no questions concerning the form of words which
compose his creed, but will be satisfied with observing in him the purity
and power of a heavenly life."

"The Gentiles," says Swedenborg, "cannot profane the holy things of the
Church like Christians, because they are not acquainted with them." "They
are afraid of Christians on account of their lives." "Those who have lived
well, according to their religious principles, are instructed by the
angels, and easily receive the truths of faith, and acknowledge the Lord,"
"for they have not formed for themselves any principles of falsity opposed
to the truths of faith, which would need to be first removed."

"Although Gentiles are not in genuine truths during their life in the
world, they receive them in the other life from a principle of love."

"The Church of the Lord exists with all in the universe who live in good
according to their religious principles, and acknowledge the Divine Being;
and they are accepted of the Lord and go to heaven."

The above is in strict accordance with all that Swedenborg has written; for
he says:--

"In the spiritual world to which every man goes after death, it is not the
character of your faith into which inquiry is made, nor of your
_doctrine_, but of your _life_, whether it has been of this
character or that; for it is known that such as a man's _life_ is,
such is his faith--nay, more, such is his doctrine; for life forms its
doctrine and faith for itself." (_D. P._ 101.) "For the good of life
according to one's religion contains within it the affection of knowing
truths, which such persons also learn and receive when they come into the
other life." (_A. C._ 455.)

"Evils which belong to the will, are what condemn a man and sink him down
to hell; and falsities only so far as they become conjoined with evils;
then one follows the other. This is proved by numerous instances of persons
who are in falsities, and yet are saved." (_Ibid._ 845.)

"It has been provided that every one, in whatever heresy he may be as to
the understanding, can still be reformed and saved, provided he shuns evils
as sins, and does not confirm heretical falsities in himself; for by
shunning evils as sins the will is reformed, and through the will the
understanding, which then first comes out of darkness into light. There are
three essentials of the Church: the acknowledgment of the Divine of the
Lord, the acknowledgment of the holiness of the Word, and the life which is
called charity. According to the life, which is charity, every one has
faith; from the Word is the knowledge of what the life must be; and from
the Lord are reformation and salvation. If the Church had held these three
as essentials, intellectual dissensions would not have divided but only
varied it, as light varies its colors in beautiful objects, and as various
diadems give beauty in the crown of a king." (_D. P._ 259.)

Here, then, we have a broad spirit of charity which acknowledges every man
as a brother who believes in a Supreme Being, shuns evils as sins, and
strives to live conscientiously and honestly according to the light he
possesses.

As many who will be likely to receive this pamphlet may know little, if
anything, in regard to the claims which Swedenborg makes, that he was the
human instrument chosen by The Lord through whom to reveal to the world the
truths of a New Dispensation, even of the Second Coming of the Son of Man,
it may be well to allow this chosen servant to speak for himself as to his
mission. He says:--

"I have been called to a holy office by the Lord Himself. I can sacredly
and solemnly declare that the Lord Himself has been seen of me, and that He
has sent me to do what I do, and for such purpose has opened and
enlightened the interior part of my soul, which is my spirit, so that I can
see what is in the spiritual world and those that are therein; and this
privilege has now been continued to me for twenty-two years. But in the
present state of infidelity, can the most solemn oath make such a thing
credible or to be believed? Yet such as have received true Christian light
and understanding will be convinced of the truths contained in my writings,
which are particularly evident in the book of 'Revelations Revealed.' Who,
indeed, has hitherto known anything of importance of the spiritual sense of
the Word of God, of the spiritual world, or of heaven and hell; the nature
of the life of man, and the state of souls after the decease of the body?
Is it to be supposed that these, and other things of like consequence, are
to be eternally hidden from Christians?"

Again, in the "True Christian Religion," at a later date, toward the close
of his life in this world, he says:--

"I foresee that many who read the relations after the chapters, will
believe that they are inventions of the imagination; but I assert in truth
that they are not inventions, but were truly seen and heard; not seen and
heard in any state of mind buried in sleep, but in a state of full
wakefulness. For it has pleased the Lord to manifest Himself to me, and to
send me to teach those things which will be of His New Church, which is
meant by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation; for which end He has opened
the interiors of my mind or spirit, by which it has been given me to be in
the spiritual world with angels, and at the same time in the natural world
with men, and this now for twenty-seven years."

In a letter to the King of Sweden, with characteristic simplicity and
boldness, he says:--

"When my writings are read with attention and cool reflection (in which
many things are to be met with hitherto unknown) it is easy enough to
conclude that I could not come to such knowledge but by a real vision and
converse with those who are in the spiritual world. I am ready to testify
with the most solemn oath that can be offered in this matter, that I have
said nothing but essential and real truth, without any admixture of
deception. This knowledge is given to me by our Saviour, not for any
particular merit of mine, but for the great concern of all Christians'
salvation."

When asked why a philosopher was chosen to this office he replied:--

"To the end that the spiritual knowledge which is revealed at this day
might be reasonably learned and naturally understood; because spiritual
truths answer unto natural ones, inasmuch as these originate and flow from
them, and serve as a foundation for the former."

To the Swedish clergymen who visited him a short time before his death, and
who urged him to recant what he had written if it was not true, he replied,
with great zeal and emphasis:--

"As true as you see me before you, so true is everything that I have
written, and I could have said more had I been permitted. When you come
into eternity you will see all things as I have stated and described them,
and we shall have much to discourse about with each other."

Here, then, we have in this illustrious seer the unparalleled instance of a
man, not in the enthusiasm of youth, but at the mature age of fifty-six
years, standing among the first in the philosophical world, with reputation
unsullied, high in office in his native country, with proffered promotion,
giving up all, and proclaiming to the world that he was called by the Lord
to the important office of revealing new truths of vast moment to his
fellow-men--even the truths of a new dispensation, or of the second coming
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Now, I appeal to you, one and all, Clergymen of the Christian Church, of
every name, to obtain and read his writings. In the good Providence of the
Lord, three among his most important works can be obtained without money
and without price by the clergy and theological students of our country, by
simply ordering them and sending the postage--as will be seen on the second
page of the cover of this pamphlet.

Swedenborg does not require or desire you to believe anything contained in
his writings on his simple declaration, but you are to believe the
statements made, and doctrines proclaimed, in his writings, only as you
perceive them to be true, and in strict accordance with the Sacred
Scriptures. What have you to lose by reading his writings? Thousands of
laymen and clergyman testify to you that they have found the greatest help
and strength from reading them, even where they may not have read enough to
fully recognize his claims.

Canon Wilberforce, of Southampton, England, one of the most distinguished
clergymen of the English Church, visited this country a few years ago; and
while he was here, being a prominent temperance man, the National
Temperance Society gave him a reception, during which some one introduced
me to him as a believer in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Stopping a
moment, and looking steadily at me and those in the immediate vicinity, he
exclaimed, most emphatically: "Emanuel Swedenborg has done the Christian
Church an immense service! an immense service!! especially in his
explanation and illustration of the doctrine of the Lord." These words were
spoken manfully and boldly in the presence of members and clergymen of his
own and other Churches. The doctrine of the Lord is the chief corner-stone
of the New Jerusalem now descending from God out of Heaven. Let that
doctrine be accepted by our Churches, and their creeds, so far as they are
based on a tri-personal God, will need no revision; they will disappear.

"All things," says a great authority, "are of God, who hath reconciled us
to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath committed unto us the ministry of
reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto
Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." (2 Cor. v: 18, 19)

The late Professor George Bush and a large number of distinguished scholars
and clergymen, after a most thorough and careful examination of
Swedenborg's writings, assure us that in them they find the truths of a New
Dispensation, even of the Second Coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of
heaven. The light of a New Day is shining. Christian brethren, will you
close your eyes against it?

Was there ever any greater need of a new revelation from God to teach men
anew that, if they would reach heaven and happiness, they must repent and
shun evils as sins against God, and strive to live a life according to the
commandments? Look at the fearful evils which prevail in our beloved
country; the love of rule, civil and ecclesiastical; the miserly love of
money, selfishness, vanity and sensualism, in their worst and most
degrading forms! Customs and habits prevail which threaten the extinction
of at least the Protestant portion of the community in large sections of
our country. A Catholic bishop stated, a few years ago, that one quarter of
the inhabitants of New England are Catholics, and that one-fourth of the
population give birth to 70 per cent. of the children born in New England.
More recent inquiries, it is stated, show that the average number of
children in a family among the Canadian French settled in New England,
averages 5; whereas among the native New Englanders the average number of
children in a family is 1-1/2. It is not difficult to see by whom the land
of the Puritans will be ruled within the next quarter of a century. Seventy
years ago, the average number of children to a family among New Englanders
was fully equal to the number among the French to-day. Why this change?
Fashionable habits of dress--tight lacing, which is worse to-day than ever
before--has, to a large extent, destroyed the ability of the New England
and other native American women to bear healthy and well-developed
children, and to properly nurse them after they are born. Among our present
deformed women, child-bearing is attended with much more danger and
suffering than among well-developed, symmetrical, and beautifully formed
women. No man who desires peace, health, and happiness in his home, and
desires to leave children behind him, and to thus perform the most
important use which can be performed in this life, should ever think of
marrying a small-waisted woman.

Then again, to have a good family of children is thought not to be
fashionable, among those who are led by fashion, as it interferes too much
with one's selfish pleasures, they think; most dearly do they pay in after
life, if they live many years, for their folly. Children are a blessing;
and yet the most unnatural and injurious measures are adopted to prevent
bearing children, even to the destroying of the unborn. The Catholic
Church, through the confessional, holds some restraint over Catholics; but
what restraint do our Protestant Churches hold over their members in regard
to such evils? Look at the miserable caricatures of the female form printed
in our fashionable magazines, and even in our daily papers, and sent forth
and freely spread before our young girls, for them to pattern after, and
thus deform themselves.

Look at the drunkenness, the leaden and congested faces of our steady
drinkers of intoxicating drinks, and the innumerable deaths and the
wretchedness and sorrow which follow such drinking; and remember that the
chief support of such drinking at this day is the use of the drunkard's cup
instead of "the fruit of the vine" as a communion wine in so many of our
churches, and the example of so many of our clergy, backed up by the
prescribing of such drinks by so many of our doctors. Do away with these
two chief supports, and prohibition would be enacted and enforced
throughout our land within five years.

Look at the use of tobacco, which is to-day recognized as one of the most
deadly poisons, which when used by the young prevents the development of
the human body, and at all ages causes innumerable diseases and deaths and
an inability to withstand the encroachment of other causes of disease; and
the smoke and saliva from the nostrils and mouths of those who use it,
which are so unpleasant and disagreeable to those who are not accustomed to
them, but who yet are so frequently compelled to breathe a polluted
atmosphere. Please read the following and tell us whether to thus prevent
the development of the body and lessen one's ability to withstand the
causes of diseases should be shunned as a sin against God or not:--


SMOKING AND PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT.

From the records of the senior class of Yale College during the Past eight
years, the non-smokers have proved to have decidedly gained over the
smokers in height, weight, and lung capacity. All candidates for the crews
and other athletic sports were non-smokers. The non-smokers were 20 per
cent. taller than the smokers, 25 per cent. heavier, and had 62 per cent.
more lung capacity. In the graduating class of Amherst College of the
present year, those not using tobacco have in weight gained 24 per cent.
over those using tobacco, in height 37 per cent., in chest girth 42 per
cent., while they have a greater average lung capacity by 8.36 cubic
inches.--_Medical News._

Just see the countenance which is given to this habit by too many of our
clergymen--the example which they set! Yes, in many of our denominations,
young men who are known to be smokers, or chewers of tobacco, with their
breaths smelling of this filthy, poisonous weed, are deliberately licensed
and ordained by Clergymen, when it is known that they will go in and out
before young and old, setting them an example which will unquestionably do
untold injury to the rising generation, and confirm old smokers and chewers
in their injurious and destructive habits, and thus be instrumental in
destroying many lives. What are the fathers and mothers in our churches
thinking about when they consent to such an example being set before their
children? Is it not time that they awake to the importance of choosing and
introducing into office their own ministers, instead of entrusting this
duty to the clergy? Swedenborg has given us the true signification of
ordination by the laity. In speaking of the ordination of the Levites by
the laity he says: "By the sons of Israel laying their hands upon the
Levites was signified the transference of the power of ministering for
them, and the reception of it by the Levites, thus separation."--A. C.
10,023. It will be seen that it was not Aaron the priest who laid his hands
upon the Levites when they were introduced into the office of the
priesthood, but the laity, or the children of Israel; and we can all see
how appropriate and significative the ceremony was; and it was strictly in
accordance with republican usages of this day. It does not exalt the
officer above the office which he fills.

Is there a race of men on earth to-day who stand in greater need of light
on spiritual subjects, and of the services of good, earnest, clean,
pure-minded Christian Missionaries, who shall call men and women to
repentance, and by precept and example lead them to shun the fearful evils
named above, and many others, as sins against God, more than the people of
the United States? Look at our children, many of whom, if they live at all,
grow up with crooked legs and spines, delicate muscles and irritable
brains, imperfectly developed jaws and consequently crowded teeth, which
commence decaying and torturing the young before they are twenty years old,
instead of lasting during life as they should; all of which results
principally from feeding children with starvation bread, or superfine flour
bread, cakes, and puddings, instead of the "full corn in the ear," or
unbolted flour or meal, as the Lord has organized it in the kernel of
grain. Many years ago scientific investigation demonstrated the fact that
the portions of the grain which nourish the brain, muscles, and bones is
principally confined to the dark, hard portion of the kernel immediately
beneath the hull; this is not easily pulverized or rolled into superfine
flour, and if it were the flour would not be white; but it goes principally
into, the second and third runnings or as canal, shorts, and bran, and is
fed to the horses, cattle, and hogs, causing them to be well developed,
strong, and healthy, while our children, for the want of it, are half
starved. Even a dog, it has been found by experiment, will starve to death
on superfine flour bread, but will live well enough on Graham or unbolted
flour bread. I have seen a child come near starving to death on such bread,
and only rescued her from impending death by mixing mashed potatoes with
the flour from which the bread was made. The little girl thought she could
eat no other food but such bread, and if she ate anything else she threw it
up. And yet, strange to say, I have known in one or more institutions under
the care of physicians, which were devoted to the treatment of deformed and
crippled children, superfine flour bread to be given them to eat.

It is fashionable and customary to use superfine flour bread; and as a
physician, and an employer of men, I know how difficult it is to induce or
persuade fathers and mothers, even for the sake of their children, to use
Graham or unbolted flour bread, cakes, and puddings, which will give
nourishment to the brain, muscles, teeth and bones, and all the fat and
heat-producing material they need, instead of superfine white flour bread,
cakes, and puddings, which give comparatively little more than fat and
heat-producing material.

I remember very well when my wife and myself were traveling in Egypt up the
Nile, and were at ancient Thebes, mounted on donkeys, going to the tombs of
the kings, the young Arab girl, with a vessel of water upon her head,
balanced by the ends of the fingers of one hand, who ran beside us over the
sand, stones, and hills; for she was one of the most beautiful and
symmetrical female forms I have ever seen. There was no contracted waist or
humped shoulders, but a beautiful female figure, full of life, with
splendid teeth and sparkling eyes. And on a visit to the house of our Arab
dragoman, or guide, we saw how the flour or meal was made upon which that
young girl was fed. In the court-yard two women were grinding at a mill as
they ground thousands of years ago. There were two circular mill stones,
perhaps 20 inches in diameter, standing in a basin; through the centre of
the upper stone there was an opening through which the wheat was poured,
and upon two sides were erect wooden handles, by which the women turned the
stone round and round, and back and forth, and the meal escaped into the
pan at the circumference. I said to our dragoman: "We have not had a bit of
good bread in Egypt. We have been stopping at hotels where they think they
must give the Americans and Englishmen white bread. Now, I wish you would
bring me some bread made from that flour to-morrow morning;" and he brought
us some bread, and it was by far the best bread that we had in Egypt.

