Books: Personal Experience of a Physician
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John Ellis >> Personal Experience of a Physician
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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; and the results
have been similar. We know, however, that among religious teachers there
are many to-day in all of the various sects of Christians who have put
away, or are gradually putting away, or materially modifying, the perverted
doctrines of the past. As an illustration of the changes which are taking
place, I clip the following from an English paper, recently received:--
"The Rev. T. Vincent Tymms, the new Principal of Rawdon College, preaching
to his late congregation at Clapham, said:--
"'From the first day I stood in this pulpit until now, I have desired to
tear away from every heart that obscuring veil of pagan thought which first
attributes a wrathful justice to the Father and a tender mercy to CHRIST,
and then represents the Son as dying to soothe the anger and satisfy the
relentless demands of the Father. Such unholy and revolting ideas are the
leaven of heathenism, not the unleavened bread of Christian truth.'
"This is from the first of 'Three Farewell Sermons,' published by Messrs.
James Clarke & Co., Fleet Street, E. C."
More and more, as time progressed, I began to realize that there was very
little chance for any radical improvement of our race until the false
doctrines which have come down to us from the dark ages were put away; and
knowing that in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg we have a new revelation
from the Lord, even the truths of his Second Coming in the clouds of
heaven, which are destined to make all things new by leading men back to a
life of obedience to the Divine commandments; and, furthermore, believing
the most important missionary field to-day in the world to be among the
clergy of our country, I wrote an "Address to the Clergy" of 24 pages. This
Address I sent to over 50,000 clergymen. A few years before I wrote that
Address, the late Mr. L. C. Iungerich, of Philadelphia, through the book
publishing firm of J. B. Lippincott & Co., of that city, had offered to
clergymen who would order and send the stamps to pay the postage,
Swedenborg's "True Christian Religion," and afterward he added the
"Apocalypse Revealed;" and the New Church Tract Society added to the above
works "Heaven and Hell,"--all to be sent free to clergymen on receipt of
postage. Several thousand copies of the above works had been sent when I
wrote and sent out my Address. Upon the second page of the cover of my
tract was a notice of the above-named gift books; and my aim was to hastily
call the attention of clergymen to them, and to give them some idea of the
claims of Swedenborg's writings to their attention, and to encourage them
to send for and to read the books thus providentially within their reach.
As a result of receiving the Address, thousands of clergymen sent for and
obtained one or more of the above books.
When I commenced sending the above-named Address to the clergy, I resolved
to devote one-tenth of my income to the work of spreading a knowledge of
the doctrines of the New Jerusalem and of an orderly life among my
fellow-men. I can truly say, and will say for the encouragement of others,
that as I have given I have received; for never had I prospered financially
as I have since that resolution was made and lived up to. After having
secured a competency for myself and family I did not stop at one-tenth of
my income.
The result of sending the Address was so satisfactory that I wrote and
compiled a work of 260 pages, entitled, "Skepticism and Divine Revelation,"
with the intention of sending it to the clergy. My aim was to present a
hasty view of the application of the science of correspondences in the
interpretation of the first chapters of Genesis, and some other parts of
the Word, and to meet the arguments of skeptics, and thus to show that the
Sacred Scriptures are Divine revelations from God to man, and plenarily
inspired, consequently differing as much from the words of man as God's
works do from the works of man. In that work the attention of the reader is
called to the creation of the world, the creation of man and woman, Eve,
the Garden of Eden, its trees and river, the fall of man, the serpent, Cain
and Abel, the flood, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the flood of waters, the
Ark, the Tower of Babel, Sun worship and idolatry, spiritualism, the little
reliance to be placed upon communications from spirits, and why. Next, the
doctrines of the New Jerusalem--God, the Incarnation, the Divine Trinity,
sacrificial worship, the Cross, a true and heavenly life, the end of the
world and Second Coming of the Lord, the resurrection, state of infants in
the other life, the state and condition of the Heathen and Gentiles in
another life, the New Jerusalem--the Church of the Future--the Crown of all
Churches, the Divine promise to those who receive the New Jerusalem at the
Lord's Second Coming as revealed through Emanuel Swedenborg.
