e prevailing creeds, because the doctrines impart a higher
and sublimer view of the infinite love and benignity of the Lord towards
the human race, as willing the salvation of all, and ordering every event
of His providence with a view to eternal ends of mercy in regard to each
individual, and incessantly aiming to withhold him from hell, so far as
it can 'be done consistently with his moral freedom.'" When Tennyson
writes:--

"Behold we know not anything;
I can but trust that good shall fall
At last--far off--at last to all,
And every winter change to spring.

"That nothing walks with aimless feet,
That not one life shall be destroyed,
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete"--

he merely reproduces Swedenborgianism. Again, the Swedenborgians claim
for their system an active philanthropy superior to that of any other
sect. If heaven and hell are in us--if, as we develop the good we arrive
at heaven, or as we develop the bad we sink into a deeper hell--no sects
have greater provocatives to a godly life, and we might expect in their
preaching a glowing sympathy with human right and popular progress, which
assuredly in their pulpits in England finds but little utterance.
Swedenborg teaches, in the strongest manner, that no man can lead a
spiritual life apart from civil and moral life. Again and again he
argues that the life which leads to heaven "is not a life of retirement
from the world, but of action in the world. A life of charity, which
consists in acting sincerely and justly in every situation, engagement,
and work, in obedience to the Divine law, is not difficult; but a life of
piety alone is difficult, and such a pious life leads away from heaven as
much as it is vulgarly believed to lead to heaven." The Christianity of
his day he proclaims again and again to be worthless. It was founded on
opinion, not on conduct. He who believes otherwise than the Church
teaches is cast out of its communion; "but he who thieves, if he does not
do so flagrantly, lies, betrays, and commits adultery, if only he
frequents a place of worship and talks piously, passes as a religious
man." When a great abuse has to be attacked--when a hoary wrong in
Church and State has to be swept away--when help is to be given to the
wretched and the perishing, have we ever seen the Swedenborgian minister
coming to the front as a leader? On the contrary, you will f