The fearful evils which I have hastily named in the preceding pages, and
many others which cause the prevailing deformities, diseases, insanity, and
premature deaths, are not to be dragged along into the Church of the New
Jerusalem now descending from God out of heaven; but our race is to be
purified, renovated, and developed into a healthy, noble, symmetrical,
graceful manhood by the new inflowing of truths from the Lord, pointing out
the evils and falses which are causing the present suffering and
wretchedness, and calling on men and women to shun such evils and falses as
sins against God. A reformation from worldly motives is but "skin deep,"
and generally only results in the changing of one bad habit for another.
Men and women must be earnestly called to repentance, and to the absolute
necessity of shunning the evils which prevent the development of the body,
impair health and reason, and so fearfully shorten the average duration of
human life, as sins against God, which will tell on their eternal destiny.
The fact that individuals who drink intoxicating drinks, smoke or chew
tobacco, or deform their bodies by tight dressing, sometimes live to old
age under otherwise favorable circumstances, amounts to nothing. The simple
question is, do such habits shorten the average duration of human life? If
they do, they are a violation of the laws of God as manifested in the
organization of the human body and in His Word.




CHAPTER VII.

THE WANTS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.


The Christian Church at this day, first of all, needs true doctrines which
are in harmony with the Sacred Scriptures, and which all men who are
willing to see and obey, using the reason with which God has endowed them,
can accept and see to be true.

Second, such a law or principle of interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures,
that when they are interpreted in accordance with it, every man and woman
who is willing to see and obey the truth will find there is actually no
conflict between the Word of the Lord and His works, and no real
contradictions to be found in the Sacred Scriptures.

In the writings of Swedenborg the Lord has shown us that "all religion has
relation to life, and that the life of religion is to do good;" and that,
if we would enter into the heavenly life, or have heaven within us, we must
strive faithfully and honestly to keep the commandments, not simply in
external acts, but also in our motives, thoughts, and words, as well as in
act. In the writings of Swedenborg the Lord has clearly revealed Himself
and has come down to the comprehension of man--God in Christ and in His
Word.

The Science of Correspondences enables us to see that the first eleven
chapters of Genesis are purely allegorical, and in their spiritual and true
sense treat of the regeneration of man, and his fall through the seduction
of his lowest or sensual nature and appetites, as men are seduced to-day;
and of a flood of evils and falses, similar to the flood which threatens to
overwhelm the Christian world, at least in our land, at this day; and a New
Church as an ark of safety. While the Science of Correspondences shows that
there are no more contradictions in the Word of the Lord than in His works,
there are apparent truths and real truths in both. It is an apparent truth
that God is angry with the wicked every day; but the real truth is that God
is never angry, but when man disobeys His laws and brings upon himself
consequent suffering, it appears to him that God is angry. So it appears to
us that night and darkness are caused by the going down of the sun, but the
real truth is that the sun always shines and that night and darkness are
caused by the earth's diurnal revolution on its axis. It will therefore be
seen that if the Sacred Scriptures are the Word of God and in accordance
with His works, they must contain both apparent and real truths.

No man who has ever diligently and faithfully, without prejudice, read the
Sacred Scriptures in the light of the Science of Correspondences, as
revealed by the Lord through Emanuel Swedenborg, has ever failed to be
satisfied that the Sacred Scriptures are Divine and plenarily inspired, and
that they differ as much from the writings of men as do the works of God
from the works of men. At this day, when so many of our clergy and
intelligent laymen are beginning to doubt the special inspiration of the
Sacred Scriptures, a knowledge of the Science of Correspondences, in
accordance with which they were written, is wanted above every thing else,
that the Christian Church "may revive again and draw breath through heaven
from the Lord."

The Lord speaks to man in parables, and "without a parable," we read,
"spake He not unto them." The Lord intimates in many passages that the
Sacred Scriptures, or His words, contain a spiritual sense, as in the
following: "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing;
the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." "The
letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."

"The early Christian Fathers, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, understood
that the Sacred Scriptures have a spiritual sense; and Origen--when that
shrewd enemy of Christianity, Celsus, ridiculed the stories of the rib, the
serpent, etc., as childish fables--reproaches him for want of candor in
purposely keeping out of sight, what was so evident upon the face of the
narrative, that the whole is a _pure allegory_."--_Noble's Plenary
Inspiration._

"The idea of a spiritual sense in every part of the Scripture was the
generally received doctrine of the Primitive Church--believed and taught
by Origen, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Jerome, Augustine, Pantaenus, Tatian,
Theophilus, Pamphilius, Clement and Cyril of Alexandria, and nearly all the
early Christian Fathers. And the same belief has been held by many eminent
theologians ever since. Dr. Mosheim, speaking of the illustrious writers of
the second century, says: 'They _all_ attributed a double sense to the
words of Scripture; the one _obvious_ and _literal_, the other
_hidden_ and _mysterious_, which lay concealed, as it were, under
the veil of the outward letter.' But the Fathers had no recognized rule for
eliciting the spiritual sense. Each one's own spiritual perception was his
only guide. A hundred different expositors, therefore, might give as many
different expositions of the same text."--_Rev. B. F. Barrett_.

Every natural object is the form and embodiment of some spiritual idea or
principle; and therefore it is the most perfect expression or type or
picture of that idea.

"Inasmuch as the end of the creation is an angelic heaven out of the human
race, and thus the human race itself, therefore all other things that are
created are mediate ends, which being referable to man, look to these three
things of man, his body, his rational part, and his spiritual part, for
sake of conjunction with the Lord. For a man cannot be conjoined to the
Lord unless he be spiritual; nor can he be spiritual unless he be rational;
nor can he be rational unless his body is in a sound state. These things
are like a house, of which the body is the foundation, and the rational is
the house built upon it; the spiritual comprises those things which are in
the house, and conjunction with the Lord is being at home in it."

Here are outlined clearly and distinctly three fields for much needed
labor.

We see above, clearly taught by Swedenborg, that "a man cannot be spiritual
unless he be rational, nor can he be rational unless his body be in a sound
state." The reason is plain: for the natural corresponds to the spiritual;
natural diseases and natural causes of disease correspond to spiritual
diseases and spiritual causes of spiritual disease.

Swedenborg says that: "Diseases correspond to the lusts and passions of the
mind; these, therefore, are the origins of diseases; for the origins of
diseases in general are intemperance, luxuries of various kinds, pleasures
merely corporal; also envyings, hatreds, revenges, lasciviousness, and the
like; which destroy the interiors of man, and when these are destroyed the
exteriors suffer and draw man into diseases, and thereby into death."--
_Arcana Coelestia_, 5712.

For this reason, if a man is to be reformed and regenerated, his
reformation must commence by his shunning natural falses and bad habits of
life, which correspond to his spiritual evils.

Swedenborg's writings give us a wonderful insight into the causes and cure
of both spiritual and natural diseases, as we shall hereafter see, and many
suggestions which it would be well for us to heed. He says:--

"The man who is willing to be enlightened by the Lord, must take especial
heed lest he appropriate to himself any doctrinal which patronizes evil;
for man in such case appropriates it to himself, when he confirms it with
himself, for thereby he makes it a principle of his faith, and still more
so if he lives according to it. When this is the case, then evil remains
inscribed on his soul and his heart; and when this effect has place, he
cannot afterwards in any wise be enlightened by the Word from the Lord; for
his whole mind is in the faith and in the love of his principle, and
whatsoever is contrary to it, this he either does not see, or rejects, or
falsifies." (A. C. 10,640.)

Every one can see how true this is in regard to evil habits which destroy
health, reason, and life, such as the prevailing use of tobacco and the
drinking of intoxicating drinks. If a man drinks thoughtlessly, without
knowing any better, he can be taught and shown that it is wrong and a sin
to drink poisonous fluids which are entirely unnecessary, and which
endanger health, reason, life, and the welfare and happiness of all
associated with him, and actually destroy vast multitudes of those who
drink them moderately. All children and young persons who are free from bad
examples and false teachings can be taught and can readily see that it is
wrong and a sin to use such drinks; but let a man strive to justify such
habits by the Sacred Scriptures, and to make them accord with his religious
principles, and we all know how difficult it is for him ever to see the
truth upon this and kindred subjects.


MUCH-NEEDED INSTRUCTION.

Inquiry should be made into the natural causes of disease, into which
spiritual causes flow and cause the suffering, wretchedness, and premature
deaths which prevail, and men and women should be led by precept and
example to see them as evils and to shun them as sins against God.
Swedenborg says:--

"Thus, by washing the feet, is meant to purify the natural principle of
man; for unless this principle appertaining to man, when he lives in the
world, is purified and cleansed, it cannot afterwards be purified to
eternity; for such as the natural principle of man is when he dies such it
remains; for it is not afterwards amended, inasmuch as it is that plane
into which interior things, which are spiritual, flow in--it being their
receptacle; wherefore when it is perverted, interior things, when they flow
in, are perverted like it." (A. C. 10,243.)

There are two great hindrances to the reformation of the world at this day;
the first is false teaching in regard to evils, by which unlawful
indulgences are justified, and in moderation held to be good; for by this
the individual is strongly confirmed in their favor and prevented from
seeing the truth. The second is the love of the evil which the truth
condemns, which closes the mind against the truth, and, as it were, binds
and imprisons the individual (see A. C. 5096). It must be self-evident to
every intelligent Christian that if it is wrong to deliberately appropriate
falses and evils "temperately" or moderately to the building up of our
spiritual organizations, it is equally wrong to appropriate temperately
those natural substances which correspond to falses and evils in a vain
attempt to build up healthy natural bodies. Total abstinence in both cases
is the only law of life. The lover of intoxicating drinks can never be
radically reformed or regenerated until he resolves, with the help of the
Lord, to stop drinking intoxicating drinks and sets himself honestly about
it; so the thief must stop stealing, the vain woman must stop her tight
dressing and habits of idleness; and so of all other evils affecting
physical and spiritual health and life.

But to-day the great difficulty is, that multitudes of the young and of all
ages become "bond-servants" to evil habits, which impair health and reason
and shorten life, through ignorance, hereditary inclination, and the bad
example of others. And how are they to regain their freedom, and the
innocent to be protected from contamination and from a like slavery? The
truth can alone make them free; and even when received by the willing and
obedient, line upon line and precept upon precept may be required. And they
will often have to endure many a hard struggle; and those who are free
should have sympathy and charity, and judge them not. Men, women, and
children must be taught that they have no right to follow habits which will
endanger health and reason, and which observation and carefully collected
statistics show will shorten the average duration of life; for to thus act
is to violate the command, "Thou shall not kill." The causes of ill health,
deformity, and the prevailing insanity and premature deaths must be sought
out and exposed, and a call to repentance must be made.

In the good providence of the Lord, we have men who, by education, diligent
investigation, and careful observation, are most admirably adapted to give
the needed instruction--physicians. Let physicians arm themselves with
true doctrines, with the spiritual sense of the Word, with the Science of
Correspondences and a knowledge of natural sciences, and they will be able
to combat the prevailing evils as no other men can; and they should lead in
all the great necessary reforms of this age that have regard to physical
health, life, and morals. In almost every society of our Churches of any
size will be found one or more medical men who have devoted their lives to
the study of anatomy, physiology, the causes of disease, diseases and their
cure, and the effects of poisons and the bad habits of dress, and other
habits injurious to health; and they are able to speak with authority in
regard to the prevailing evils of life, which are so destructive to our
race. These men, thus providentially prepared, should be called into the
field as lecturers. There is not a religious society which does not
actually need the services of such teachers; and we can send no other
missionaries to those outside of our church organizations who will, to the
same extent, command their attention and respect. In order that the body
with its environment may be a fit dwelling place for the Spirit, there are
provided--

"_Uses for sustaining the body_, comprising its nourishment, clothing,
habitation, recreation and enjoyment, protection and conservation of state.
The uses created for the nourishment of the body comprise all things of the
vegetable kingdom which are good for food and drink; fruits, berries,
seeds, pulse, and herbs; all things of the animal kingdom which serve for
meat, oxen, cows, calves, deer, sheep, kids, goats, lambs; not to mention
milk; also fowls and fish of many kinds." (D. L. W. 331.)

"Good uses," says Swedenborg, "are from the Lord, and evil uses are from
hell. Evil uses were not created by the Lord, but they originated together
with hell." (D. L. W. 336.) Among the evil uses he enumerates all kinds of
poisons--in a word, "all things that do hurt and kill men." (_Ibid_.
339.) Here, then, is a criterion by which we must judge of the suitability
of any article for nourishing and supplying the wants of our natural
bodies. It should be evident to every one that substances which have their
origin from hell, which, when used as we use legitimate articles of food
and drink, seriously endanger, hurt, and kill men, should never be used for
such purpose.

Who are better qualified to judge as to what are evil uses than the
physician, who has made them the study of his life? The men and women who
are violating the laws of life cannot see that such violations injure them;
for such violations palliate the sufferings which they cause, and make the
transgressors feel better every time they indulge. The true physician, by
precept and example, is qualified to lead all who are willing to be led to
a higher life and to protect the innocent and the young.

That such teachers are most important at this day is manifest "from the
signification of physicians as denoting preservation from evils--the evils
which obstruct conjunction. In the Word, physicians, the art of physic and
medicine, signify preservation from evils and falses.... That in the Word,
physicians, the art of physic and medicine, signify preservation from evils
and falses, is manifest from the passages where they are named.... Hence it
is evident what _medicine_ signifies, viz., that which preserves from
falses and evils; for when the truth of faith leads to the good of love, it
preserves, because it withdraws from evils." (A. C. 6502.)

Here, then, we have the men suitable for this use. Shall we call them into
the fields which are ripe and ready for the harvest?

A clergyman who has a knowledge of the medical profession and of medicine,
in speaking of the importance of such teachers, says: "Moreover, from their
relation to the sick and suffering, from their habit of analyzing the
mental and moral states of their patients, and from the deep, tender
sympathy which sincere, God-fearing physicians have for suffering human
beings, they are placed in a much closer relation to the people than any
other vocation could give them. How many persons have been comforted,
strengthened, instructed, and turned to uprightness of life through the
kindly ministrations of their physicians!"

And church organizations are languishing for the want of such teachers, and
can never thrive in true doctrine and good lives, as they should, without
them.

Surely every one can but see of what immense benefit such lecturers would
be, especially to the young in our churches. One physician might be
employed by and serve several societies, giving to the different societies
once or twice a week a lecture in each society, fully illustrated by
drawings, plates, stereoscopic and microscopic views, which would attract
young and old, and fill our churches to overflowing with those who now
attend no church; and the latter, when they found a physician, with the
consent of the church, thus clearly pointing out the great evils of life
which cause so much suffering, wretchedness, sorrow, and so many premature
deaths, and calling young and old, from a religious standpoint, to shun
them as sins against God, could but feel that our churches are striving to
elevate humanity, and are a great blessing, and that it would be desirable
to belong to them, and especially to have their children brought up under
the influence of the Church.

Nearly the same could be said in regard to the important services which a
second class of teachers of which I am about to speak could render. By the
lectures of the two new life would be infused into our churches, and they
would stand upon a sure foundation by manifesting love to God and man in
our external natural lives, by teaching and leading men to act from
spiritual motives, and to be willing to see their evils, and to commence by
shunning well-known evils as sins against God. What a glorious day would
this open up to our churches and for the elevation of our race through
them!


THE SECOND CLASS OF TEACHERS REQUIRED.

Physicians as teachers in our churches should have for a special work the
teaching of truth as to the physical life of man in connection with his
spiritual life--the laws of health, the causes of prevailing diseases,
deformities, insanities, and premature deaths, together with the methods
and the duty of shunning them as sins against God. But there are other
evils and questions which require careful consideration in our churches,
such as the true relation, according to the laws of justice, mercy, and
right, which should exist between men as neighbors, citizens, and
Christians; and the clear light of this New Day should be brought down to
guide men into a life of peace and harmony and good-will in this wilderness
state of the world. Important questions are pressing for a solution, and
for a careful consideration, by the religious teachers of our churches,
such as the ecclesiastical and civil government best adapted for men of
different countries and races, especially for our own country and churches;
the relation of capital and labor; the right of single individuals to hold
an unlimited amount of real estate, and transmit it to their children; the
rights of corporations and of women; and our duties to others in all the
relations of life. Fortunately, we have in our churches legal men or
lawyers, who, while familiar with the doctrines of the Church, have devoted
their lives to the consideration of such questions. It would not be
difficult to point out several members of the legal fraternity belonging to
our church organizations who would be able to perform a great use to the
Church as lecturers and acting as missionaries among those who do not
attend church as opportunity may offer. They would enter into a field of
usefulness almost altogether beyond the reach and influence of our present
ministers. Their advice, their counsel, their discourse, in their legal
practice, are channels for the introduction of Christian thought and
doctrine otherwise closed. There is one passage in the Writings which
indicates this use:--

"_And strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die_--that
hereby is signified; that the things which pertain to the moral life should
be vivified, appears from the signification of strengthening, as denoting
to vivify the moral life by truths; _for truths from the Word vivify that
life_, which, when it is vivified, is also strengthened, for it then
acts as one with the spiritual life." (A. E. 188.)

