John Ellis

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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 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? ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”