pproaching the globe, this
Exterminating Angel, borne by a comet, causes the planet to turn upon
its axis, and the lands lately covered by the seas reappear, adorned in
freshness and obedient to the laws proclaimed in Genesis; the Word of
God is once more powerful on this new earth, which everywhere exhibits
the effects of terrestrial waters and celestial flames. The light
brought by the Angel from On High, causes the sun to pale. 'Then,' says
Isaiah, (xix. 20) 'men will hide in the clefts of the rock and roll
themselves in the dust of the earth.' 'They will cry to the mountains'
(Revelation), 'Fall on us! and to the seas, Swallow us up! Hide us from
the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the
Lamb!' The Lamb is the great figure and hope of the Angels misjudged and
persecuted here below. Christ himself has said, 'Blessed are those who
mourn! Blessed are the simple-hearted! Blessed are they that love!'--All
Swedenborg is there! Suffer, Believe, Love. To love truly must we not
suffer? must we not believe? Love begets Strength, Strength bestows
Wisdom, thence Intelligence; for Strength and Wisdom demand Will. To
be intelligent, is not that to Know, to Wish, and to Will,--the three
attributes of the Angelic Spirit? 'If the universe has a meaning,'
Monsieur Saint-Martin said to me when I met him during a journey which
he made in Sweden, 'surely this is the one most worthy of God.'

"But, Monsieur," continued the pastor after a thoughtful pause, "of what
avail to you are these shreds of thoughts taken here and there from
the vast extent of a work of which no true idea can be given except
by comparing it to a river of light, to billows of flame? When a man
plunges into it he is carried away as by an awful current. Dante's poem
seems but a speck to the reader submerged in the almost Biblical
verses with which Swedenborg renders palpable the Celestial Worlds,
as Beethoven built his palaces of harmony with thousands of notes, as
architects have reared cathedrals with millions of stones. We roll in
soundless depths, where our minds will not always sustain us. Ah, surely
a great and powerful intellect is needed to bring us back, safe and
sound, to our own social beliefs.

"Swedenborg," resumed the pastor, "was particularly attached to the
Baron de Seraphitz, whose name, according to an old Swedish custom, had
taken from time immemorial the Latin termination of 'us.' The baron was
an ardent disciple of the