To meet and vivify the moral life of man with truths from the Word is a use
eminently adapted to the position and mind of the legal profession. We need
the services of such ministers, especially at this day, when we inherit
from the fallen churches of the past an inclination to the love of
spiritual and temporal dominion or rule, and the love of money and of vain
show without regard to use. The evils that result from the gratification of
such perverted affections must be fearlessly exposed, and a call to
repentance made, before the injustice, oppression, and wrong which exist
all over the world can be materially lessened. Lawyers, by making a special
study of the Word in connection with their professional-studies, could not
fail to impart much valuable instruction both to the Church and the world.

Christian physicians and lawyers would take hold of men in their present
low state, showing them what acts are evil and wrong, and why they are so;
and would call on them to repent and stop doing the evil acts which the
truth condemns, fully realizing that a man must cease doing evil before he
can cease thinking and willing evil; or, in other words, that reformation
must commence on the natural plane, and from the highest motives of which
the individual at present is susceptible.

It is the duty of our clergy to teach spiritual truths and the spiritual
sense of the Word, and to lead men and women to live good lives, in
obedience to the Divine commandments, from spiritual and celestial motives.
But it is difficult for them to fill the entire field where religious
instruction is needed, for we are living in the midst of the most direful
evils of life, which must be put away before the New Jerusalem can descend
and have an abiding place with men. Evils so terrible as to destroy vast
multitudes of men and women of all ages, and even innocent children, all
around us, too frequently go unheeded by our clergy and the periodicals
under their charge. I know that in this respect there are some noble
exceptions among our clergy and editors; but however willing and anxious
they may be, it is impossible for one man to possess the knowledge and to
impart all the necessary instruction as perfectly as three men thoroughly
educated and trained for the different fields for labor could do it.

To recapitulate: The physicians are required to teach and to lead men to
obey, from a principle of obedience, the spiritual and natural laws of
health and life; the lawyers are required to teach and lead men by
spiritual truths to act from a principle of justice, truth, and neighborly
love in all their relations with others; our ministers are required to
teach and lead men to act from love to the Lord and thence the neighbor,
and to do right because it is right, and to administer the ordinances of
the Church.

While some church organizations are laboring earnestly for the reform of
men and women addicted to evils, and are striving to guard the innocent and
young; and while in many of the churches in England they are organizing
their temperance societies and "Bands of Hope," many of our organizations
are as silent as the grave in regard to these evils. Can our churches
prosper without teachers who are able to point out the evils of life which
are so destructive to our race, and who are sufficiently free themselves to
be able earnestly and consistently to call men to repentance, and to lead
them to live orderly lives?

Various denominations of Christians, in sending forth missionaries to
distant lands, have, of late years, been sending, among others, some
well-educated physicians as missionaries, and have found them very
efficient in reaching and influencing the people among whom they labor. May
not all take a hint when some of the religious organizations around us are
beginning to see the advantages of sending out medical missionaries? If we
would reach the Gentiles, or non-church goers, in our midst, should we not
follow their example? A vast number of children and young people are
growing up in our country, who are more ignorant of the spiritual and
natural laws of health and life than many in Gentile lands; many of them
rarely read or hear the Sacred Scriptures read, and do not even know the
Ten Commandments.




CHAPTER VIII.

METHODS FOR RESTRAINING AND CURING SPIRITUAL AND NATURAL DISEASES.


As there is a correspondence between the natural and spiritual causes of
disease, so there must be a correspondence between the methods of
restraining and curing natural and spiritual diseases.

First: Spiritual diseases or evils are restrained by punishments which, by
force, as it were, counteract the inclination to do evil; corresponding to
this method we have the Antipathic method of restraining natural diseases,
which is one of the prevailing methods; for instance, for constipation
cathartics are given, for a diarrhoea astringents, and opiates are given to
forcibly relieve or restrain the symptoms of disease. Every one can but see
that such remedies for the cure of natural diseases, like punishments for
the cure of spiritual diseases or evils, are but palliative; for the
reaction, if reaction ensue, is not in the right direction. It is true that
a cure sometimes results in spite of the treatment, especially in transient
cases, the vital forces restoring health during the temporary restraint of
the diseased action; but in many cases the constipation is only aggravated
by cathartics, and diarrhoeas are not benefited by astringents; and the
evil man often becomes more vicious after punishment.

Second: Spiritual evils are often restrained by exciting one passion to
restrain evil acts in another direction; for instance, acquisitiveness and
vanity are often excited to restrain evil men from evil acts, which might
result from hatred and a desire for revenge, thus calling off the attention
from the prevailing evil inclination. Corresponding to this method of
restraining spiritual diseases we have the Allopathic method of restraining
diseased action in one organ by exciting diseased action in another organ
or part, as is done when a cathartic is given for disease of the head or
lungs, or when a blister is applied to the skin in case of internal
diseased action; thus, as it were, calling off the attention of the vital
forces from the diseased structures, and thus palliative relief is often
obtained in natural as in spiritual diseases.

Third: Either from afflictions, suffering, disappointments, or from
voluntarily hearkening to the truth, a man begins to feel a desire to
change his life, and looking to the Lord he repents and resolves to obey
the Divine Commandments by shunning evils as sins against God. But when he
commences to do this, evil spirits flow into his mind and tempt him to
again do evil acts; if the temptations are too strong he falls, but he may
fall to rise again; he will either do this by renewing his resolution to
overcome the evil inclination, or he will fall to rise no more, and keep on
in his old course of life, perhaps worse than before. Thoughts come before
actions; if a man, when tempted to do evil, resists the thoughts of doing
the evil acts, every one can see that he is striking a blow at the
perverted affection through which he has been tempted to do evil;
consequently the step toward a cure is far more radical and permanent than
it would have been if he had done the evil act.

Children and the young should be taught that to violate the Divine
Commandments is a sin against God, and that they should resist their
hereditary or acquired inclination to speak wrong words or do evil acts the
moment such inclinations are manifested in their thoughts, which is far
better than to allow them to move them to do evil acts. The cure of
spiritual diseases by the resisting of temptation is a genuine method of
cure. Corresponding with this for the treatment of natural diseases, we
have their treatment by the use of Homoeopathic remedies. Only spirits of a
similar inclination can tempt a man to do an evil act and thus manifest his
unsubdued inclination to him, which enables him to see and overcome the
inclination by resisting it. So, on the natural plane, it is only a
poisonous substance or remedy, which is capable of causing a similar
disease to the one existing, which can manifest the disease to the vital
forces and thus enable them to react against the disease. But if the dose
of the remedy given is too large it will aggravate the disease, as a
cathartic dose of a cathartic remedy will aggravate a diarrhoea; but the
vital forces may react and overcome the disease, or they may not, and the
disease continue even worse than before. It is the reaction of the vital
forces that overcomes the diseased action and effects the cure, and not the
remedy, any more than it is the evil spirit that tempts man that overcomes
his spiritual evils during regeneration. As it is not necessary that the
temptation should be so strong as to make a man take the first step toward
performing an evil act, to enable him to resist it if he will the moment
the inclination is seen in his thoughts, so it is not necessary that a dose
of a Homoeopathic remedy should be so strong as to aggravate the natural
diseased action in the slightest degree before it can be seen by the vital
forces, and a reaction follow. The size of the dose must be determined by
experience; but we know that its effects need only to equal the effects of
temptations which proceed no further than the thought of doing evil before
reaction may follow, therefore we can form no conception of the minuteness
of the dose which may be sufficient for a cure to follow.

But if a man would be restored to spiritual health by getting rid of his
hereditary and acquired inclinations to do evil, he must acknowledge the
Lord, diligently search His Word, and be willing to see and obey His
commandments, which are the laws of spiritual health and life, and must be
obeyed conscientiously, in intention, thought, word, and deed, if health is
to be restored; otherwise, punishment, hope of reward, and temptations can
only afford palliative relief at best. So in regard to natural diseases. If
a man would be restored to physical health by getting rid of his hereditary
and acquired inclinations to diseases, he must recognize that the laws of
nature are the laws established for his good by the Lord, and he must
diligently study the laws pertaining to health and life, and be willing to
see and obey those laws as to sunlight, air, exercise, clothing, and in
eating and drinking, etc., if he would be restored to health; otherwise,
antipathic, allopathic, and even homoeopathic remedies will prove only
palliative at best. If we expect to be well, spiritually or naturally, we
must strive to know and obey the laws of health and life.

Temptations by evil spirits permitted and controlled by the Lord for the
sake of removing many spiritual evils, and a corresponding action of
homoeopathic remedies administered by a skillful hand, for the sake of
removing natural diseases, are curative methods which belong to the New
Jerusalem Dispensation, now descending from God out of heaven, making all
things new--the Church of the future.




CHAPTER IX.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE CONTINUED--AND EFFORTS.


Soon after I commenced reading the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, while
residing in Detroit, I was invited to attend a social gathering at the
residence of one of the members of the congregation of believers in his
writings in that city. During the evening, to my astonishment, fermented
wine was passed around to the guests, of which quite a number partook. As
already stated in the preceding pages, while a young man, through the
efficient teachings of Baptist and Congregational clergymen and prominent
members of the churches, and the results of drinking which I witnessed, I
was providentially enabled to see that to use drinks which endangered
health, reason, and life was wrong, and consequently a sin; and with many
others I signed a pledge never to drink intoxicating drinks during health.
The reader can imagine how I was shocked to see intoxicating wine presented
and partaken of among gentlemen and ladies who professed to be receivers
and believers in a new revelation of Divine truth from God to man. I
immediately saw the clergyman of the society, and asked him if Swedenborg
teaches that it is right and proper to drink an intoxicating wine. He
replied that he did.

He and members of his society were holding Sunday afternoon meetings for
the purpose of reading the writings and discussing such questions as might
arise, which meetings I attended. I said to the reverend gentleman that I
would like to have this wine question discussed at our next meeting, to
which he assented. At that meeting, I brought up the medical and scientific
aspects of the question, and endeavored to show that fermented wine was a
dangerous poison, it having destroyed vast multitudes of the human race,
and that it performed no use when taken into the stomach of healthy men and
women; and, consequently, that it is wrong to drink a wine which does so
much harm. The clergyman tried to justify its use by quoting certain
comparisons which Swedenborg had made between the apparent combat which
takes place during fermentation and the combat which ensues during the
regeneration of man, and the clearness of resulting wine after fermentation
and that of truth in the mind after regeneration, and also of the purity of
alcohol after it has been through certain processes, which he named,
compared with pure truth.

But we know that pure alcohol cannot be used as a beverage, and therefore
it is certain that these comparisons were simply as to the clearness of
fermented wine after fermentation, and the purity of alcohol after being
purified; and that they have nothing to do with the inherent quality of
these fluids, or their ability to affect man when he drinks them. We had an
earnest discussion of the question from our different standpoints, but
neither of us was satisfied with the result; and, consequently, we
adjourned the discussion of the subject until the next Sabbath afternoon.
In the meantime, the clergyman prepared a discourse, which he delivered on
Sunday morning, in which he endeavored to show that fermentation was caused
by an influx of angels from the highest heaven into the juice of the grape,
stirring it up and cleansing it from "inherent impurities." Providentially,
during the week, I had obtained a copy of Swedenborg's work on the "Angelic
Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and Wisdom," in which he teaches that all
poisonous substances which do harm and kill man derive their life from or
through hell. When we came together in the afternoon to discuss the
question, we were about as far apart as it was possible to be, as the
reader can readily see. He took the ground that fermentation was caused by
influx from the highest heaven, and I took the ground that it was caused by
influx from the lowest hell, and we had an earnest discussion; but he
certainly did not satisfy me nor many of his audience, if any, that his
position was true. How could he? for there is no doubt but that fermented
wine has harmed and killed more of the human race in ages past than any
other poison. As a result of that discussion, within my knowledge,
fermented wine was never again used at the sociables of that society during
my residence in Detroit.

Within perhaps a year after that discussion, I was baptized and united with
the Detroit Society of the New Church. When I came to understand, from the
writings of Swedenborg, the true signification of water and the ordinance
of baptism--that water signified natural truth and that baptism introduced
one into the Church, and signified that man is to be regenerated or
purified by living a life according to the truth, and that the head
represented the man--I did not regard immersion as so important as I had
previously, consequently I was baptized by the application of water to the
head. There is, I think, no serious objection to any one being baptized by
immersion who prefers it. Children should, I think, be baptized into the
Church, and be brought up to feel that they belong to the Church, and are
expected to live the life of the Church. More and more have I seen the
importance of bringing children up under the influence of the Church, where
they should be instructed and entertained and thus kept away from bad
company.


WHY A SEPARATE NEW-CHURCH ORGANIZATION.

Swedenborg made no attempt to organize the believers in the revelations
made by the Lord through his instrumentality into a separate church
organization, and nowhere in his writings does he express the opinion that
such a separate organization would ever be needed or desirable. And he
apparently expected that the prevailing false doctrines of the churches
would, in the increasing light of the New Jerusalem, be seen to be false by
the clergy of existing church organizations; and that through them the
laity would be enabled to see that they are false, and thus they would be
put away, as is manifest in passages which I have quoted elsewhere; also
see T. C. R. 784.

When individual men or churches put away false doctrines, they are
prepared, if in the good of life, to see and receive the truth;
consequently Swedenborg says that although the First Christian Church has
come to its end through false doctrines and evils of life, yet it is to
revive again through the instrumentality of the newly revealed science of
correspondences; consequently it is not to utterly perish, for there is a
remnant within its borders.

Then the reader will inquire, "Why was an external New-Church organization
ever formed?" We have not to look far to find the reason. First, there was
a vast multitude of intelligent men and women who did not belong to any
church organization, and when some of them came to see and believe the new
doctrines, they naturally desired to be baptized and to join a church
organization; but seeing clearly in the light of the new revelations that,
according to the Sacred Scriptures, God is one in essence and in person,
and that that one God was manifested to man in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and that He made that human form Divine and is henceforth to be
worshiped as one God in His Divine Humanity, and that a life according to
His sayings and the commandments is essential to salvation, they could not
join the prevailing churches, for they could not assent to their creeds.

Second. When, as soon occurred, both clergymen and laymen, belonging to
various church organizations, began to read the writings, and to see that
the Lord is in very deed now coming in the clouds of heaven, and desired to
let the new light shine among their brethren, they found that they were
often not free to do so without giving offense; and in not a few instances
clergymen found that they were silenced as preachers, and sometimes both
clergymen and laymen were expelled, for believing the Heavenly Doctrines
instead of the creeds; consequently the receivers of the doctrines of the
New Dispensation had no choice but to form a new church organization. But
at this day there is a vast change, and I trust that from but a very few if
any church organizations would a lay member be expelled for believing in
the Supreme Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that the Sacred
Scriptures are Divine and plenarily inspired, and that a life according to
the Lord's sayings and His Commandments is essential to salvation.
Consequently there are thousands of earnest receivers of the Heavenly
Doctrines of the New Jerusalem scattered throughout the various churches,
gradually leavening, as I trust, the whole lump; and there are clergymen
not a few who are gradually beholding, with more or less fullness, the
light of this New Day; and as they receive it, large numbers of them are
not slow to let the light shine among their fellow-men, as they are
prepared to receive it.

The Lord has given to men freedom and reason, and they are responsible for
their acts. To whom do a clergyman and members of a church organization owe
fealty, to the Lord and His Word and the members of the congregations where
they worship, or to a creed and church or a church organization formulated
and organized during darker ages of the world and Church? Should men or
should they not, when they behold the glorious light of the Lord's Second
Coming in the clouds of heaven, stand in their place and proclaim the glad
tidings to all who are willing to hear?

Swedenborg, in giving the spiritual sense of the second chapter of the
Apocalypse, in No. 69 of the _Apocalypse Revealed_, says:--

"This and the following chapter treat of the seven churches, by which are
described all those in the Christian Church who have any religion, and out
of whom the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, can be formed; and this
is formed by those who APPROACH THE LORD ONLY, AND AT THE SAME TIME PERFORM
REPENTANCE FROM EVIL WORKS. The rest, who do not approach the Lord alone,
from the confirmed negation of the divinity of His humanity, and who do not
perform repentance from evil works, are indeed in the Church, but have
nothing of the Church in them."