Such were the subjects discussed in the light of the revelations made by
the Lord's chosen servant. My aim was to produce the best work I could.
Consequently, when I found in the writings of others passages, or even
whole sections, in which the ideas that I desired to present were as well
or better conveyed than I thought I could present them, I selected them,
giving the writers credit for the same, and the sixteenth and twenty-third
chapters were written at my request by the Rev. William B. Hayden, who
assisted me materially in seeing the work through the press. About one-half
of the matter in the volume was selected from other writers.
I commenced to send this work in editions of 10,000 to the clergy of our
country, and when I had sent about 50,000, I had the "Address to the
Clergy" printed and bound with it, and both were sent to the Catholic
clergy, to whom the Address had not previously been sent. From that time
both works have been printed and bound in one volume. About 65,000 of the
above works, containing a notice of the gift books, named in preceding
pages, on the second page of the cover, have been sent to the clergy of
America, about 10,000 have been sent to physicians, and as many more have
been circulated among laymen. The sending of this book to the clergy
immensely increased the orders for the gift books.
The above works have been translated into the German language, and about
48,000 copies sent to German-speaking clergymen in Germany and other parts
of Europe, and in our own country. They have been translated into the
Swedish language, and about 6000 copies have been sent to the clergy of
Sweden and Norway and circulated among the laity; and they have been
translated into Italian, and 10,000 sent to and circulated in Italy. And
more recently they have been translated into French, and 20,000 printed
which are now being sent to the clergy of France and the French-speaking
clergy of other European countries, and of our own country.
Then, I have aided materially in sending other works to the clergy of our
country, either explaining or containing the doctrines of the New
Jerusalem, upon the second page of the covers of which will be found a
notice of the gift books offered to clergymen. I aided with money the
Swedenborg Publishing Association in sending Rev. Mr. Ravlin's "Progressive
Thoughts on Great Subjects" to all the clergy of our country whose names
could be had; and, later, I have aided the American Swedenborg Printing and
Publishing Society in sending, first, "The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly
Doctrines;" second, "The Doctrine of the Lord;" third, "The Doctrine of
Life"--all three Swedenborg's own works--to all the clergy in our country
whose names could be readily obtained; in all 82,500. So that almost every
clergyman in our country has had an opportunity to acquire some knowledge
of the doctrines and revelations made by the Lord through Emanuel
Swedenborg for the benefit of men in this new age--doctrines very different
from those formulated in the creeds of bygone centuries--and thousands of
our clergy are beginning to realize, that we must return to the rational
and plain doctrines taught in the Sacred Scriptures, and summed up by the
Lord when on earth in the Two Great Commandments, Thou shalt love the Lord
with all thy might and strength, and thy neighbor as thyself, and that we
must commence the new life by repentance, or by being willing to see our
evils and to shun them as sins against God.
As a result of the efforts made by others and myself to make known to the
clergy the offer of the gift books, 32,831 clergymen have sent for and
obtained "The True Christian Religion," 30,887 have obtained "Heaven and
Hell," and 25,522 have obtained "The Apocalypse Revealed," according to the
report of the Trustees of the Iungerich fund (May, 1891).
COMMUNION WINE.
For several years after I joined the Church I paid little attention to the
subject of communion wine. But at last an article appeared in a New-Church
paper, in which the writer claimed that fermented wine was a good and
useful article to be used as a beverage, and he tried to justify its use by
the teachings of the Church. Such views were so contrary to what I regarded
as true, that I immediately commenced a more careful and critical
examination of the writings of Swedenborg, to ascertain what is taught
therein as to wine. I soon found that he distinctly recognized two kinds of
wine, as does the Bible: one kind unfermented, a good and nourishing fluid
to which he always gives a good signification when its use is not abused;
and the other kind, known by its effects on man when he drinks it to be
fermented, to which he has never given a good signification when it is
clear from the context that reference is had to fermented wine. And I will
here say that my opponents in the Church have done precisely what the
advocates of slavery, intoxicating drinks, and skeptics have done in their
appeals to the Bible to sustain their views. They find here and there a
comparison and passage which, by placing their own construction upon them,
they think will justify their views, while they totally ignore a large
number of passages which most clearly and positively teach a totally
different doctrine; and they ignore scientific facts, the well known
effects of drinking fermented wine, and the testimony of ancient writers
whenever such testimony does not accord with their own views. Thus they
uphold the use of the drunkard's cup as a beverage and even as a
sacramental wine; and within my knowledge more than one poor man in our
Church who was struggling to reform his life has been led back by partaking
of it to drunkenness.
