Thus the New Church holds what the world chiefly needs, and we, her professing members, are responsible to the Lord for disseminating among our brethren and sisters of His universal family, the living truths of which He has made us the stewards.

Let us, therefore, use every means for presenting to the world clear and convincing proofs of the existence and value of the Heavenly Doctrines we acknowledge. To this end let us labour, in the first place, to gain for ourselves a full and satisfying conviction of their inexhaustible wisdom and transcendent worth. No New Churchman should rest content with an elementary and superficial knowledge of the New Jerusalem. Every worthy citizen of the Golden City will strive after an intimate and personal acquaintance with the profound and wondrous details which combine to build up her felicity and glory. Therefore let us delight to study and understand the writings of our Church. Let us insist on the clear, uncompromising presentation of her specific doctrines. Let us lovingly and intelligently support the various admirable agencies established for their diffusion and advocacy. Especially let each one labour to render the public services of his own Society attractive and useful, that the recognised centres of our official life may deserve respect and admiration, and thus draw within their sphere many who are unconsciously seeking the light which it is their purpose to supply. Perhaps, as a missionary organization, we have never enough recognised the access of power which would result from a heartier support of our institutions, and a more general interest and participation in their activities. The light we enjoy is too often a cold light, needing a fuller union with the quickening warmth of love. We want more of a generous and wise enthusiasm. If, for instance, every New Churchman so loved his religious duties that it was the delight of all our members to assemble, morning and evening each Sabbath-day, in their respective temples, and, at fitting opportunities, to gather round the Lord's table in observance of that Sacrament which we are instructed is the most sacred solemnity of worship, what a healthful stimulus would be afforded to the work we have in trust! How our own spiritual energies would be cheered and vivified! How others, encouraged by this practical proof of our appreciation of our principles, would be drawn into association with us, and thus led to hear and judge for themselves concerning what we have to teach! But, above all, let each labour to establish the life of the Church in his own heart and conduct. Individual regeneration is the final end for which all religious agencies exist, and the ultimate test by which every religious pretension must be tried. Unless the truths we acknowledge produce

in us the fruit of purified characters and nobler usefulness, the world will pay little heed to their advocacy; the establishment upon earth of the Lord's Kingdom of Wisdom and Goodness will be retarded rather than hastened by our professions; and we ourselves shall utterly fall short of the excellence and happiness which it is the gracious purpose of our Heavenly Doctrines to ensure.

On behalf of the General Conference, I am, dear brethren, faithfully yours, JOHN PRESLAND.

ALL ANSWERS FROM HEAVEN ARE GIVEN BY THE LETTER OF THE WORD.

"Behold, a voice out of the cloud."-MATT. xvii. 5.

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They called upon Jehovah, and He answered them. He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar."-Ps. xcix. 6, 7.

Ir is a most significant and instructive circumstance that the voice came "out of the cloud." The Lord, at His transfiguration, represented the Word. His face shining as the sun represented the interior things of the Word, and His garments, as white as the light, represented the Divine Truths with which the Word is clothed and invested. Moses and Elias represented the historical and the prophetical word, thus the whole of it, for it is all either historical or prophetical. And the bright cloud which overshadowed them represented the Word in its literal sense, bright and translucent from the spiritual and celestial senses. Thus the voice out of the cloud represented a response out of the Word in its letter. This is the point to which I wish now to direct your attention: that the voice comes to us out of the cloud; that all answers from heaven are given to us out of the Word in its letter. The disciples then standing on the mountain heard no voice from any other direction than that of the cloud. They spoke to the Lord, but the answer came not directly from His mouth, but from the cloud. This is the important and significant

circumstance that I refer to.

We all have questions to ask which we should like to have answered from heaven. But how can we get them answered? The doctrine of the New Church says there is one way and only one way in which we can get this done. "All announcements and answers from heaven never take place in any other way than by means of

ultimate things, such as are in the sense of the letter of the Word " (Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture, No. 48). This is what is represented in the text by the voice from heaven coming out of the bright cloud. It might be thought that answers would be given from heaven by means of the spiritual sense of the Word, but that is not the case. Answers can only be given in the literal sense. Let us examine why this is so.