If all clergymen and members of our churches, the moment they begin to see
that portions of their creeds are false and injurious in their tendency,
instead of trying, by proclaiming the truth among their brethren, to have
the false doctrines removed and true doctrines substituted, were to
immediately forsake the church organization in which, in the good
providence of the Lord, they stand, what hope would there be for the
perpetuation of existing churches as Christian organizations at all? The
great danger at this day is that false doctrines will be seen faster than
true doctrines will be seen to take their place, and thus our churches and
members will be left desolate and return to a Gentile state. For instance,
if our clergy and intelligent laymen begin to see, as many of them seem to
be doing already, that the doctrine of a tri-personal God, instead of a
trinity in unity, and the doctrine of the vicarious atonement are contrary
to the teachings of the Sacred Scriptures, and unreasonable and
inconsistent, and do not at the same time see clearly the scriptural
doctrine that God is one in essence and in person, and that in the person
of our Lord Jesus Christ that one God was manifested for the purpose of
reconciling the world unto Himself, such individuals are almost sure sooner
or later to deny the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that the Sacred
Scriptures are divine and special revelations from God to man, and
consequently plenarily inspired.

The doctrines which are false in the prevailing church organizations must
go--they are going--from the minds of their members if not from their
creeds. Then are these organizations to become Gentile and stand like the
remnants of the Ancient Church, which we behold in southern and eastern
Asia? I think not; for we are told, as has been already stated in the
revelations made by the Lord through Emanuel Swedenborg, that the science
of correspondences was revealed that the Christian Church "may revive and
again draw breath from the Lord through heaven." Gentiles received the Lord
at His first coming with joy; and so I believe the Gentiles in and out of
our church organizations will receive Him now as He comes in the clouds of
heaven. In the light manifested in the Sacred Scriptures by the aid of the
science of correspondences, every willing and obedient man and woman is
able to see that God is one, and that the Lord Jesus Christ, or God in His
Divine Humanity, is that one God and the only Being whom men should and
whom angels do worship. Then of what unspeakable importance it is that the
attention of all clergymen and laymen be speedily called to the writings
for the Church of the New Jerusalem which is now descending from God out of
heaven!

After practicing medicine for ten or twelve years, and on accepting the
chair of "Theory and Practice of Medicine" tendered by the Western
Homoeopathic College at Cleveland, Ohio, I commenced, as it were, the study
of the practical department of my profession anew, in order to prepare
myself for filling the chair profitably to the students and creditably to
myself. While preparing forgiving lectures, and especially in after years
while away from my active medical practice at Detroit, giving a course of
lectures at Cleveland every winter, I began to study and investigate in my
leisure hours the causes of diseases. Step by step I pursued my
investigations, until I became satisfied that most of the deformities,
diseases, and insanity which exist have been caused by the violation of the
physical and spiritual laws of our being which could have been avoided in
the past, and which can and must be in the future, if our race is to be
restored to a state of healthy, symmetrical, and noble manhood.
Consequently I came to the conclusion that it is far more important that
men, women, and children should be taught the laws of health and to
understand the causes of the prevailing deformities and diseases, and how
to shun them, than it was for them and their children to get sick,
deformed, and suffer, and often to pay their hard-earned money to doctors
for the uncertain chance of being cured--in fact, that "an ounce of
prevention is worth more than a pound of cure."

As a result of my investigations I wrote a series of articles for the
_Detroit Tribune_ on the bad habits which cause diseases, insanity,
and deformity; and, as opportunity offered, I gave lectures upon such
subjects; and finally I wrote a work entitled the "Avoidable Causes of
Disease," of 348 pages, of which I printed several editions, the first of
which was in 1859, and furnished to different publishers, and advertised to
a limited extent; after that it was published for several years by Messrs.
Mason Brothers, of New York; after which it came into my hands again. I
also wrote a pamphlet of 48 pages on "Marriage and its Violations," which,
for a time, was bound separately, but afterward was bound with the
"Avoidable Causes of Disease." In all, eleven editions of the work have
been printed; the last edition was printed by Messrs Boericke & Tafel, of
Philadelphia, who will probably publish any future editions which may be
demanded.

I soon found, what my publishers found after me, and other writers and
their publishers have found, that it does not pay to advertise books which
contain the greatest amount of practical and useful information which is
calculated to benefit readers, especially if they call in question the bad
habits and evils of life in which so many people indulge; consequently,
feeling that a work treating of diseases and their cure, in which I could
advertise my first work and call special attention to it, would sell more
readily, I wrote a book of 404 pages, entitled "Family Homoeopathy," in
which I took great pains to carefully describe in few words the various
diseases, and gave as definite and positive instruction as was practicable
to guide laymen, so that harmless homoeopathic remedies might take the
place of drastic drugs and injurious domestic remedies, which are so
frequently used when it is thought not necessary to call a physician, or
before his arrival when called. At the end of this volume I inserted a
carefully prepared table of the contents of the "Avoidable Causes of
Disease," occupying three pages, and referred not unfrequently to that work
when treating of various diseases.

With but very slight efforts, and no advertising on my part, "Family
Homoeopathy" sold very well--principally through the different
homoeopathic pharmacies in our country; and this increased the sale of "The
Avoidable Causes of Disease" very materially, as I expected it would.
Seventeen editions of "Family Homoeopathy" have been printed and sold, the
last edition by Dr. E. R. Ellis, of Detroit, Michigan, who will continue to
print and supply applicants as wanted.


SPIRITUAL CAUSES OF DISEASES.

As I continued my investigation into the causes of disease, and especially
as I read the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, I began to see more and more
clearly that diseases, to a large extent at least, have a spiritual origin,
and that the great obstacles to the removal of their causes lie in the
false doctrines of Christian churches. When selfish men who were leaders in
the churches desired to exercise their love of rule in spiritual and
natural things and to exercise despotic power, when they desired to reduce
other men to slavery and to hold them as slaves, or when they desired to
gratify other perverted passions and sensual appetites, they all went to
the Bible and strove to justify their conduct from its pages, with the
expectation of reaching heaven at last; for this purpose it required the
invention of special doctrines, and these they taught to their children,
and thus the Word of God was made of no effect by the traditions and
doctrines of men.

Unfortunately for the Protestant Church, early in its history, instead of
"If ye would enter into life, keep the commandments," there was substituted
the doctrine of justification by faith alone; which led men, especially the
young, to hope that by getting religion and having faith, they could at any
time escape the legitimate penalties which are attached by the Lord to evil
doing. No young man, religiously brought up, expects to go to hell; but he
intends to repent and be converted before he dies; he often thinks he will
"sow his wild oats" first, instead of earnestly and faithfully striving to
keep the Divine commandments from his youth up. Evil thinking and doing
develop an infernal life within him, which often gradually gains strength
until he is ruled by his perverted appetites and passions; and day by day
his ability to regain his freedom grows less.

When the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church began to teach men that
the punishment which rightly inheres to the doing of evil can be escaped by
confessing to the priest, doing penance, and receiving absolution, and that
every Catholic priest has from the Lord the power to forgive sins and to
grant indulgences, then the hope of escaping the penalties of sin by
something short of keeping the Divine Law in everyday life was held out to
the young of the Catholic laity, similar to that which the doctrine of
faith alone offered to the young of the Protestant world; and the results
have been similar. We know, however, that among religious teachers there
are many to-day in all of the various sects of Christians who have put
away, or are gradually putting away, or materially modifying, the perverted
doctrines of the past. As an illustration of the changes which are taking
place, I clip the following from an English paper, recently received:--

"The Rev. T. Vincent Tymms, the new Principal of Rawdon College, preaching
to his late congregation at Clapham, said:--

"'From the first day I stood in this pulpit until now, I have desired to
tear away from every heart that obscuring veil of pagan thought which first
attributes a wrathful justice to the Father and a tender mercy to CHRIST,
and then represents the Son as dying to soothe the anger and satisfy the
relentless demands of the Father. Such unholy and revolting ideas are the
leaven of heathenism, not the unleavened bread of Christian truth.'

"This is from the first of 'Three Farewell Sermons,' published by Messrs.
James Clarke & Co., Fleet Street, E. C."

More and more, as time progressed, I began to realize that there was very
little chance for any radical improvement of our race until the false
doctrines which have come down to us from the dark ages were put away; and
knowing that in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg we have a new revelation
from the Lord, even the truths of his Second Coming in the clouds of
heaven, which are destined to make all things new by leading men back to a
life of obedience to the Divine commandments; and, furthermore, believing
the most important missionary field to-day in the world to be among the
clergy of our country, I wrote an "Address to the Clergy" of 24 pages. This
Address I sent to over 50,000 clergymen. A few years before I wrote that
Address, the late Mr. L. C. Iungerich, of Philadelphia, through the book
publishing firm of J. B. Lippincott & Co., of that city, had offered to
clergymen who would order and send the stamps to pay the postage,
Swedenborg's "True Christian Religion," and afterward he added the
"Apocalypse Revealed;" and the New Church Tract Society added to the above
works "Heaven and Hell,"--all to be sent free to clergymen on receipt of
postage. Several thousand copies of the above works had been sent when I
wrote and sent out my Address. Upon the second page of the cover of my
tract was a notice of the above-named gift books; and my aim was to hastily
call the attention of clergymen to them, and to give them some idea of the
claims of Swedenborg's writings to their attention, and to encourage them
to send for and to read the books thus providentially within their reach.
As a result of receiving the Address, thousands of clergymen sent for and
obtained one or more of the above books.

When I commenced sending the above-named Address to the clergy, I resolved
to devote one-tenth of my income to the work of spreading a knowledge of
the doctrines of the New Jerusalem and of an orderly life among my
fellow-men. I can truly say, and will say for the encouragement of others,
that as I have given I have received; for never had I prospered financially
as I have since that resolution was made and lived up to. After having
secured a competency for myself and family I did not stop at one-tenth of
my income.

The result of sending the Address was so satisfactory that I wrote and
compiled a work of 260 pages, entitled, "Skepticism and Divine Revelation,"
with the intention of sending it to the clergy. My aim was to present a
hasty view of the application of the science of correspondences in the
interpretation of the first chapters of Genesis, and some other parts of
the Word, and to meet the arguments of skeptics, and thus to show that the
Sacred Scriptures are Divine revelations from God to man, and plenarily
inspired, consequently differing as much from the words of man as God's
works do from the works of man. In that work the attention of the reader is
called to the creation of the world, the creation of man and woman, Eve,
the Garden of Eden, its trees and river, the fall of man, the serpent, Cain
and Abel, the flood, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the flood of waters, the
Ark, the Tower of Babel, Sun worship and idolatry, spiritualism, the little
reliance to be placed upon communications from spirits, and why. Next, the
doctrines of the New Jerusalem--God, the Incarnation, the Divine Trinity,
sacrificial worship, the Cross, a true and heavenly life, the end of the
world and Second Coming of the Lord, the resurrection, state of infants in
the other life, the state and condition of the Heathen and Gentiles in
another life, the New Jerusalem--the Church of the Future--the Crown of all
Churches, the Divine promise to those who receive the New Jerusalem at the
Lord's Second Coming as revealed through Emanuel Swedenborg.

Such were the subjects discussed in the light of the revelations made by
the Lord's chosen servant. My aim was to produce the best work I could.
Consequently, when I found in the writings of others passages, or even
whole sections, in which the ideas that I desired to present were as well
or better conveyed than I thought I could present them, I selected them,
giving the writers credit for the same, and the sixteenth and twenty-third
chapters were written at my request by the Rev. William B. Hayden, who
assisted me materially in seeing the work through the press. About one-half
of the matter in the volume was selected from other writers.

I commenced to send this work in editions of 10,000 to the clergy of our
country, and when I had sent about 50,000, I had the "Address to the
Clergy" printed and bound with it, and both were sent to the Catholic
clergy, to whom the Address had not previously been sent. From that time
both works have been printed and bound in one volume. About 65,000 of the
above works, containing a notice of the gift books, named in preceding
pages, on the second page of the cover, have been sent to the clergy of
America, about 10,000 have been sent to physicians, and as many more have
been circulated among laymen. The sending of this book to the clergy
immensely increased the orders for the gift books.

The above works have been translated into the German language, and about
48,000 copies sent to German-speaking clergymen in Germany and other parts
of Europe, and in our own country. They have been translated into the
Swedish language, and about 6000 copies have been sent to the clergy of
Sweden and Norway and circulated among the laity; and they have been
translated into Italian, and 10,000 sent to and circulated in Italy. And
more recently they have been translated into French, and 20,000 printed
which are now being sent to the clergy of France and the French-speaking
clergy of other European countries, and of our own country.

Then, I have aided materially in sending other works to the clergy of our
country, either explaining or containing the doctrines of the New
Jerusalem, upon the second page of the covers of which will be found a
notice of the gift books offered to clergymen. I aided with money the
Swedenborg Publishing Association in sending Rev. Mr. Ravlin's "Progressive
Thoughts on Great Subjects" to all the clergy of our country whose names
could be had; and, later, I have aided the American Swedenborg Printing and
Publishing Society in sending, first, "The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly
Doctrines;" second, "The Doctrine of the Lord;" third, "The Doctrine of
Life"--all three Swedenborg's own works--to all the clergy in our country
whose names could be readily obtained; in all 82,500. So that almost every
clergyman in our country has had an opportunity to acquire some knowledge
of the doctrines and revelations made by the Lord through Emanuel
Swedenborg for the benefit of men in this new age--doctrines very different
from those formulated in the creeds of bygone centuries--and thousands of
our clergy are beginning to realize, that we must return to the rational
and plain doctrines taught in the Sacred Scriptures, and summed up by the
Lord when on earth in the Two Great Commandments, Thou shalt love the Lord
with all thy might and strength, and thy neighbor as thyself, and that we
must commence the new life by repentance, or by being willing to see our
evils and to shun them as sins against God.

As a result of the efforts made by others and myself to make known to the
clergy the offer of the gift books, 32,831 clergymen have sent for and
obtained "The True Christian Religion," 30,887 have obtained "Heaven and
Hell," and 25,522 have obtained "The Apocalypse Revealed," according to the
report of the Trustees of the Iungerich fund (May, 1891).


COMMUNION WINE.

For several years after I joined the Church I paid little attention to the
subject of communion wine. But at last an article appeared in a New-Church
paper, in which the writer claimed that fermented wine was a good and
useful article to be used as a beverage, and he tried to justify its use by
the teachings of the Church. Such views were so contrary to what I regarded
as true, that I immediately commenced a more careful and critical
examination of the writings of Swedenborg, to ascertain what is taught
therein as to wine. I soon found that he distinctly recognized two kinds of
wine, as does the Bible: one kind unfermented, a good and nourishing fluid
to which he always gives a good signification when its use is not abused;
and the other kind, known by its effects on man when he drinks it to be
fermented, to which he has never given a good signification when it is
clear from the context that reference is had to fermented wine. And I will
here say that my opponents in the Church have done precisely what the
advocates of slavery, intoxicating drinks, and skeptics have done in their
appeals to the Bible to sustain their views. They find here and there a
comparison and passage which, by placing their own construction upon them,
they think will justify their views, while they totally ignore a large
number of passages which most clearly and positively teach a totally
different doctrine; and they ignore scientific facts, the well known
effects of drinking fermented wine, and the testimony of ancient writers
whenever such testimony does not accord with their own views. Thus they
uphold the use of the drunkard's cup as a beverage and even as a
sacramental wine; and within my knowledge more than one poor man in our
Church who was struggling to reform his life has been led back by partaking
of it to drunkenness.

A distinguished clergyman said in a letter to the writer:--

"I can never forget the experience already related to you when Mr. ----, my
wife's brother-in-law, a gentleman of classical education, had become a
sober man through my efforts and received the heavenly doctrines ... Then
came the Lord's Supper and we had fermented California wine. I handed him
the cup, he drank, and after church he fled to some place where wine could
be had, came home late in the evening drunk, and continued drinking for
three months, until he died one evening after being brought home beastly
drunk. Unfermented wine is no seducer, and had Mr. ---- been given such in
the Sacrament, he might be living, a sober man, to-day. Your books on the
'Wine Question' deserve, therefore, all that you have done and expended
under the Lord's guidance for their publication and circulation, and God
only knows how much good they will yet have to do."