A distinguished clergyman said in a letter to the writer:--
"I can never forget the experience already related to you when Mr. ----, my
wife's brother-in-law, a gentleman of classical education, had become a
sober man through my efforts and received the heavenly doctrines ... Then
came the Lord's Supper and we had fermented California wine. I handed him
the cup, he drank, and after church he fled to some place where wine could
be had, came home late in the evening drunk, and continued drinking for
three months, until he died one evening after being brought home beastly
drunk. Unfermented wine is no seducer, and had Mr. ---- been given such in
the Sacrament, he might be living, a sober man, to-day. Your books on the
'Wine Question' deserve, therefore, all that you have done and expended
under the Lord's guidance for their publication and circulation, and God
only knows how much good they will yet have to do."
Another clergyman wrote:--
"I was called to officiate at the funeral of a child. The parents--who were
non-professors of religion--became much interested in the New Church. I
furnished them suitable reading matter and visited them occasionally.
Within a year they united with our Society. The man had formerly been a
drinking man, but had ceased entirely. They were regular attendants on our
church services. He was a mechanic. His well-behaved life restored public
confidence in him, and he soon found constant employment at his trade.
After about two years he felt a desire to take the Lord's Supper. I did not
dissuade him; for, as he had abstained so long and faithfully, I felt sure
he would continue. He presented himself with the communicants. Upon
receiving the cup he took a sip and moved to return the cup to me; but
suddenly, the old appetite being touched by the alcoholic spark, he
returned the cup to his lips--it was about two-thirds full-and nearly
drained it, as though urged on by demons. Poor man! Realizing what he had
done, and evidently feeling disgraced, he at once arose and left the
temple. From that time he returned to drink, and I have been unable to
regain sufficient influence over him to effect his return to our services.
"Another man in my Society formerly drank to excess. I dare not encourage
him to come to the communion. A majority of our members favor intoxicating
wine for the Lord's Supper. How they can do so after witnessing its
dreadful effects, I cannot understand. But the light is spreading, and may
the Lord hasten the full day."
O Lord! how long? how long shall such evils continue in our churches?
Of course I replied to the article in the New-Church paper alluded to
above, and others replied to me, and I to them in return; but it was not
long before notice was given that the discussion would cease, and that with
three unanswered articles against me in one number of the paper, and that
in a paper edited by a clergyman, and published by the General Body of the
Church. Well, looking for the welfare of the Church and its members which I
loved, I could not stand still and see such false and dangerous views
boldly and dogmatically proclaimed in the most extensively circulated
periodical of the Church without doing my best to counteract them.
Consequently I wrote a reply in a tract form, and sent it to every
New-Churchman whose name I could obtain. This was but the beginning. An
article appeared in another periodical of the Church to which I was allowed
to reply; but the discussion was soon closed, and I was given no chance to
reply to the last communication, and a reserved communication which was
published afterward. Finding that there was no chance to present the
temperance side of the wine question fairly before the readers of these two
periodicals, I was led to write several pamphlets in reply to such articles
as appeared in favor of the use of fermented wine, in which I endeavored to
present fully and fairly, generally in the language of its advocates, their
views of the question, and I endeavored to answer them in the light
afforded by the Sacred Scriptures, the writings of the Church, ancient
history, science, and well-known facts as to the manufacture and
preservation of unfermented and fermented wines in all ages.
