Benjamin Fiske Barrett

“ The old doctrine, therefore, being such as we find it— so irrational and monstrous and cruel in itself—so utterly repugnant to every true Christian feeling and to every just conception of the character and government of God—is it unreasonable to suppose that the Divine Being would some day vouchsafe a further revelation to his children on this subject? If there ever was a subject on which the minds of men were in utter and impenetrable darkness, and on which, therefore, a further revelation was needed, is it not the very subject we are considering? ”

“ The essential life of hell, is the life of self-love; and this is real hatred of the neighbor. Heaven is a state in which the understanding is illumined by the light of truth; hell is a state in which it is obscured by the darkness of falsity. Heaven is a state of spiritual health, order, peace and joy unutterable; hell is a state of spiritual sickness, disorder, unrest and comparative sorrow. In the most exalted heavenly state, every one loves others even more than he loves himself; in hell, and in all hellish states, every one hates others in comparison with himself. ”

“ To wholly deprive him of love, would be to extinguish the vital spark—yes, to annihilate him. Love is the motive power in whatever a man thinks, wills, says or does. As heat is the proximate cause of all activity, germination, expansion and growth in the natural world, so love is the cause of all activity, germination, expansion and growth in the moral or spiritual realm. Deprived of all love, a man would be like the earth deprived of all heat—unproductive and dead. ”

“ We see not, therefore, how any one who professes to believe in Swedenborg's divine illumination—who regards him as a man especially prepared, authorized and sent of God to make a new revelation—can for a moment think of rejecting or questioning his teaching in regard to the duration of the hells, or of substituting for it the more than doubtful conclusions of his own understanding. Surely it is not wise to shut ourselves in a dark room and invoke the feeble glimmer of a lamp, when the great orb of day is shining in meridian splendor. ”

“ While the more passionately he loves any object or being—it may be a woman, it may be wealth, it may be literary or scientific fame, it may be civil or military glory—the more alive and active he is. See how the lower kinds of love—the purely selfish and worldly—the love of gold or glory, incite men to days of toil and nights of watchfulness! And the higher and nobler kinds—loves purer and more angelic—are the springs of action in all men's higher and nobler achievements, in all deeds done to improve and bless mankind. Take away all love from human hearts, and what would men do then? ”

“ If our prevailing desire and effort be to know and do the will of the Lord, then angels are our companions; our spirits consort with the white-robed throng we breathe the atmosphere of heaven.
But if our ends be mean and selfish; if we are heedless of the Divine commands, or deaf to the still small voice of duty; if our prevailing purpose be to do our own will- rather than the will of God; then, our spiritual associates belong to the realms below; we are in fellowship with devils; we breathe the polluting air of hell. ”

“ But they who have yielded habitually to the promptings of their lower nature, regardless of God and the good of the neighbor, and have not denied self, taken up the cross, and followed the Divine Master—these, when they enter the other world, come more fully into the life and delights of self-love. And what are these? The delights of fraud, hatred, revenge, adultery, blasphemy, wickedness of every kind;—delights, indeed, to those whose ruling love is the love of self, but torment and unmitigated misery when compared with the pure ecstatic delights of angelic love. ”

“ He sees that here is, indeed, a new revelation; that here is a system of spiritual truth so grand and harmonious and rational, so comprehensive and majestic, and so admirably adapted to human wants in this age, that it could have none other than God himself for its author. He accepts Swedenborg's teachings, therefore, as a new Dispensation of spiritual truth, bearing the impress of God's own finger. So abundant and overmastering is the evidence, that he cannot do otherwise; he cannot reach any other conclusion.
But those cannot admit his claim, who have not studied his writings. ”

“ And mark here the unspeakable love and mercy of the Lord!—the wonderful display of the Divine benignity! The devils are not permitted to see themselves or each other as the hideous creatures they really are. They only appear under these disgusting and loathsome forms when seen, as Swedenborg saw them, in the light of heaven; for this light aione reveals the real quality of persons and things. Seen in the false and fatuous glare of hell, nothing appears as it really is. ”

“ WE have seen that hell, according to the New Theology, is not a place to which a certain class of people are at last sent against their will, as disorderly people in this world are sent to the lock-up, or criminals to the penitentiary; but that it is a state or quality of life which each one freely chooses, and which he strengthens or confirms by habit. It is a low condition of humanity—a disorderly or inverted condition—one in which the higher part of our nature is in absolute subjection to the lower, the human to the bestial, the angelic to the infernal. ”

“ If we are inclined to speak evil of others, to slander them—which is a kind of moral murder, for it is stabbing one in the dark—we must inwardly acknowledge the sinfulness of this before God, and shun it because it is a sin. If we are inclined to invade the freedom and trample on the rights of others, to domineer over them—over our families, our children, our brethren, our domestics, our employés—to compel them to do our will and gratify our wishes, to their own injury, loss, or discomfort, we must regard such disposition as sinful, and shun its indulgence as a sin. ”