Another clergyman wrote:--

"I was called to officiate at the funeral of a child. The parents--who were
non-professors of religion--became much interested in the New Church. I
furnished them suitable reading matter and visited them occasionally.
Within a year they united with our Society. The man had formerly been a
drinking man, but had ceased entirely. They were regular attendants on our
church services. He was a mechanic. His well-behaved life restored public
confidence in him, and he soon found constant employment at his trade.
After about two years he felt a desire to take the Lord's Supper. I did not
dissuade him; for, as he had abstained so long and faithfully, I felt sure
he would continue. He presented himself with the communicants. Upon
receiving the cup he took a sip and moved to return the cup to me; but
suddenly, the old appetite being touched by the alcoholic spark, he
returned the cup to his lips--it was about two-thirds full-and nearly
drained it, as though urged on by demons. Poor man! Realizing what he had
done, and evidently feeling disgraced, he at once arose and left the
temple. From that time he returned to drink, and I have been unable to
regain sufficient influence over him to effect his return to our services.

"Another man in my Society formerly drank to excess. I dare not encourage
him to come to the communion. A majority of our members favor intoxicating
wine for the Lord's Supper. How they can do so after witnessing its
dreadful effects, I cannot understand. But the light is spreading, and may
the Lord hasten the full day."

O Lord! how long? how long shall such evils continue in our churches?

Of course I replied to the article in the New-Church paper alluded to
above, and others replied to me, and I to them in return; but it was not
long before notice was given that the discussion would cease, and that with
three unanswered articles against me in one number of the paper, and that
in a paper edited by a clergyman, and published by the General Body of the
Church. Well, looking for the welfare of the Church and its members which I
loved, I could not stand still and see such false and dangerous views
boldly and dogmatically proclaimed in the most extensively circulated
periodical of the Church without doing my best to counteract them.
Consequently I wrote a reply in a tract form, and sent it to every
New-Churchman whose name I could obtain. This was but the beginning. An
article appeared in another periodical of the Church to which I was allowed
to reply; but the discussion was soon closed, and I was given no chance to
reply to the last communication, and a reserved communication which was
published afterward. Finding that there was no chance to present the
temperance side of the wine question fairly before the readers of these two
periodicals, I was led to write several pamphlets in reply to such articles
as appeared in favor of the use of fermented wine, in which I endeavored to
present fully and fairly, generally in the language of its advocates, their
views of the question, and I endeavored to answer them in the light
afforded by the Sacred Scriptures, the writings of the Church, ancient
history, science, and well-known facts as to the manufacture and
preservation of unfermented and fermented wines in all ages.

Several pamphlets were published in reply to the advocates for the use of
fermented wine in our New-Church periodicals in the course of five or six
years, of which about 10,000 of each were printed and sent to all
Newchurchmen whose names I was able to obtain in this country, England, and
elsewhere, hoping to reach as far as possible the readers of the writings
of my opponents and others. The following are the names of the pamphlets
written, printed, and sent, viz: "Pure Wine, Fermented Wine, and Other
Alcoholic Drinks," published in 1880; "The Wine Question in the Light of
the New Dispensation," in 1882; "Reply to the Academy's Review," in 1883;
"Intoxicants, Prohibition, and our New-Church Periodicals," 1885, to which
was added "Deterioration of the Puritan Stock," 1884; making in all, with
index, 736 pages.

Finally, I had printed an edition of all of the above pamphlets from the
plates, and bound in cloth, of which I sent a copy to all New-Church
ministers in the world whose names I could get, and to some others.

My controversy with the clergy on the wine question led me to fear that
there were other evils gradually creeping into the Church organization
which should be exposed, and against which both laymen and clergymen should
be warned; therefore, I wrote a tract entitled, "The New Church: its
Ministry, Laity, and Ordinances, with an Appendix on Intoxicants and Our
New-Church Periodicals," published and sent out in 1886, the latter part to
answer some articles which had recently appeared in the Church papers. This
tract was sent to about 10,000 or 11,000 Newchurchmen.

Then I wrote and compiled and condensed from my previous writings,
including "The Avoidable Causes of Disease," a work of 511 pages, fully
presenting the wine question in all its aspects, and the use of tobacco and
opium, and the bad habits of women, faulty methods of rearing children,
etc., etc., of which in paper covers I sent out over 10,000 to my
New-Church brethren, and about 40,000 copies I sent to clergymen of various
denominations.

In the year 1883 my attention was seriously called to the signs of
deterioration of the Puritan stock in New England, especially in
Massachusetts, my native State, where it was shown that in six years,
ending in 1881, the deaths among the native population fully equaled, if
they did not exceed, the births; whereas, among the people of foreign
birth, the births exceeded the deaths by over 87,000. And I found, on
visiting my native town in Western Massachusetts, and the school district
where I attended, where we used to have about thirty scholars in the winter
and twenty in the summer, when I was a boy, and although there are but two
families less residing there now than when I was a boy, and all native
Americans, still I found that they had but eight or nine scholars during
the winter, and not enough to keep up a school in summer.

As a result of my inquiries I wrote a work of 52 pages, calling attention
to the spiritual and natural causes of such decline of the native stock,
and especially to the bad habits and false ideas of men and women which
have produced it. This pamphlet I entitled, "Deterioration of the Puritan
Stock, and its Causes," and printed 140,000 copies, which I sent to all the
clergymen and physicians in our country whose names I could get, regarding
them as the teachers and leaders of the people, and largely responsible for
the existence of at least some of the prevailing evils of life.

Within the last few years pamphlets have been written by prominent
clergymen of some of the prevailing denominations advocating the use of
fermented wine, especially for sacramental purposes, in strong language,
and claiming that it is a good and useful fluid. This seemed to aid and
comfort distillers, brewers, and saloonists very much. At last one appeared
entitled "Communion Wine," in which the advocates for the use of the "Fruit
of the Vine," or pure unfermented wine, were assailed in no very gentle
language. Several thousand of this pamphlet were sent by a Rev. Doctor of
Divinity to clergymen, with a special request from him, to at least some of
them, that they should read them and give him their opinion as to its
merits. About 285 clergymen responded, most of them in favor of the views
contained in the pamphlet, but 22 most decidedly opposed. The arguments in
favor of fermented wine were based upon assumptions which were entirely
groundless, and which have again and again been exposed. I could but feel
that the time had come when a concise statement of the truth upon the wine
question should be written and placed in the hands of every clergyman in
our country; and as, in the controversy extending over several years, I had
had occasion to examine the wine question in all of its various aspects,
and to read whatever I could find written on both sides of the question,
and had had suggestions from, and the cooperation of, some of the most
distinguished scholars upon this question in this country and England, I
felt that it was my duty to write a reply, which I did, of 38 pages, which
was printed in connection with a short article on "The Holy Supper is
Representative," by Mr. J. R. Hoffer, editor of the Mount Joy
_Herald_, Mount Joy, Pa. Of this pamphlet over 80,000 were sent by Mr.
Hoffer to clergymen in the United States. And of my reply alone, in a tract
form, which is based upon the letter of the Sacred Scriptures--the
testimony of ancient writers and science--about 50,000 copies have been
printed and distributed by Mr. J. N. Stearns, 58 Reade Street, New York,
who keeps a supply on hand to fill all orders.

The last pamphlet before this one which I have written is one recently
published by "The Swedenborg Publishing Association," of Germantown,
Philadelphia, Pa., entitled "The Essential Points of the Wine Question
Carefully Examined," which, with an Addendum of 6 pages by W. J. Parsons,
son of the late Professor Theophilus Parsons, contained 70 pages. This
pamphlet was written for Newchurchmen and based upon the Sacred Scriptures
as unfolded by the Science of Correspondences revealed through Swedenborg.
This pamphlet was sent only to 10,000 Newchurchmen.


THE RESULTS OF EFFORTS IN BEHALF OF TEMPERANCE.

The reader may reasonably inquire what results have followed all the
efforts which I have made to call the attention of the clergy and laity of
the New Church, and the clergy of other churches, to the importance of
using as a communion wine, the genuine "Fruit of the Vine" as the Lord has
organized, ripened, and sweetened it in the grape, instead of a leavened or
fermented wine, which, when used as a beverage, causes disease,
drunkenness, insanity, and death, in innumerable instances, among the
clergy and laity of our churches, and enslaves their children often before
their rational faculties are fully developed. I am happy to say that to-day
there are quite a number of New-Church clergymen, in this country and
England, and a large number of laymen, who, after a careful examination of
the subject, are satisfied that the good wine of the Word and the Writings,
and the only wine suitable for use as a Communion wine, is always the fruit
of the vine, and never fermented wine. Many of these clergymen and church
members have not always thought thus, and did not when I commenced writing
upon the subject.

At the Annual Meetings of the General Convention of the New Church, when
unfermented as well as fermented wine has been permitted to be used, and
full notice has been given, nearly or quite one-third of the members
present have deliberately partaken of unfermented wine.

I am satisfied, from what I have seen and heard, that one of the most
useful works which the Lord has enabled me to do was the writing and
sending the reply to "Communion Wine" to over 80,000 clergymen. The clergy
of the prevailing organizations are not so difficult to reach upon this
subject as are a majority of those of the New Church, for they have not
confirmed themselves in favor of fermented wine from the writings for the
New Dispensation. It is one thing to see new truths when they are revealed,
but it is another step to be willing to see that those truths condemn
falses in which we have strongly confirmed ourselves, or evil habits in
which we delight, and to avoid confirming ourselves in falses, and to avoid
striving to justify evils. To do the latter means to endure and resist
temptations, and to engage in a warfare until the old man with his deeds is
put off.

The New Church is descending from God out of heaven, and as it progresses,
fermented wine is disappearing from the Communion tables of Christian
Churches.

"The new wine," says Swedenborg, "is the Divine Truth of the New Testament,
and thus of the New Church." (A. R. 316.)

The new wine for the New Christian Church is unfermented wine, pure as it
comes from the hands of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, in the fruit of
the vine, and not a leavened wine. And when men return to its exclusive
use, multitudes now enslaved, diseased, and insane from leavened wine will
be set free, cured and restored to their right mind by the Great
Physician--by the inflowing life from Him through this physical
representative of His blood.

The New Church is not a new sect or organization, but a new faith and a
renewed life resulting from a revelation of Divine Truth, made by the Lord
through Emanuel Swedenborg, for the benefit of all sects and all men, that
the Christian Church may "revive again" and be reunited in the bonds of
Charity, by worshiping the one God whose name is one--even the Lord Jesus
Christ--and by striving to live a life according to His commandments.




CHAPTER X.

FINAL APPEAL TO THE CLERGY.


I again appeal to you, as Christian men, to lay aside prejudice and
preconceived ideas, if you are troubled with any that have come down to you
from darker ages, and to patiently examine the writings of Emanuel
Swedenborg.

If you desire and are prepared to read with open eyes and a willing heart,
you can but see that the fig-tree is putting forth its leaves, and that we
are living in the dawning light and warmth of a new summer. Look at the
radical changes which have taken place within the last one hundred and
thirty-five years, and are taking place to-day with increasing rapidity, in
every department of science, arts, mechanics, medicine, and even in the
religious sentiments of the people and in theology, and in civil and
ecclesiastical governments, and you may rest assured, that as certain as
the Word of the Lord is true, so sure it is that we are now seeing but the
beginning of the changes which are yet to be witnessed; for the sure word
of prophecy is, "Behold, I make all things new"--New Heavens and a New
Earth--old things are to pass away, and we can see that they are passing
away.

Swedenborg assures us that he was permitted by the Lord to witness the Last
Judgment in 1757, which, like all general judgments, took place in the
spiritual world. The Lord when on earth declared, "Now is the judgment of
this world, now is the prince of this world cast out." Swedenborg tells us
that between the Lord's first coming and His second coming vast societies
were organized in the world of spirits, which is intermediate between
heaven and hell, from among those who were not fully prepared for either
heaven or hell; and they were associated with those of like affections and
persuasions in this world. As the First Christian Church became gradually
perverted by false doctrines and evils of life, and as its members
increased in the spiritual world, their influence was more and more felt
among the religious societies in this world, interfering with the inflowing
of good and truth from the Lord and His Word into the minds of men, and
threatening their ability to see and obey the truth. The judgment consisted
in a new influx of Divine truth into such societies, the effects of which
were such that those who were really good were received into heaven, and
those who were evil joined their like in hell, glad to escape from the new
inflowing of heavenly light and life. In this way they were separated from
men on the earth and human freedom reestablished. The effects of that
judgment are to-day gradually being manifested here on earth.

Swedenborg tells us that he witnessed the downfall of Babylon the great in
the spiritual world. By Babylon is meant those who are in the love of
spiritual dominion over the souls of men. And also he witnessed the casting
down of the Dragon. By the Dragon is meant those who are in the doctrine of
salvation by faith and ceremonials alone.

As the above vast organizations in the spiritual world were then removed
from contact with men, I will let Swedenborg speak of some of the results
which followed that judgment in the spiritual world, and of those which are
following and which must follow in the Church on earth.

"After the Last Judgment (in 1757) a new heaven was formed from among
Christians, only from those, however, who acknowledged the Lord to be the
God of heaven and earth, and also repented in the world of their evil
works. From this heaven the New Church on earth, which is the New
Jerusalem, descends, and will continue to descend.... And the New Church
on earth makes one with the New Heaven." (Preface to A.R.)

"In this new Christian heaven are all those who, from the first formation
of the Christian Church, worshiped the Lord and lived according to His
commandments in the Word, and were therefore in charity and faith from the
Lord through the Word." (A.R. 876.)

Swedenborg tells us that "the slavery and captivity in which the man of the
Church was formerly" were removed by the Last Judgment; so that "he can
now, from restored liberty, more easily perceive interior truths if he has
a desire for them." (L.J. 74.) And again he tells us that, as a result of
the Last Judgment, the people of Christendom "would be in a more free state
of thinking on matters of faith, that is, on spiritual things which relate
to heaven, because spiritual liberty has been restored to them" (L.J. 73);
and that consequently "the state of the world and of the Church before the
Last Judgment," compared with what it was, or was to be after, "was as
evening and night compared with morning and day." (Contin. L. J.)

Now can we not all see that the very changes anticipated in the above
quotations are rapidly taking place in the Christian world all around us?
Men and women are beginning to cease to be willing to be led blindly by
clergymen and creeds, with their understandings under subjection to dogma.
Many of our clergy, we see, are not willing to be thus led. Swedenborg
tells us that in this New Dispensation men are to be led in freedom
according to reason, and that professing to believe doctrines which they
neither understand nor perceive to be true is of very little use to men.

As false doctrines are passing away, is it not of vast moment that true and
rational doctrines should take their place, that our houses and churches be
not left desolate? Somewhat extensively among the clergy, and far more
extensively among scientists and intelligent people, is the Divine origin
of the Sacred Scriptures being called in question. In the writings of
Swedenborg, as has already been stated, you will find this question clearly
and distinctly settled, for you are there shown that they are written
according to the law of correspondence between natural and spiritual
things, and therefore that they contain a connected spiritual sense which
causes them to differ from all merely human writings, and demonstrates
their Divine origin to all who are willing to examine and to see the truth.
The day is not far distant when, in the Christian Church, the Sacred
Scriptures will be reverenced as they have never been before; for the
coming of the Son of Man in the Clouds of Heaven, or in the literal sense
of the Word, is with power and great glory.

Even now in the dawning light old false doctrines are rapidly passing away.
Look! What congregation would be willing to sit quietly and hear the
doctrine of infant damnation proclaimed? Who is satisfied with the doctrine
of election and predestination as taught but a few years ago? That favorite
doctrine of my childhood's days, the vicarious atonement as taught then, is
trembling in the balance, for it is being found not to accord with the Word
of the Lord, nor does it appeal to human reason. The doctrine of a trinity
of Divine Persons will soon follow. How few even now believe in the
resurrection of the material body! Our church members are rapidly coming to
believe with St. Paul that there is a natural body and there is a spiritual
body, and that the spiritual body is raised at death, and that flesh and
blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. The doctrine of a literal hell of
fire and brimstone, as taught but a few years ago, is rarely taught to-day.

And now, Christian ministers, as these old doctrines are departing, what
have you to substitute for them? You know very well that when extreme views
are given up, there is great danger that opposite extreme views will be
substituted.

