communicants; but besides these there are 14 or 15 millions of "adherents" to the cause, so that the whole body numbers over 20 millions.
The Rev. W. E. Pearson was appointed August, 1905, but left in Feb., 1907, to pursue his studies at college.
THE NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH.
The Croft Street Chapel, or New Jerusalem Church, is both structurally and intellectually, the most recent development of Nonconformity in Horncastle. The founder of this community was a personality so remarkable that it may be well here to give a brief sketch of him.
Emanuel Swedenborg, son of a Lutheran bishop, was born at Stockholm, in 1689. During more than the first half of his life he was distinguished as a hard worker in the field of science, and from his many clever inventions, and valuable public services, he was ennobled by his sovereign. But in the year 1743, after a serious illness, accompanied by brain fever, the result of excessive mental labour, he threw up all work of this kind, declaring that he had received a "call" from the Lord, who manifested Himself to him, by personal appearance, and commissioned him to devote further life and strength to holier purposes.
Being a man of strong will, albeit, not improbably, with a touch (as was thought by several) of mental aberration, the result of his illness, he threw himself, with characteristic energy, into the work of religious proselytism, in support of the special views with which he was now inspired. He became a kind of religious clairvoyant, living an ecstatic existence in communion with angels and spirits. He printed accounts of various "Arcana," as he termed them; visions granted to him of heaven and hell; the state after death, the true worship of God, the inner spiritual sense of the scriptures; and so forth. He held spiritual intercourse with the dwellers in other planets, conversing with Apostles, with Luther, Calvin, Melancthon, &c. "Things hidden since the days of Job (he declared) were revealed to himself."
Followers gradually gathered round him, inspired by his own enthusiasm. He visited England frequently; and before his death, in London, A.D. 1772, he had established congregations in England, Ireland, Wales, France, Holland, Sweden, Russia, and even in Turkey and America. It is said that several Anglican clergy adopted his views, though still retaining charges in their own church.
The special tenets of the sect, which he founded, seem to have been, that, while believing in one God, they held that He was the Christ; that Christ always existed in human form, but not in human soul; and that in His Person there was a real Trinity; that the bible was to be understood in a spiritual sense, which was first revealed to Swedenborg. Their ritual, which was based on that of the Anglican Church, included a splendid priesthood and an elaborate ceremonial.
Swedenborg's very numerous writings included a number of mystic works, especially connected with what he called the "Spiritual Influx," which was not limited to locality but pervaded everywhere. Translations of all his works have been issued by the Swedenborg Society, located at No. 1, Bloomsbury Street, London, W.C., and at Horncastle they may be borrowed from the New Church Free Library in Croft Street. The Horncastle branch has also its own monthly magazine, The New Church Advocate.