There are in heaven and in this world two kinds of order, successive order and simultaneous order. Successive order is familiar to everybody. It is the order in which things succeed one another. For instance, the three senses of the Word are in successive order as they proceed forth from the Lord. You know that the Word is not a mere book, but is a living stream of Divine Truth proceeding forth from the Lord. This stream is first Divine celestial in the inmost sense of the Word, then it is Divine spiritual in the middle sense of the Word, and then it is Divine natural in the outward sense of the Word. It goes forth in this order. This is the order of its succession, and this is what is on that account called successive order. You can easily imagine this order of the three senses of the living Word. It is like the three stories of a house, one above another; it is like the three divisions of a stone pillar-capital, shaft, and base, quite distinct from each other, yet all parts of one and the same pillar. This, then, is the successive order of the Word. But there is another, and a wonderful kind of order, which is called simultaneous order, because all things in it are together; they are simultaneous. If you could imagine that stone pillar flattened down into one plane, you would have an example of simultaneous order. The capital would then become the middle of the flattened mass, the shaft would form a zone around it, and the base would be on the outside. Thus all the three parts would be together in the plane of the base, or rather in the plane of the bottom of the base, which is the ground. All the parts of the pillar, in their flattened state, would be together on the plane of the ground. They would be there in simultaneous order, one within another. What had been highest in successive order would have become inmost in simultaneous order. Now this is exactly what takes place with the living stream of the Word of God. It goes forth in successive order, but as soon as it reaches the ultimate form which we call the letter, it as it were subsides into a plane, and is all together there. Then what was highest becomes inmost, and so on. Thus, if you take up any passage from the letter of the Word, you have all

degrees of Divine Truth in it in simultaneous order.

"Cast thy

burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain thee." When you read these words you read only the letter. But within that letter are the three Divine senses of the living Word. They are all there, one within another, just as the soul is in the body, and you feel their power. "The words that I speak unto you are spirit, and they are life." This is what the Lord means. He means that there is a spirit and a soul in His words just as there is a spirit in the body. "Spirit" means the spiritual sense, and "life" means the celestial sense. These are in the letter in simultaneous order, and when you read or quote the letter you feel the force of them. There are no words like the words of the Lord's Word. There are a power and a fulness, and a holiness in them that are conspicuously absent from any other words whatever. And herein lies the difference between the letter of the Word and the Writings of the New Church. The Writings are drawn from the Word as water is drawn from a fountain, and therefore they are the Word in another form, just as the water of a fountain is the same water after it is drawn as it was before. The difference between the Word and the Writings is not any difference in sense or meaning, but it is a difference in form. In the Writings Divine Truth is not in simultaneous, but in successive order. You get a bit of the celestial sense in one place, and a bit of the spiritual sense in another place, and a bit of the natural sense in another; you get them successively. But in the letter of the Word you get them simultaneously. They all come upon your soul together. This, then, is the reason why the letter of the Word communicates with heaven and the letter of the Writings does not. The celestial and spiritual and natural senses of the Word are present respectively in the celestial, spiritual, and natural heavens. And they are also all present in the letter of the Word. Now a thing which is present with two other things evidently brings those two things into communication with each other. The two things may be far apart, but they can communicate with each other through that thing which is present with both of them. Glasgow and London are far apart, but the railway between them is present with both of them, and therefore can form a medium of communication between them. If it didn't reach through it could not do so, but being actually present in both cities, it can. And so the celestial, spiritual,

and natural senses of the Word are present in both heaven and the letter of the Word, therefore the letter of the Word communicates

with heaven, and no other writing or book does so, because no other book has three senses in it that are present in the three heavens.

If, therefore, we wish to have an answer from heaven we must not go to the Writings, but we must go to the letter of the Word. The Writings give the spiritual and the celestial sense of the Word, but the letter of the Word gives the letter, and that is the only medium of communication, all the Word is in that.

When you are in doubt or difficulty, and you want light, open the Word and read the letter, and you will get an answer from heaven. When you are in trouble and sorrow, and you want comfort, open the letter of the Word, and you will get an answer from heaven. When you are in temptation, and want strength, read the letter of the Word, and you will get an answer from heaven. The voice will come out of the cloud.

But you will say, If this is the case, why then doesn't everybody get a true answer from the Word? The letter of the Word is what anybody can read. Why then are there so many infidels? Why are there so many false doctrines? The reason of this is also described in the context. A voice came out of the cloud, but who heard that voice? It was the three disciples, Peter, James, and John. Now these three disciples represent the three essentials of religion, faith, love, and good life. I call these the three essentials of religion because they are all equally essential to it. You must have them all. If you haven't them all you can't be taken by the Lord on the mount of transfiguration, and you can't hear the voice out of the cloud. But many people try to go there without one or other of these essentials. Some take faith and leave out a good life. Some take a good life and leave faith behind, and so on. But faith without a good life is dead, and a dead faith won't enable you to hear the voice out of the cloud. And a good life without faith in the Lord is mere morality, and is dead too, and that won't enable you to hear the voice from heaven. This is the reason why many persons read the letter of the Word and receive no answer from heaven. In order to receive such answers the Word must be read in a holy and reverent frame of mind; it must be read as the Lord's Word-this is implied in faith; and it must also be read with a view to a good life. The attitude of mind must be holy and reverent, and the end in view must be improvement of life. The Lord tells us this very plainly and beautifully by taking these three disciples up the mountain with Him. Think of these three disciples hearing the voice out of the cloud, and you will always