Several pamphlets were published in reply to the advocates for the use of
fermented wine in our New-Church periodicals in the course of five or six
years, of which about 10,000 of each were printed and sent to all
Newchurchmen whose names I was able to obtain in this country, England, and
elsewhere, hoping to reach as far as possible the readers of the writings
of my opponents and others. The following are the names of the pamphlets
written, printed, and sent, viz: "Pure Wine, Fermented Wine, and Other
Alcoholic Drinks," published in 1880; "The Wine Question in the Light of
the New Dispensation," in 1882; "Reply to the Academy's Review," in 1883;
"Intoxicants, Prohibition, and our New-Church Periodicals," 1885, to which
was added "Deterioration of the Puritan Stock," 1884; making in all, with
index, 736 pages.
Finally, I had printed an edition of all of the above pamphlets from the
plates, and bound in cloth, of which I sent a copy to all New-Church
ministers in the world whose names I could get, and to some others.
My controversy with the clergy on the wine question led me to fear that
there were other evils gradually creeping into the Church organization
which should be exposed, and against which both laymen and clergymen should
be warned; therefore, I wrote a tract entitled, "The New Church: its
Ministry, Laity, and Ordinances, with an Appendix on Intoxicants and Our
New-Church Periodicals," published and sent out in 1886, the latter part to
answer some articles which had recently appeared in the Church papers. This
tract was sent to about 10,000 or 11,000 Newchurchmen.
Then I wrote and compiled and condensed from my previous writings,
including "The Avoidable Causes of Disease," a work of 511 pages, fully
presenting the wine question in all its aspects, and the use of tobacco and
opium, and the bad habits of women, faulty methods of rearing children,
etc., etc., of which in paper covers I sent out over 10,000 to my
New-Church brethren, and about 40,000 copies I sent to clergymen of various
denominations.
In the year 1883 my attention was seriously called to the signs of
deterioration of the Puritan stock in New England, especially in
Massachusetts, my native State, where it was shown that in six years,
ending in 1881, the deaths among the native population fully equaled, if
they did not exceed, the births; whereas, among the people of foreign
birth, the births exceeded the deaths by over 87,000. And I found, on
visiting my native town in Western Massachusetts, and the school district
where I attended, where we used to have about thirty scholars in the winter
and twenty in the summer, when I was a boy, and although there are but two
families less residing there now than when I was a boy, and all native
Americans, still I found that they had but eight or nine scholars during
the winter, and not enough to keep up a school in summer.
As a result of my inquiries I wrote a work of 52 pages, calling attention
to the spiritual and natural causes of such decline of the native stock,
and especially to the bad habits and false ideas of men and women which
have produced it. This pamphlet I entitled, "Deterioration of the Puritan
Stock, and its Causes," and printed 140,000 copies, which I sent to all the
clergymen and physicians in our country whose names I could get, regarding
them as the teachers and leaders of the people, and largely responsible for
the existence of at least some of the prevailing evils of life.
Within the last few years pamphlets have been written by prominent
clergymen of some of the prevailing denominations advocating the use of
fermented wine, especially for sacramental purposes, in strong language,
and claiming that it is a good and useful fluid. This seemed to aid and
comfort distillers, brewers, and saloonists very much. At last one appeared
entitled "Communion Wine," in which the advocates for the use of the "Fruit
of the Vine," or pure unfermented wine, were assailed in no very gentle
language. Several thousand of this pamphlet were sent by a Rev. Doctor of
Divinity to clergymen, with a special request from him, to at least some of
them, that they should read them and give him their opinion as to its
merits. About 285 clergymen responded, most of them in favor of the views
contained in the pamphlet, but 22 most decidedly opposed. The arguments in
favor of fermented wine were based upon assumptions which were entirely
groundless, and which have again and again been exposed. I could but feel
that the time had come when a concise statement of the truth upon the wine
question should be written and placed in the hands of every clergyman in
our country; and as, in the controversy extending over several years, I had
had occasion to examine the wine question in all of its various aspects,
and to read whatever I could find written on both sides of the question,
and had had suggestions from, and the cooperation of, some of the most
distinguished scholars upon this question in this country and England, I
felt that it was my duty to write a reply, which I did, of 38 pages, which
was printed in connection with a short article on "The Holy Supper is
Representative," by Mr. J. R. Hoffer, editor of the Mount Joy
_Herald_, Mount Joy, Pa. Of this pamphlet over 80,000 were sent by Mr.