Troublesome questions are arising to-day before the clergy and in our
churches, which require to be handled with care by intelligent and wise
men, if the Lord and His Word are to be reverenced in our churches as they
should be, and men are to be led to live heavenly lives.

The question of probation after death is troubling many clergymen and
laymen at this day. They see that men and women often leave this world in a
very uncertain state of life, so far as they can judge, ill prepared for
either heaven or hell; what is to-become of them is the question. Are they
all to put away their false doctrines and evils of life and go to heaven,
as some believe; or are some of them to go through purgatory and finally,
after being purified, to enter heaven, and the rest go to hell, as others
believe? Or again, has a man the same chance of choosing and the same
ability to choose between truth and falsehood and good and evil, and of
shaping his life there, as he has here?

Upon these questions the New Revelations made by the Lord through Emanuel
Swedenborg throw a flood of rational light. They show us that heaven is not
a place into which a man can be let as a matter of favor; but that, for a
man to enter heaven, heaven must be within him. Heaven consists in loving
supremely the Lord and the neighbor, or obedience to the Divine
Commandments. Hell consists in loving self, money, vain show, ruling over
others without regard to use, or sensual gratifications supremely. Before a
man can become a resident of hell, hell must be within him. Men enter the
other world in much the same state as they leave this world; death does not
change their essential characters. Good angels appointed by the Lord strive
to teach heavenly truths to all, and to lead all into heavenly affections
and societies who are willing to be led. But as the Lord respects the
freedom of all men in this world and compels no man to love Him, his
neighbor, or obedience to the Divine Commandments supremely, He compels no
man there. The Lord casts no one into hell, but when our material bodies
are put off and we appear among the inhabitants of the spiritual world, our
thoughts and intentions can be seen more clearly than in this world;
consequently the good and evil necessarily separate; and finally every one
sooner or later associates with his like, the good forming heavenly
societies and the evil, infernal societies.

It is evident that those who are guided in all they think and do by either
love of the Lord, the neighbor, or of obeying the Divine Commandments, need
no penal laws or punishments. It is equally evident that men who are
actuated by the supreme love of self, vain show, or sensual gratifications
must be restrained, in that world as in this, by penal laws and
punishments. But we are told that the Lord governs the hells as well as the
heavens through His angels, and does not permit vindictive or unjust
punishments. All punishments in that world are reformatory, or for the
purpose of restraining spirits from evil doing, and protecting others, as
all punishments should be in this world. The Lord's tender mercies are
around all His creatures in that world as well as in this, and He strives
to make all happy. Even the evil man is permitted to enjoy his delight so
long as he does not interfere with or harm others or himself.

Here in this state of probation good and evil men dwell together in the
same society, so that the evil have good instruction and good examples, and
every chance for repentance and reformation; but in hell they dwell among
their like, and it would seem that they are not so favorably circumstanced
for changing their life's love there as in this world. In the world of
spirits into which we enter at death, all who are not fully prepared by
their lives here for heaven or hell tarry until their characters are fully
developed, when each one goes to his own congenial society either in heaven
or hell, according to his ruling love.

Swedenborg, so far as he was permitted, describes what he saw in the
spiritual world; but he did not claim to be a prophet--the future, he
tells us, is known to the Lord alone, not even to the angels. Some of the
readers of his writings, from certain passages contained therein, have come
to think that the Lord in His loving kindness may yet so change the
inhabitants of hell that they may be received into heavenly societies, as
some have drawn from the letter of the Sacred Scriptures a similar
conclusion; while a majority of readers, in both cases, have come to a
different conclusion. But the future is known to the Lord alone, and He is
love itself, and in His hands we may safely leave the inhabitants of hell;
especially as our belief one way or the other will not change the final
destiny of a single individual one iota; therefore it is not a practical
question.


PREVAILING EVILS OF LIFE.

We are living in the midst of prevailing evils of life which should command
the special attention of every clergyman and every Christian. Even infants
and children are dying on all sides, and those that survive are being
contaminated often even in our churches by the example of clergymen and
prominent members.

But yesterday, as I was speaking to a very intelligent, well-known citizen
of New York, he expressed to me the opinion that gambling and a desire to
obtain money or valuables without returning a due equivalent, by purchasing
lottery or chance tickets and stock gambling, is a greater evil than
selling and drinking intoxicating drinks; and he most earnestly blamed many
of our clergy and churches for the prevalence of this great evil; for, as
is well known, it is at church fairs that the young and even children
frequently take their first lessons, enticed thereto by the hope that they
may be able to obtain an article of much value for a trifling sum. In this
the work of demoralization commences, and leads naturally to gambling for
money, betting on games, horse-racing, buying lottery tickets, and stock
gambling, stimulated by the hope of making fortunes by risking small
amounts, not stopping to think that what they gain, if successful, others
must lose who are probably no better able to lose than they are. How much
short of stealing is this? Look at the sad results which follow the
practice started in so many of our churches--the poverty, the thieving, the
failures, the breaches of trust, the disgrace and loss of character, and
the poor wretches in prison, and others who merit punishment. Christian
ministers, is not this a most fearful evil which you, if guilty of
encouraging it, should put away from your own lives and teach your people
to shun as a sin against God?

Again, it is the duty of husbands and wives to reproduce their species or
to multiply and replenish the earth, and this is the most important use of
life. Yet a vast multitude of women, by tight dressing to gratify vanity,
impair health and their ability to bear healthy, well-formed children, and
even their ability to nurse such as are born to them; and such deformed
women walk into and out of our churches as examples to young girls, without
one word of admonition. And some church members deliberately shirk the
responsibility of rearing families of children, either because it is not
fashionable to have large families, or because children would interfere
with their selfish or sensual enjoyment; and this is not the worst which
could be said of some.

Now, although it is equally the duty of all husbands and wives to multiply
and replenish the earth, yet church members who, either for the want of
ability or inclination, have no children, and bachelors and maidens who do
not marry, will stand idly by and see the husbands and wives, however poor
they may be, who are willing to do their duty, take the entire care of
their children until they reach adult age; they deliberately leave the
entire responsibility upon the parents of caring for and raising the money
required for the support of the children, who are to be the men and women
of the next generation. Is this right? It is true that public schools have
been established, for all feel that it will not be safe for the children,
who are to rule our country a few years hence to grow up in ignorance.

Men and women will roll in their thousands and hundreds of thousands and
even millions, and see the toiling, struggling, hard-working brothers and
sisters, sometimes even in the same church organization, striving to do
faithfully their part in the care of the children who are to people and
replenish the earth, without feeling that they have any responsibility or
duty to perform in the way of giving a helping hand in this most important
work of life. Now I ask you, brethren of the Christian Church, are such
things in accordance with the grand and noble precepts of Christianity, in
which we profess to believe--thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself? Of
course, husbands and wives who are able are but too glad to take care of
their own children; but there are multitudes who need help. If wealthy
husbands and wives are not willing or able to have children, or if
bachelors and maidens are not willing to marry and have children, have they
no duty to perform toward aiding, even financially, and by their own hands
if such help is needed, those who do this most important work, and thus add
to the number of intelligent and Christian inhabitants of our country? for
the want of whom our country is being flooded by multitudes of the most
ignorant of other nations, who have comparatively no knowledge of our free
institutions and of religious freedom.

It is true that our poorhouses are established at the expense of the
public, to which parents who are without means or employment or adequate
wages to support their children can go with their children to avoid
starvation; but what parents desire to take their children to such
institutions? And we have also charitable institutions to which children
can be sent to prevent their starving and going naked; but what father or
mother likes to part with their children? It is not charity that such need,
but the kind, helping hands of Christian brothers and sisters. All things
are to be made new. As the light and especially the heat or love of the New
Jerusalem descend into the minds of men, hard-hearted selfishness will
disappear, and true Christians will love and strive to help one another and
all men as they may need.

And now, in conclusion, I appeal to you, Christian ministers, one and all,
to diligently read the Revelations made by the Lord at His second coming
through His chosen servant, Emanuel Swedenborg, for they will give you new
light and, if you are willing, new life. The light is spreading from the
East even unto the West, and the day is not far distant when a clergyman,
to be acceptable to an intelligent Christian congregation, must be familiar
with the grand and rational doctrines and precepts revealed by the Lord for
the benefit of the men of our day and the Church of the future.

It must be evident to you even now that many of the clergy and intelligent
laymen are steadily drifting in one of two directions; either to a distinct
recognition of the Supreme Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, of the
holiness and Divinity of the Sacred Scriptures and of the life of charity
or of obedience to the Divine Commandments as the only way of salvation; or
to an ignoring the existence of a personal God, and of course of all
revelation from God. There is no middle ground. Choose ye this day whom ye
will serve.

Below you will find a notice of a work on the Science of Correspondences,
the science in accordance with which all material things were created and
the Sacred Scriptures were written. Send for it. It will give you new
light.

[Advertisement Page]




ADDENDUM.

A REVIEW OF AN ARTICLE ENTITLED "CHRIST AND THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION"
IN "THE CHRISTIAN UNION."


In the _Christian Union_ for July 11, 1891, will be found an article
written by a clergyman which should not be allowed to go unnoticed. The
reverend gentleman assumes in that article that "the life and teaching of
Jesus Christ constitute a Divine standard for all His followers." And so do
I most unequivocally; but I also claim that we should not be blinded by
either strong confirmations or sensual appetites in favor of false views
and evil habits, so that, having eyes, we see not the truth and
consequently cannot lead a life in accordance with the truth. The writer
truly says: "Christ is not to be blindly, but intelligently, followed." In
other words, I would say the light afforded by science, by well-known facts
and ancient history, must be allowed to shine upon such an important
question as the one under consideration. Then again, the testimony of
distinguished scholars who have devoted years to a careful consideration of
the wine question in the light of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, of
ancient history and science, should not be ignored, and statements made
which have repeatedly been shown to have no foundation in truth, but which
are contradicted by facts which at this day should be known by every man
who attempts to write upon such an important question.

In the consideration of this question the above writer appears to utterly
confound good and truth with the evil and false, which, it is manifest,
should never be done. His whole argument is based upon assumptions which we
shall find, the more carefully we examine them, have no foundation in
truth. He assumes that fermented wine is a good and useful article to be
used as a beverage, and, after admitting that he thinks the law of
Christian love requires a general abstinence at the present day, he says:--

"But I trust that this necessity belongs simply to the present epoch, and I
am not without hope that we shall yet come to a time--though not in my
day--when a pure wine can be used by society with no more seriously evil
results than now are produced by the use of tea and coffee."

By pure wine he means fermented wine. He apparently thinks that tea and
coffee are harmless drinks. Of this more hereafter. Again he says:--

"Any permanent temperance reform, however great emphasis it may lay on a
Christian duty of total abstinence, must draw sharply and maintain stoutly
the distinction between total abstinence and temperance, between
drunkenness and drinking. It must recognize drunkenness to be everywhere
and always a sin, drinking to be made so only by the circumstances;
temperance to be always and everywhere a duty, total abstinence to be only
a means now to be employed for promoting temperance."

Now let us examine this assumption in the light of science, facts, and
history.

First. It is known that all the drunkenness in the world up to the sixth
century--and history and even the Bible shows us that there was plenty of
it, and this the above writer admits--was caused by drinking fermented wine
and other fermented drinks, for the art of distillation was unknown. And
almost all of the drunkenness in our country at this day results either
directly from men and boys drinking wine, beer, or other fermented drinks,
or from the appetite thus formed leading them on to the use of distilled
liquors; for it is rarely that they commence by using such liquors. There
has never been an age in the world's history when the drinking of fermented
wine did not lead large numbers of those who drank it to drunkenness, and
it is safe to say that in no age of the world has there ever been more
drunkenness among those who drink at all than there is at this day.

As to temperance: That old philosopher, Aristotle, tells us that temperance
consists in the moderate use of things good and useful, and total
abstinence from things injurious.

Second. Fermented wine is either one of the good gifts of God, to be used
as a drink to build up and supply the wants of the human body, and may be
used freely as we may use milk, the unfermented juice of grapes, and water,
or it is not. Let us examine this question carefully for a few moments. We
all know that there are animal, vegetable, and mineral substances which act
as poisons when taken into the stomach, and that to thus use them is to
violate the laws of health and life and to seriously endanger health,
reason, and life; and not a few are destroyed by their use. The Divine
commandment in regard to all such we know is, "Thou shall not" use them if
they kill or endanger life when used. We know that there are other
substances which are useful and necessary to nourish and build up the body
and give it strength and health. How are we to distinguish these two
classes of substances? By their effects on the body we may distinguish
between good and useful substances and poisons. There is a natural appetite
for wholesome food, which is satisfied by the usual quantity, and the
middle-aged and old do not require any more nor even as much as the young
man. But for poisons, unless they are made sweet by other substances, there
is no natural appetite, but it has to be cultivated by using the poison;
but when the appetite is once developed no other substance in nature will
satisfy the appetite for it, and the appetite demands that the quantity
taken shall be steadily increased to relieve the craving and diseased
symptoms which the poison has caused; and if the natural inclination to
increase the quantity or frequency is followed, unrestrained by caution or
conscience, the individual comes at last to be able to take a quantity with
impunity which would kill more than one person not addicted to its use. We
all know that this is notably true in regard to fermented wine and other
alcoholic drinks, opium and tobacco.

Again, all poisons, when taken into the stomach in a sufficient quantity
and length of time, cause specific diseases characteristic of the poison
taken. Healthy food does not do this. You see a man reeling in the streets,
or drunk on the sidewalk, or with rum-blossoms on his face; you know that
he has been drinking fermented wine or some fluid containing its chief
ingredient--alcohol. Now, unfermented wine and other healthy drinks never
cause such specific diseases or symptoms, however freely used.

Here then, in the characteristics given above, is a broad gulf, as broad
and deep as that between Heaven and Hell, between nourishing, life-giving
substances and the poisons named above. Of the one we are to use
temperately, but from the latter we are to totally abstain. "Thou shalt
not" is clearly written.

In all ages fermented wine has been regarded as a poison. In the Bible it
is likened to the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps. Solomon
tells us not to look upon it, for at last it biteth like a serpent and
stingeth like an adder. Clement of Alexandria, who lived at the close of
the second century, says: "From its use arise excessive desires and
licentious conduct. The circulation is accelerated, and the body inflames
the soul."--_Divine Law as to Wines._

We know by observation that fermented wine is a fluid which fills man when
he drinks of it as freely as he may of healthy needed drinks with all
manner of uncleanness of both body and soul. How can a clergyman talk of
using such a fluid temperately? Can we steal temperately, bear false
witness temperately, commit adultery temperately, or murder temperately? Is
it right to deliberately do any of these acts temperately? If it is, then
it is right to deliberately drink fermented wine temperately, which we know
endangers health, freedom, reason and life, and leads men to commit crimes
even the most filthy. One glass leads naturally to another, and that to
many; just as stealing pennies leads to stealing dollars, and hundreds and
thousands of dollars. A perverted appetite or passion can never be fully
satisfied, but it leads to sorrow. All such evils must be shunned totally
as sins against God.

It would be difficult to find elsewhere in the English language, in so few
lines, as many statements so absolutely untrue, dogmatically proclaimed, as
in the following from the article in the _Christian Union_:--

"This notion of two wines, one fermented, the other unfermented, must be
dismissed as a pure invention, unsupported by any facts, unsanctioned by
any scholarship. There was but one wine known to the ancients--fermented
grape-juice. This was the wine Christ made, drank, blessed. There was no
other used in His time or known to His day."