“ The more it is allowed to have complete sway, and to outwork itself in all the multifarious forms of villany—such as falsehood, fraud, theft, adultery, murder—the more hardened does the soul become, the more benumbed its sensibilities, the dimmer its perceptions and the feebler its desire for whatever is true and just and right in itself. Let a person go on cheating and defrauding from month to month and year to year, and he will find himself steadily growing more and more blind to the odiousness and moral deformity of this vice, and less and less inclined to change his course. ”

“ Such is the nature of angelic life—the life which we are all made capable of attaining, and which the Lord is forever seeking to develop or build up within us. Such is the character of that heavenly kingdom whereof the Bible so often speaks—a kingdom of righteousness, joy and peace—a kingdom of pure and loving hearts—the very kingdom for which we pray when we breathe that inspired petition, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven." ”

“ It condemns no individual, no sect, no people—not even Mahometans or Pagans—merely on account of their beliefs; but teaches that infinite Love is for ever brooding over all; and for ever seeking, through such forms of faith and modes of worship as are best suited to the wants of each, to lift them up into clearer light and a higher life—into fuller communion and sweeter fellowship with itself. It is full, therefore—this New Dispensation—of the all-embracing and all-reconciling spirit of the Lord. ”

“ Is the condition of the wicked in the other world, as Swedenborg was permitted to see and commissioned to reveal it, to continue substantially the same throughout the ages of eternity? In other words, will those who pass into that world in a hellish state of life, remain for ever in that state? Or can men repent, and their ruling loves be changed from evil to good, after death? ”

“ Every one, therefore, who goes to hell, goes there as freely as the tippler goes to the gin-shop, or the profligate to the brothel.
Here is one born, we will suppose, and living in a miserable, barren, dreary region, where there is little to delight the eye or regale the senses. Yonder is a rich and fertile country, charming to look upon, abounding in fruits and flowers, singing birds and running brooks, splendid habitations and magnificent gardens, with everything therein that can charm or gratify the senses. ”

“ The Old presents God as a very monster of cruelty; while the New exhibits Him as a wise and tender and loving Father, forever pursuing his rebellious children into the lowest depths of sin and suffering; clasping his arms around even the devils in hell; providing a congenial home for all in the great Hereafter; and just such a home as each one, by the life that he has voluntarily formed, strengthened and confirmed, is fitted to enjoy, and will himself freely choose. ”

“ And thus will your soul, created with the capacity of endless progress in wisdom, holiness, and love, and with boundless capabilities of enjoyment, be lost and ruined. Yes—lost and ruined; because, through your voluntary neglect or infraction of the revealed and everlasting laws of love—the laws of your soul's higher life, that life is dwarfed and spoiled, or fails to become developed within you. Having chosen darkness rather than light, you cannot help missing the glorious boon which you were made capable of attaining—Heaven and its unutterable delights. ”

“ Who that has studied Swedenborg enough to grasp a tithe of his deep and comprehensive philosophy, and has felt constrained by the illuminating power of his writings to acknowledge that he was, indeed, a man ordained and sent of God, dares venture on such a string of denials? Yet they all follow inevitably from the denial of his doctrine concerning the eternity of the hells, or the assumption that a man's ruling love may be changed after death. ”

“ No one can be forced to heaven for no one can be forced to shun evils as sins, nor to love what is good and true for its own sake. To go to heaven, we must freely comply with the conditions; and the conditions are, that we voluntarily obey the laws of the heavenly life;—that we struggle with and overcome our selfish and evil propensities;—that we deny self, take up our cross, and follow the Lord in the regeneration.
Such, briefly, is the New doctrine concerning hell—where it is, what it is, and how to escape it. ”

“ The angelic life consists in the performance of uses, or in the goods of charity. For to the angels nothing is more delightful than to instruct spirits coming from the world;—to serve mankind by inspiring them with what is good, and by restraining the evil spirits attendant on them from passing their proper bounds;—to raise up the dead to eternal life, and afterwards, if their souls be of such a character as to render it possible, to introduce them into heaven. In the performance of these offices they experience an unspeakable delight. ”

“ But pursue the opposite course—disregard the laws of the soul's higher life—violate the precepts of heavenly charity—trample on the rules of love and justice in your intercourse with your fellows, and your soul will become emptied of the Lord's life, and more and more insensible to its ineffable sweetness; your love of self will grow continually stronger, and your heart more and more like the nether mill-stone; your sympathies will become more contracted and deadened; your sense of justice will grow more and more benumbed ”

“ So with hate, revenge, jealousy, despair—every strong passion or deep, feeling long indulged—its manifest tendency is to mould the countenance and the whole outer man into perfect correspondence with itself. And on the other hand who has not seen the very beauty, brightness and joy of heaven beaming from the face of one in whose heart love to the Lord and the neighbor has long been the ruling principle of action? ”

“ While the more unselfish a man is, the more reverently he heeds the still small voice within him, the more earnestly he strives to do the will of the Heavenly Father, the clearer becomes his moral vision, the keener his perception of the true and right upon questions involving the higher and more permanent interests of humanity. Hence we read: "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light; but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness." "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be from God." ”