Hoffer to clergymen in the United States. And of my reply alone, in a tract
form, which is based upon the letter of the Sacred Scriptures--the
testimony of ancient writers and science--about 50,000 copies have been
printed and distributed by Mr. J. N. Stearns, 58 Reade Street, New York,
who keeps a supply on hand to fill all orders.
The last pamphlet before this one which I have written is one recently
published by "The Swedenborg Publishing Association," of Germantown,
Philadelphia, Pa., entitled "The Essential Points of the Wine Question
Carefully Examined," which, with an Addendum of 6 pages by W. J. Parsons,
son of the late Professor Theophilus Parsons, contained 70 pages. This
pamphlet was written for Newchurchmen and based upon the Sacred Scriptures
as unfolded by the Science of Correspondences revealed through Swedenborg.
This pamphlet was sent only to 10,000 Newchurchmen.
THE RESULTS OF EFFORTS IN BEHALF OF TEMPERANCE.
The reader may reasonably inquire what results have followed all the
efforts which I have made to call the attention of the clergy and laity of
the New Church, and the clergy of other churches, to the importance of
using as a communion wine, the genuine "Fruit of the Vine" as the Lord has
organized, ripened, and sweetened it in the grape, instead of a leavened or
fermented wine, which, when used as a beverage, causes disease,
drunkenness, insanity, and death, in innumerable instances, among the
clergy and laity of our churches, and enslaves their children often before
their rational faculties are fully developed. I am happy to say that to-day
there are quite a number of New-Church clergymen, in this country and
England, and a large number of laymen, who, after a careful examination of
the subject, are satisfied that the good wine of the Word and the Writings,
and the only wine suitable for use as a Communion wine, is always the fruit
of the vine, and never fermented wine. Many of these clergymen and church
members have not always thought thus, and did not when I commenced writing
upon the subject.
At the Annual Meetings of the General Convention of the New Church, when
unfermented as well as fermented wine has been permitted to be used, and
full notice has been given, nearly or quite one-third of the members
present have deliberately partaken of unfermented wine.
I am satisfied, from what I have seen and heard, that one of the most
useful works which the Lord has enabled me to do was the writing and
sending the reply to "Communion Wine" to over 80,000 clergymen. The clergy
of the prevailing organizations are not so difficult to reach upon this
subject as are a majority of those of the New Church, for they have not
confirmed themselves in favor of fermented wine from the writings for the
New Dispensation. It is one thing to see new truths when they are revealed,
but it is another step to be willing to see that those truths condemn
falses in which we have strongly confirmed ourselves, or evil habits in
which we delight, and to avoid confirming ourselves in falses, and to avoid
striving to justify evils. To do the latter means to endure and resist
temptations, and to engage in a warfare until the old man with his deeds is
put off.
The New Church is descending from God out of heaven, and as it progresses,
fermented wine is disappearing from the Communion tables of Christian
Churches.
"The new wine," says Swedenborg, "is the Divine Truth of the New Testament,
and thus of the New Church." (A. R. 316.)
The new wine for the New Christian Church is unfermented wine, pure as it
comes from the hands of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, in the fruit of
the vine, and not a leavened wine. And when men return to its exclusive
use, multitudes now enslaved, diseased, and insane from leavened wine will
be set free, cured and restored to their right mind by the Great
Physician--by the inflowing life from Him through this physical
representative of His blood.
The New Church is not a new sect or organization, but a new faith and a
renewed life resulting from a revelation of Divine Truth, made by the Lord
through Emanuel Swedenborg, for the benefit of all sects and all men, that
the Christian Church may "revive again" and be reunited in the bonds of
Charity, by worshiping the one God whose name is one--even the Lord Jesus
Christ--and by striving to live a life according to His commandments.
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