day has undergone important modifications, and the change is still in progress. The theology of the present time as it exists in the popular mind (however it may remain unaltered in the creeds) is quite different from that of the last generation. Hence it is not uncommon to meet with persons nowadays, who disbelieve and reject many of the doctrines set forth in the very creeds they have subscribed. And others who still profess loyalty to the "standards," are found giving to their creed a very different interpretation from that clearly intended by its original framers.
This is one of the hopeful signs of our times:—A green and tender leaf on the fig-tree, which proclaims a spiritual summer nigh. In the fluctuation and modification of religious beliefs which we see going on around us, there is abundant cause for joy and hope. It is because the fountains of the great deep in men's minds are breaking up, and the windows of heaven are opening, and increasing light from out the new angelic heavens is bursting upon the world, that such things are coming to pass. It is, moreover, a verification of what Swedenborg foresaw and predicted more than a century ago.
"In consequence and by means of the Last Judgment," he says, "the communication between heaven and the world, or between the Lord and the church, has been restored.
"The state of the world and of the church before the Last Judgment was as evening and night, but after it as morning and day.
"After the Last Judgment was accomplished, there was joy in heaven, and such light in the world of spirits