II.
THE OLD DOCTRINE OF HELL.
MORE than a hundred years ago, Swedenborg announced the end or consummation of the first Christian Church or Dispensation, and the commencement of a new one. Repeatedly, and in the calmest and most emphatic language, did he declare that the Lord had manifested Himself to him in person; had opened his spiritual senses; had permitted him to see and converse with the denizens of the other world as men see and converse with each other; had vouchsafed to him a clear understanding of the spiritual and true meaning of the Sacred Scripture; and had authorized and directed him to make a new revelation of heavenly truth for the instruction of all Christians and for the benefit of mankind.
Up to this time comparatively few have openly embraced this new revelation. Yet its power has been seen and its influence felt in the gradual and steady modification of the old theological beliefs, which has been going on in nearly all of the sects for the last hundred years. This is admitted by some of the keenest observers and
