The Advocate. [Established 1888.] SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 1908. NOTES.

Bush Advocate, Volume XX, Issue 1000, 11 April 1908, Page 4

The Advocate. [Established 1888.] SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 1908. NOTES.

♦ The cable on Thursday last conveyed the information that the remains of the great Swedish philosopher and theosophist Swedenborg, who died in 1772, had been conveyed to an island in tho Baltic Sea. This man actually founded the sect known as the New Church, or Swedenborgians. It was in 1747 that Swedenborg resigned a position under the Government of his native country in order to devote himself wholly to the expounding of the Scriptures as the immediate mouthpiece of God. He held that Revelations xxi., 2, "And I John saw tho holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down i'rom God out of heaven," to be a prediction of the establishment of a new dispensation, the initiation of which took place by the execution of the last judgment in tho spiritual world in the year 1757, whereby man was restored' to moral freedom by the restriction of evil infestations, the power of which had threatened its utter extinction.

The distinctive principle of SwcdenlK)rgian theology, next to the doctrine of the Divino Humanity, is tho^doctrino of life. God nlone lives. Creation is dead — man is dead; and their apparent life is from the Divino presence. God is everywhere the same. It fallaciously appears as if Ho were different in one man and in another. Tlio difference is in the recipients ; by one He is not received in tho same degree as another. A man more adequately manifests God than a tree; that is the only distinction. The life of devils is God's

presence perverted in disorderly order. "All things, and each of them to the very uttermost, exi*t and subsist instantly from God. If the connection of anything with Him wero broken for a moment it would instantly vanish; for existence is perpetual subsistence, and preservation is perpetual creation." By this law of life is explained man's self-conscious-ness, freedom, and personality — notions communicated from God to man. The Swcdenborgians, or, as they designate themselves in their corporate capacity, "The New Church signified by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation," wero fii'st organised as a distinct denomination in 1788. Tho census of 19U6 shows that there are 186 adherents of the sect in New Zealand.

i A suggestion lias been made that appears to us to bo worthy of consideration. The gentleman who mado it has been much impressed by the beauty of Fountain Reser.ve> at Woodvillo. The great charm of this reserve is its contiguity to the business part of the town, and in this respect the domain at Dannevirkc is at a slight disadvantage. Briefly, the suggestion is that an attenipt should bo made to obtain the necessary ground in the vicinity of Barraud street to supply the want. The. gentleman who made the suggestion is prepared to giv© the sum of £20 towards the object, and he argues that if the residents viewed tho proposul with favor something practical could soon be accomplished. A great deal can be urged in favor of the suggestion to supply an additional "lung" for tho town. A small, tastef ully-kept reserve at the southern end of the borough would prove of great advantage, especially in view of the expansion of tho -town in tho near future. The longer the matter is delayed tho more valuable the ground will become, and. for this reason alone the subject is worthy of" consideration.