First, as to scholarship. Does the writer of the above believe that he is
superior as to scholarship to the following distinguished scholars, all of
whom believe in "this notion of two wines, one fermented and the other
unfermented," several of whom, after a most patient and careful examination
of the question, have written one or more volumes upon the subject, and one
of them has been twice to the Bible lands for the purpose of carefully
investigating the question there and verifying his statements? viz., Moses
Stuart, Eliphalet Nott, Alonzo Potter, George Bush, Albert Barns, William
M. Jacobus, Taylor Lewis, Geo. W. Sampson, Leon C. Field, F. R. Lees,
Norman Kerr, Canon Farrar, Canon Wilberforce, Dawson Burns, Wm. Ritchie,
George Duffield, C. H. Fowler, Wm. Patton, Adam Clarke, J. M. Van Buren, S.
M. Isaacs, Wm. M. Thayer, John J. Owen; Charles Hartwell, and many other
writers I could name, who, after a most critical examination of the
question, have written earnestly in favor of the "notion of two wines, one
fermented and the other unfermented." In view of the opinion of such men as
these, can the above writer say truthfully that the "notion of two wines"
is "unsanctioned by any scholarship"? Have we any more distinguished
scholars than those I have named? Are not scholars who have for years made
a special study of a question like this, in all of its aspects, much more
competent to judge correctly than those who have not? It is certain that
the writer in the _Christian Union_ has never examined both sides of
this question with the slightest care; for if he had done so, as an honest
Christian man, as I trust he is, he could never have made many of the
statements he has made. He says that the "notion of two wines" is
unsupported by any facts, and that "there was but one kind of wine known to
the ancients--fermented grape-juice." Has he never read the Bible--even the
New Testament? I shall first bring the testimony of the Lord Himself
against him. He says:--

"Neither do men put new wine (_oinon neon_) into old bottles; else the
bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish; but they
put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved." Matt, ix, 17.

Here we have the fresh, unfermented juice of the grape called wine--"new
wine." It could not be put into old bottles and be preserved, for old
bottles, especially skin bottles, are sure to contain leaven cells, which
would inevitably cause fermentation and burst the bottles, whether they
were of skins, glass, or earthenware. We know that fermented wine can be
preserved in old bottles, and that it is so preserved without bursting the
bottles. Here, then, the fresh, unfermented juice of grapes is called wine
by the Lord. Should not our clergy heed His testimony?

There is no difficulty in preserving the juice of grapes, or new wine,
unfermented by various methods described by ancient writers. Thus
Columella, who lived during the Apostolic days, tells us to fill bottles
with fresh grape-juice and seal or cork them carefully and sink them in a
well of cold water and fermentation will not ensue. I have tried it
successfully; any one can do the same. Next, fill a new or clean bottle
with new wine just pressed from the grapes up to its neck, then pour about
half an inch of sweet oil on the surface of the wine and cork it carefully,
leaving a little space between the cork and oil, and stand the bottle in a
cellar, and it will keep. I have three bottles thus preserved free from
fermentation for over three years; the cork must not be removed and the
bottle must not be shaken. Again, heat the juice to 185 [degrees] Fahr.,
or to the boiling-point if you please, bottle, cork, and seal it, and it
will never ferment.

Now we will turn hastily to the Old Testament. In Isaiah xvi, 10, we read:
"The treaders shall tread out no wine (_yayin_) in their presses."
Here we have the juice of grapes, as it is trodden from grapes, called
wine.

In Jeremiah xl, 10, 12, we read: "But gather ye wine (_yayin_) and
summer fruits and oils," and we read that they "gathered wine and summer
fruits very much." Here we have the juice of grapes called wine, as it is
gathered in with other fruits.

Chapter xlviii, 33: "And I have caused wine (_yayin_) to fail from the
wine-presses."

Dr. Adam Clarke says: "The Hebrew, Greek, and Latin words which are
rendered 'wine' mean simply the expressed juice of the grape."

This juice, like our cider, may be fermented or unfermented, and it is
still called by the same name. Here, then, in both the New and Old
Testaments, we have the unfermented juice of grapes distinctly recognized
as wine, and called wine; and all admit that the fermented juice of grapes
is called wine, consequently there are two wines. And distinguished
scholars say:--

"In all the passages where the good wine is named (in the Bible), there is
no lisp of warning, no intimation of danger, no hint of disapprobation, but
always of decided approval. How bold and strongly marked is the contrast!

"The _one_ the cause of intoxication, of violence, and of woes; "The
_other_ the occasion of comfort and of peace. "The _one_ the
cause of irreligion and of self-destruction; "The _other_ the devout
offering of piety on the altar of God. "The _one_ the symbol of the
divine wrath; "The _other_ the symbol of spiritual blessings. "The
_one_ the emblem of eternal damnation; "The _other_ the emblem of
eternal salvation."--_Bible Wines_.

  "The _one_ the cause of intoxication, of violence, and of woes;
  "The _other_ the occasion of comfort and of peace.
  "The _one_ the cause of irreligion and of self-destruction;
  "The _other_ the devout offering of piety on the altar of God.
  "The _one_ the symbol of the divine wrath;
  "The _other_ the symbol of spiritual blessings.
  "The _one_ the emblem of eternal damnation;
  "The _other_ the emblem of eternal salvation."--_Bible Wines_.

"The distinction in _quality_ between the good and the bad wine is as
clear as that between good and bad men, or good and bad wives, or good and
bad spirits; for one is the constant subject of warning, designated poison
literally, analogically, and figuratively; while the other is commended as
refreshing and innocent, which no alcoholic wine is."--_Lees'
Appendix_, p. 232.

_Tirosh_ is another Hebrew word that is often used in the Old
Testament for grapes and the juice of grapes, like our word must, but it is
rarely if ever applied to the juice after fermentation has commenced. We
read: "They shall gather together corn and new wine (_tirosh_), they
shall eat together and praise Jehovah, and _they who are gathered
together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness_."--Isaiah lxii, 9.

And again, in regard to _tirosh_, we read: "That thou mayest gather in
thy corn, thy wine (_tirosh_), and thine oil." (Deut. xi, 14.) "Thus
saith the Lord, as the new wine (_tirosh_) is found in the cluster,
and _one_ saith destroy it not, for a blessing is in it." (Isaiah lxv,
8.) "And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God in the place He shall
choose, the tithe of thy corn and wine (_tirosh_)." (Deut. xiv, 22.)
Here we see that _tirosh_ was to be eaten.

The word _tirosh_ occurs thirty-eight times in the Hebrew Bible.

It is translated into Greek, in the Septuagint, by [seventy] distinguished
Hebrew scholars, about three centuries before the Christian era, as
follows: "The LXX renders _tirosh_ in every case but two by
_oinos_ (the Greek word for wine), the generic name for _yayin_."

Now, are we for a moment to suppose that the above seventy distinguished
ancient scholars did not understand as well what was included under the
name of wine in their day, as does the writer in the _Christian Union_
to-day, when they classed the unfermented juice of grapes with wine, and
called it wine? How can the above writer say that "there was but one kind
of wine known to the ancients--fermented grape juice"? Unfermented wine not
known to the ancients, indeed! How utterly contrary to the truth, and to
well-known facts, is such a statement. Just look a moment, gentle reader--

"Aristotle ('Meteorologica,' iv, 9) says of the sweet wine of his day
([Greek Text]), that it did not intoxicate ([Greek Text]). And Athenaeus
('Banquet,' ii, 24) makes a similar statement."--_Oinos_.

"Josephus, the Jewish historian, paraphrasing the dream of Pharaoh's
butler, who dreamed that he took clusters of grapes and pressed them into
Pharaoh's cup, and gave the cup to Pharaoh, repeatedly calls this
grape-juice _wine_. Bishop Lowth, 1778, in his 'Commentary' (Isaiah v,
2) says: 'The fresh juice pressed from the grape' was by Herodotus styled
_oinos ampelinos_, that is, wine of the vine."--_Wine of the
Word_.

The celebrated Opimian wine, which Pliny [born A. D. 23] tells us (xiv, 4)
had in his day, two centuries after it was made, the consistency of honey,
was unquestionably an inspissated article. Such was the Taeniotic wine of
Egypt, which Athenaeus, in his "Banquet" (i, 25), tells us had such a
degree of richness that "it is dissolved little by little when it is mixed
with water, just as the Attic honey is dissolved by the same process."

"There is abundance of evidence," says the Rev. Dr. Patton, "that the
ancients mixed their wines with water; not because they were so strong with
alcohol as to require dilution, but because, being rich syrups, they needed
water to prepare them for drinking. The quantity of water was regulated by
the richness of the wine and the time of year."

"Aristotle (born about B. C. 384) testifies that the _wines of
Arcadia_ were so thick that they dried up in goat-skins, and that it was
the practice to scrape them off and dissolve the scrapings in water."
(Meteorology, iv, 10.)--"Temperance Bible Commentary."

We know very well that these ancient wines, which were called wine in those
days, which did not intoxicate, and others that were as thick as honey,
were not fermented wines; for fermented wines do intoxicate, and wines as
thick as honey cannot be made from fermented wine, for the albuminous and
other substances which make condensed wines thick are cast down or out, or
destroyed by fermentation. I have four samples of such condensed wines, or
grape-juice, which are as thick as honey. One I obtained at Buda-Pesth,
Hungary; one in Cairo, Egypt; one in Damascus, Asia; and the fourth was
condensed and sent to me by a gentleman then residing in California. I have
had these samples now over six years.

Why should the writer in the _Christian Union_ quote from another
writer, and thus try to make it appear that the ancient condensed wines
were nothing but "grape jellies"? Does he not know that they are very
different preparations, and prepared by different methods? Condensed wines
are prepared by crushing and pressing the juice from the pulp, skins, and
seeds, and then boiling or otherwise evaporating the water until the juice
is as thick as honey, so that it can be easily preserved from fermentation?
whereas grape jellies are made by boiling the grapes until they are well
cooked, then rubbing or squeezing all the pulp and skins practicable
through a colander, sieve, or coarsely-woven strainer; and then sugar is
added to sweeten and aid in forming a jelly. Condensed wines will dissolve
in water as we are told the ancient thick wines did, but grape jellies will
do so only very imperfectly, for they are composed largely of the pulp of
the grape.

The writer in the _Christian Union_ tells us, in a passage already
quoted, speaking of fermented wine:--

"This was the wine Christ made, drank, blessed."

And again he says:--

"He (Christ) commenced His public ministry by making, by a miracle, wine in
considerable quantity, and this apparently only to add to the joyous
festivities of a wedding. He apparently used wine customarily, if not
habitually. When He was about to die, He chose wine as the symbol of His
blood, shed for many for the remission of sins, asked His Father's blessing
on a cup containing wine, passed it to His disciples with the direction,
'Drink ye all of it.'"

Now, intelligent Christian reader, what are we to think of the above
statements? Let us look at these statements in the light of reason, common
sense, science, and revelation. Is it probable, is it possible, that at
that wedding feast, after the guests had drank freely of an intoxicating
wine, that our blessed Lord, guided by love and wisdom, would create a
large quantity more of an intoxicating wine for them to drink? It is not
possible; and the assumption is flatly contradicted by the Governor of the
feast, who pronounced the wine created as the "best wine." Place to the
lips of a child of parents who do not use intoxicating drinks, or to a man
or woman who never drinks such drinks, two glasses, one containing a
well-fermented wine, and the other containing the sweet, delicious juice of
good ripe grapes, and there is not the slightest doubt as to which would be
chosen and pronounced "best" every time--try it.

Then again, is it possible that, on that occasion, a kind of wine was made
of which the Lord has never created a single drop in the fruit of the vine?
Fermented wine is a product of leaven or ferment and of man's ingenuity;
and its chief and essential constituent, alcohol, for which men drink it,
is an effete product, and holds a similar relation to the leaven that urine
does to the animal body. As Pasteur says, "ferment eats, as it were," or
consumes the nourishing and useful ingredients in the juice of the grapes,
decomposes them, and casts out excretions, as man does when he eats grapes.
Consequently, fermented wine is an utterly unclean fluid, and it fills man,
when he drinks it, with all manner of uncleanness, mentally and physically,
from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, as we well know. It is
preeminently a leavened substance, for it is never purified by heat, as is
leavened bread. We have an abundance of testimony, which the reverend
writer of the article ignores, that the Orthodox Jews have regarded, in all
ages, and do to-day as a rule regard, fermented wine as coming under the
restrictions placed upon leavened things.

The celebrated Jewish Rabbi, S. M. Isaacs, said in 1869: "The Jews do not
use in their feasts for sacred purposes fermented drinks of any kind. The
marriage feast is a sacrament with us."

In a recent work (1879) written by a Jewish Rabbi, the Rev. E. M. Myers,
entitled "The Jews, their Customs and Ceremonies, with a full account of
all their Religious Observances from the Cradle to the Grave," we read that
among the strictly orthodox Jews, "During the entire festival (of the
Passover) no leavened food nor fermented liquors are permitted to be used,
in accordance with Scriptural injunctions." (Ex. xii, 15, 19, 20; Deut.
xvii, 3, 4.) This, we think, settles the question so far as the Orthodox
Jews are concerned; and their customs, without much question, represent
those prevailing at the time of our Lord's advent.

The editor of the London _Methodist Times_ lately witnessed the
celebration of the Jewish Passover in that city, and at the close of the
services said to the Rabbi: "May I ask with what _kind_ of wine you
have celebrated the Passover this evening?" The answer promptly given
was:--

"With a non-intoxicating wine. Jews never use fermented wine in their
synagogue services, and must not use it on the Passover, either for
synagogue or home purposes. Fermented liquor of any kind comes under the
category of 'leaven,' which is proscribed in so many well-known places in
the Old Testament. * * * I have recently read the passage in Matthew in
which the Paschal Supper is described. There can be no doubt whatever that
the wine used upon that occasion was unfermented. Jesus, as an observant
Jew, would not only not have drunk fermented wine on the Passover, but
would not have celebrated the Passover in any house from which everything
fermented had not been removed. I may mention that the wine I use in the
service at the synagogue is an infusion of raisins. You will allow me,
perhaps, to express my surprise that Christians, who profess to be
followers of Jesus of Nazareth, can take what He could not possibly have
taken as a Jew--intoxicating wine--at so sacred a service as the Sacrament
of the Lord's Supper."

[Transcriber's Note: the asterisks in the preceding paragraph
are thus in the book.]

It is utterly impossible that Jesus Christ could have used fermented wine
as a symbol of His blood, for in its essential constituents, which are
alcohol, vinegar, etc., it bears not the slightest resemblance to blood;
whereas unfermented wine, in its essential constituents, which are albumen,
sugar, etc., bears the greatest resemblance to blood. This simple fact
ought to satisfy every intelligent man.

Then again, our Lord, when He took the cup and blessed and said, "Drink ye
all of it," knowing that fermented wine was included under the name of
wine, and as if foreseeing that His followers might mistake and use
intoxicating wine, carefully avoided the use of the word wine at all, and
called it the "fruit of the vine," which unfermented wine is and fermented
wine is not. It does seem that these facts should satisfy every
intelligent, Christian man. Can there be, my Christian brethren, a greater
profanation of a holy ordinance than the use of the drunkard's cup as a
communion wine, instead of the fruit of the vine? By the use of fermented
wine as a communion wine many a man who was struggling to reform his life
has been led back to drunkenness and death. I have known of some sad
instances.

It might be well for some of our clergy to hear and heed the warning voice
of the Sacred Scriptures:--

"'It is not for kings to drink wine, nor princes strong drink, lest they
drink and forget the law and pervert the judgment of the afflicted.' Here
is abstinence enjoined, and the reason for it plainly given. Again (Lev. x,
8-11), _it is required of the priests_: 'And the Lord spake unto Aaron,
saying, Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee,
when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall
be a statute for ever throughout your generations: That ye may put a
difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; and that
ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath
spoken unto them by the hand of Moses.'"

"Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived
thereby is not wise."--Prov. xx, i.

No one questions that the wine referred to above as unholy and a mocker and
unclean, is fermented wine, and no one supposes for a moment that it is
unfermented wine. "But they also have erred through wine, and through
strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred
through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the
way through strong drink, they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. For
all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place
clean." (Isa. xxviii, 7,8.)

How correctly and literally do the above words represent the effects of
drinking fermented wine and strong drinks, seen today as of old. O
gentlemen of the clergy! beware! beware! "Woe to him that giveth his
neighbor drink; that putteth thy bottle to him." (Hab. ii, 5,15.) You have
young and inexperienced men and women and even boys under your charge. May
the Lord protect them!


CANON WILBERFORCE ON SACRAMENTAL WINES.

Canon Wilberforce is reported by the London _Temperance Record_ as
saying at a recent meeting in England: "He believed if people desired to go
back literally and absolutely to the days of the institution of the
Sacrament, it would be a most difficult thing, if not impossible, to prove
that the particular cup which their Master took in His hand in that solemn
crisis of His life when He instituted the Holy Eucharist was fermented at
all. There was abundant testimony to prove it was not. Some went back to
primitive authorities. He should like to read one or two which might have
weight with them. Take for example the testimony of St. Cyprian, who wrote
in A. D. 230:--

"'When the Lord gives the name of His body to bread, composed of the union
of many particles, He indicates that our people, whose sins He bore, are
united. And when He calls wine squeezed out from bunches of grapes His
blood, He intimates that our flocks are similarly joined by the varied
admixture of a united multitude."

