Article March 13, 1902 Issue

Religious Items

with contributions from Isaac O. Rankin, F. B. Meyer, V. E. Tomlinson, Martineau, Maltbie D. Babcock

The first overwhelming impulse of the really conscientious man is to acknowledge and welcome new forms of truth as soon as they manifest themselves to his intelligence. But I suppose that few of us have ever considered deeply what takes place in the mind when the knowledge of some new truth first enters the thoughts of a conscientious man. Vastly more happens than is generally supposed. A real warfare ensues, and warfare invariably implies both victory and defeat. The real militant nature of truth as it enters the understanding of a conscientious man may be clearly seen if we consider the individual mind as in a sense a large household. Many persons of various opinions and qualities of life compose this household. Some are good and some are evil, but all live in comparative peace and friendliness. The evil ones hide their qualities by hypocrisy. The master of the house is the predominating love and in this instance the predominating love is qualified with conscientiousness. The knowledge of some new truth always comes as one asking admission as a new member of the household. He applies to the householder or the predominating love. The new applicant is without hesitation welcomed as the angels were welcomed by Lot when they came disguise to Sodom before it was destroyed. But this angel of truth is no sooner welcomed by the householder as a member of the family than some satan member recognizes in the newcomer his mortal enemy and the one who will lay bare his hypocrisy. With the skill and terror of one compelled to fight for life this old member of the household rebels against admitting the newcomer. The master of the house is obliged to resist with resolution this opposition and to look with mingled pity and horror upon the unmasked wretch that he had heretofore considered worthy of his love and protection; and with bleeding heart he rejects the satan to welcome the angel. This is a period of temptation wherein evil is overcome and a definite step taken in the development of character.

New-Church Messenger.

The spiritual import and significance of the Master's life and teaching was not wholly apprehended. It was just this failure on the part of the disciples to understand their Lord, that made his death and withdrawal the needed condition of his coming in that secondary and superior sense to which he alluded when he spoke those apparently paradoxical words, "I go away and come again," meaning that he should come to them and to the world in spirit and not in the form; revealing himself as the spirit of truth, the real comforter, the sanctifier, the vast source of grace, the open avenue to the divine realm, whence come all cheering and inspiring influences upon souls, for their spiritual blessing and uplifting.

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