Page:Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church.djvu/265

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

LATER PERIOD OF LIFE: CONCLUSION

striving after a Christian spirit, but not yet clothed with Christ. Tell me, I pray, what he is doing. Paint to me his figure, state, etc., in such words that I may know that God's truth is in you. . . .

"I am your brother in Christ. Answer very soon a sincere brother; and answer the letter I have sent in such a manner that I may see what I am believing on the testimony of others.

"Christ be with us, to whom we belong, living or dead.

"John Casper Lavater,
"Minister at the Orphan Asylum.


"Zurich in Switzerland
"Sept. 24, 1769."

Matthius Claudius, a third of Kürtz's five faithful sons of the Church, a poet and religious writer, had no personal acquaintance with Swedenborg, but reflected the esteem of others.

"Now" he says, "after Swedenborg had made himself acquainted with all the erudition of his time, and after the greatest honors had been bestowed upon him by individuals and whole societies, he began to see spirits. . . . He was always a virtuous man, and one who was interiorly affected with the beauty and majesty of the visible

253