"This distinctly implied, for all he knew, squeezing bunches of grapes. But
there was more important testimony from one man who was considered by a
certain party in the Church of great value--St. Thomas Aquinas, a great
father of the 13th century. He said:--

"'The juice of ripe grapes, on the other hand, has already the form of
wine; for its sweet taste evidences a mellowing change, which is its
completion by natural heat (as it is said in the "Meteorologica," iv, 3,
not far from the beginning), and for that reason this Sacrament can be
fulfilled by the juice of grapes.'"

While in Egypt in 1884 I visited the American missionaries, and asked them
what kind of wine they used as a communion wine in their churches. They
told me that almost all of their members were from among the Copts, who are
the descendants from the early Christians of Egypt, who have been
comparatively isolated and separated from the Christian world for many
centuries, and when they told them that the Western Christians used
fermented wine, or "shop wine," as they called it, they were horrified at
the idea, and would not partake of it; so they steeped or soaked raisins in
water, and then pressed the juice from them and used that, as has been done
by the Orthodox Jews when they could not obtain pure unfermented wine. I
visited the Grand Patriarch of the Coptic Church, and through an
interpreter he told me that he did the same, and that it was suitable for
use the moment that it was pressed from the raisins. The day is not far
distant when the members of the Western Christian churches will be as much
horrified at the idea of using fermented wine as a sacramental wine as are
the unperverted Christians of Egypt, and this will occur when our clergy
and laity cease to be controlled by either strong confirmations or
preconceived ideas or by sensual appetites, and can study the Sacred
Scriptures and ancient history, and science and well-established facts, in
the light of reason and common sense, instead of assuming everything which
accords with their desires, and ignoring everything which conflicts
therewith.

Again, the writer of the article I am reviewing says:--

"Drunkenness is always and everywhere a sin; whether drinking is a sin
depends upon circumstances; and whether the circumstances are such as to
make drinking sinful, each individual must decide for himself, and answer
for his decision, not to a priesthood, a society, or a newspaper press, but
to his own conscience and his God."

While drunk the drunkard is insane, and when not drunk he is an abject
slave. His appetite controls him, soul and body; he will sacrifice his
property, his reputation, and the comfort of wife and children to gratify
it. If, gentle reader, you have witnessed the struggles which some have
witnessed of men striving earnestly to break loose from that habit, you
would not be so ready to pronounce drunkenness always a sin; you would
hardly dare thus to judge the poor victim. God alone can realize what he
suffers. I ask the intelligent reader, in the light of reason and common
sense and of the Word of God, which is the greater sinner, the man who,
after he has witnessed all the wretchedness, sorrows, drunkenness, and
deaths which we see around us, deliberately takes his first glass of the
fluid which has caused this misery, or continues to drink after he has once
commenced, while he has the ability in freedom to restrain his appetite, or
the man who, by thus drinking, has lost his freedom and reason, and then
drinks to drunkenness? If either is a sinner, can there be any doubt as to
which is the greatest sinner? A far greater number, die from steady
drinking than from drunkenness; they die from an inability to withstand the
ordinary causes of disease, or to resist diseased action when attacked, and
vast multitudes die from diseases caused by so-called temperate drinking,
short of drunkenness. The statistics of insurance companies show that the
average duration of adult human lives is shortened from seventeen to
twenty-four per cent. Is it no sin to enter upon or to continue such a
life? Is such deliberate self-murder no sin? And again, no man living who
commences and continues drinking can have any assurance that he will not
become a drunkard. I well remember when a young man, perhaps eighteen years
old, standing on my native New England hills, working upon the highway with
a young man three or four years older than myself. I said to him that I
thought it was well to make up our minds never to drink intoxicating drinks
during health, and to join a temperance society; he differed from me, and
he said that when he was tired, or went out in the cold and wet and got
chilled, he thought that a little "cider brandy" did him good. "But," he
exclaimed with great energy, "the man who cannot restrain his appetite is a
fool! If you ever hear of my getting drunk, tell me, and I will quit
drinking." I intimated to him that it then might be too late. Alas! alas
for that young man! he became a drunkard; he spent the farm left by his
father; his wife died; his children were scattered among friends; and years
after, when I returned to my native town, I was told that he was a pauper
at the poorhouse.

We are told by the reverend gentleman in the _Christian Union_ that
nature produces alcohol in the juices, as though its production was by a
natural and orderly process. The process of fermentation is just as natural
as the putrefaction of meat, when not prevented by care, and from an
altogether similar cause; and as orderly as the eating of grain by rats if
no care is taken to prevent it; and it is a no more natural or orderly
process. The writer tells us that:--

"Whether the community can properly, without infringing on the liberty of
the individual, prohibit all manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors, is
a political question, on which the life and teachings of Christ throw no
light."

A strange statement, indeed! Is it not right to prohibit theft, highway
robbery, and other evil acts? Do Christ's teachings throw no light upon
such questions? "Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself." In our country
the government is by the people and for the people, and voters are
responsible for the laws made or unmade; and they should be governed by
Christ's precepts and not by political cliques. We do not hesitate to enact
laws to prohibit druggists and others from selling other well-known poisons
to people without the prescription of a physician, for fear they may
possibly be used by the purchasers to harm either themselves or others; and
I presume the reverend writer does not seriously question the justice and
propriety of such laws; yet, strange to say, we license men, and thus give
the sanction of the law, to sell fermented wine, beer, and other
intoxicating drinks, and allow them to sell tobacco, all deadly poisons,
when they know the purchasers will use them to harm themselves and others,
and often destroy their lives. Yes, we thus license men to sell when we
know that these poisons are sold to men and women who are controlled by an
unnatural appetite instead of by reason; when it is known that they have
harmed and killed more of the human family than all other poisons put
together, and that many of the purchasers, to say the least, will certainly
use them to destroy health, reason, and their own lives, and to render
their own families and all intimately associated with them unspeakably
wretched and unhappy. And yet, exclaims the above writer, whether the
community can prohibit such sales of alcoholic liquors or not, without
infringing on the liberty of the individual, "is a political question, on
which the life and teachings of Christ throw no light." And the inference
is that Christians, preachers, and our religious press have nothing to do
with this question. "O consistency! thou art a jewel." Let stealing become
as universal as the selling of intoxicants, and wives and children thereby
be deprived of their means of support as extensively as they are by the
selling of intoxicants, would the reverend gentleman stand aloof, and
represent that the life and teachings of Christ throw no light upon the
question of prohibiting such a violation of the Divine commandments? Shall
Christians stand aloof from enacting laws to prohibit stealing for fear of
infringing on the liberty of individual thieves? Can crimes be prevented
without interfering with the "personal liberty" of criminals to commit
crimes?

What is stealing when compared to the selling of intoxicating drinks and
tobacco as they are sold in our streets, and all over our own and other
lands? Kind Christian parents, which in your estimation would be the
greatest crime, and which would you prefer, that a thief should steal from
your boy or son, before he is twenty-one years of age, or after you cease
to be responsible for him, his money, or that a man should sell cigarettes,
beer, fermented wine, or other intoxicants unbeknown to you, and take his
money, giving these poisons instead, and thus leading him on step by step,
until an unnatural appetite is formed, and he becomes a slave to the use of
a poison often before he has reached the age when his rational faculties
are fully developed; and when by the use of these poisons the full
development of his body is prevented, and his prospects for enjoying good
health thereafter and of living to the allotted age of man are most
materially lessened. In both instances his money is taken, and we know, by
the poverty-stricken men and women and young men we see visiting our
saloons, that some of the saloonists, as well as the thief, will take his
last penny. Which is the greatest crime, to steal a man's money who is
under bondage to a perverted appetite, and consequently comparatively
irresponsible for his acts, or to sell him the above named poisons, which
so seriously prevent development and endanger his health, reason, and life,
and which bring such wretchedness and sorrow to so many homes? In both
instances the man's money is gone, his wife and children are deprived of
the benefit which might result from its legitimate use; but in the one case
the man returns to his family a sober, loving husband and father--in the
other, perchance, drunk, or on the direct road that leads to drunkenness.

In reply to his intimation that the Bible permits Christians to use
fermented wine, but the Koran does not allow Mohammedans to use it, I would
simply intimate to the reverend gentleman that the Lord, in His good
Providence, has permitted, through the Koran, the Mohammedans to be
protected from the drinking of fermented wine and other intoxicating
drinks, as He has attempted to protect Christians directly by the numerous
warnings in His Word; but the difference lies right here--the former have
heeded the warnings, while the latter have not, and hence the fearful
drunkenness prevalent in Christian countries. And we see the people of
Christian countries sending their whiskey into heathen or Gentile lands
with their missionaries. Alas! alas! Which is better--to be a good heathen
or a drunken Christian?

A gentleman whom I desired to see resides at Constantinople. He is an
Englishman, and when my wife and myself were there in 1885 he had resided
there twenty-two years, and had run the largest flouring mill in Turkey. We
visited his mill, which was about two miles up the Golden Horn, and he
spent an evening with us at the hotel where we were stopping. During our
conversation I said to him: "I would like to know about the Mohammedan
Turks: what kind of men are they? In our country you can hardly call a man
by a worse name than to call him a Turk." He replied that the Government
officials and those who come much in contact with foreigners are apt to be
corrupt enough. "But," he exclaimed with great emphasis, "the laboring
Turk! the laboring Turk has a great future before him!! If I want a man to
row me down the Golden Horn when the weather is rough, or to watch my mills
when I am away and asleep, who I know will do his duty faithfully, I always
choose a Turk instead of a Christian." He admitted that the fact that they
never drink fermented wine or other intoxicating drinks was one of the
causes of their greater reliability.

"Hon. Chauncey M. Depew will scarcely be accused of fanaticism on the
question of liquor drinking. His opinion as a man of wide observation and
knowledge of human nature is valuable even to those who would discount his
opinions on the political methods of dealing with the evil. Here is Mr.
Depew's experience as stated in a speech before a company of railroad
men:--

"'Twenty-five years ago I knew every man, woman, and child in Peekskill.
And it has been a study with me to mark boys who started in every grade of
life with myself, to see what has become of them. I was up last fall and
began to count them over, and it was an instructive exhibit. Some of them
became clerks, merchants, manufacturers, lawyers, doctors. _It is
remarkable that every one of those that drank is dead;_ not one living
of my age. Barring a few who were taken off by sickness, _every one who
proved a wreck and wrecked his family did it from rum and no other
cause_. Of those who were church-going people, who were steady,
industrious, and hard-working men, who were frugal and thrifty, every
single one of them, without an exception, owns the house in which he lives
and has something laid by, the interest on which, with his house, would
carry him through many a rainy day. When a man becomes debased with
gambling, rum, or drink, he does not care; all his finer feelings are
crowded out. The poor women at home are the ones who suffer--suffer in
their tenderest emotions; suffer in their affections for those whom they
love better than life.'"--_The Voice_.

I think almost every man who is 75 years old, if he will look back and
review carefully his youthful acquaintances, can bear almost if not equally
as strong testimony as to the effects of intoxicating drinks on human life.

It is certain that but a small proportion of the drinkers who died
prematurely were drunkards; they were simply what is called temperate
drinkers.

I fully agree with the reverend writer in the _Christian Union_ that
we should not judge others to be bad or evil men because they do not speak
and act just as we think they should, for we cannot see the motives from
which their words and acts spring--they are known to the Lord alone; but
should we not judge whether a man's words and acts are true and useful and
in accordance with the Divine Commandments, or whether they are false and
evil and in violation of the commandments? For instance, when we clearly
see that the arguments in favor of fermented wine are all based upon
assumptions which the most careful investigations by scholars as competent
as any in the world show have no foundation in truth, and when we find from
historical records that in all ages its use has caused an immense amount of
suffering, wretchedness, drunkenness, and an untold number of premature
deaths; and we see the same results following its use all around us at this
day; and when science teaches us that its use is entirely unnecessary
during health, and a direct violation of the laws of health and life; and
when in the Sacred Scriptures fermented wine is likened, as to its effects
on man, to the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps, and Solomon
tells us that at last "it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an
adder;"--is it not clearly our duty to show to our fellow-men, and
especially to the young, that to commence drinking fermented wine or beer,
or to continue to drink so long as we have the power to resist the
inclination to drink, is a violation of the commands, Thou shalt not kill,
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God supremely, and not the gratification of a
perverted appetite; and should we not as clearly as possible point out the
truth, and call men to repentance and to the shunning of such evils as sins
against God? How else is the world to be reformed and elevated, and the
life of the New Jerusalem to descend from God out of heaven, and find an
abiding place among men?

The boy, the young man, and those of all ages, in whom the regenerate life
has either not commenced or has barely commenced, cannot be expected to
live and act up to the Pauline maxim--"if meat cause my brother to offend,"
etc. Satisfy such that fermented wine is not the "cup of devils," but that
it derives its life from the Lord through heaven instead of through hell,
and that it is a good and useful drink, and that it is to be hoped the time
will come when it can be safely drank, can they want any greater license
for commencing and for continuing the life which leads to drunkenness? No
one ever intends to become a drunkard or to destroy his life by drinking.
He only drinks enough to satisfy his perverted appetite and to make him
feel good; that is all.

Now, dear Christian reader, what can be more unfortunate for the Christian
Church than for clergymen standing high in the Church, as do several who
have written in favor of fermented wine, to write when they possess
_only_ such an extremely superficial knowledge of the wine question,
in its Biblical, historical, scientific, and medical aspects, as is
manifested in the article under review, and several others which have been
printed and circulated within a few years? And how unfortunate that such
articles should ever be published in religious periodicals that enter the
homes where dwell children, and the young and innocent as well as drinkers!
I thank the Lord that no religious paper bearing such seductive messages
ever entered my father's house as I approached manhood.


The greatest obstacle which the grand temperance reformation has to
encounter to-day is the stand publicly taken by so many of our clergy and
religious periodicals in favor of fermented wine as a good and useful
drink, and the use of intoxicating wine as a communion wine in so many of
our churches. But the True Light has come into the world, and it will shine
more and more until the perfect day.

As to tea and coffee, while they can hardly be compared with intoxicating
drinks, tobacco, and opium, as to their injurious effects on man when he
uses them, yet they are very far from being harmless; for, like the other
poisons named, their use begets an unnatural appetite which healthy fluids
will not satisfy, and they cause symptoms and diseases characteristic of
the fluid taken. Tea causes sleeplessness, palpitation of the heart, and
other symptoms, while coffee causes the "coffee headache," often destroys
the morning appetite; if given to children, interferes with their
development, interferes with digestion, and causes a variety of nervous
symptoms about the chest and stomach. Parents make a great mistake and do
their children great injustice when they allow them to taste of tea or
coffee before they are twenty-one years of age, or until they have passed
out from their control. If the young can be kept from becoming enslaved by
such habits, and consequently remain in freedom, until their rational
faculties are fully developed, in the increasing light of this new day, it
will not be difficult for them to see that all such substances should be
avoided. They do not add to one's enjoyment, for they, like intoxicants,
tobacco, and all stimulating condiments, destroy or seriously impair the
natural delicacy of taste with which the Lord has endowed us, when we eat
or drink wholesome and needed articles of food. I am seventy-six years of
age, yet I never had a better appetite, and food never tasted better than
it does to-day; and I attribute this to my having so generally avoided
improper articles of food and drink. After a most patient and careful
examination of both sides of the wine question in the light of Divine
Revelation, ancient history and of science, for many years, and after
having witnessed the fearful demoralization, the wretchedness and sorrow,
the diseases and deaths which result from drinking fermented wine and other
intoxicants, nothing so surprises me, and discourages me, in regard to the
immediate future of the American people, as the pertinacity and persistency
with which so many of the clergy of our country, without any careful
examination of both sides of this question, are striving to justify the use
of fermented wine as a beverage and even as a Communion wine. Instead of
assuming and ignoring everything, let the advocates of fermented wine
answer the following inquiry by the Rev. Dr. Eliphalet Nott, President of
Union College: "Can the same thing, in the same state, be good and bad; a
symbol of wrath and a symbol of mercy; a thing to be sought after and a
thing to be avoided? Certainly not. And is the Bible, then, inconsistent
with itself? No, certainly."











