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the face beameth. The heart requires as thorough an education as the head. Indeed the grand object of head-education is, that heart-education may be perfected; for the avenue of access to the will is the understanding. Referring to knowledge, we say that the understanding is uninformed or ignorant, is misinformed or in error, and is well informed or is learned. We use words of almost equal import, when speaking of the will or dispositions of man. We say that the will is unformed or crude, deformed or perverted, transformed or changed, and conformed to the heavenly or purified by regeneration. Improvement is possible to the understanding, because the unformed may become informed, the misinformed may become the well informed. And improvement is also possible for the will, because the deformed may become the transformed, and the unformed may become conformed to the image of the heavenly. But the very use of these modes of speech implies the recognition of the formation of character as a possibility, and, consequently, as a DUTY.

According as these formative processes go on,-as the man rejects the false, and becomes intelligent, learned, wise,-as the man rejects the evil, and becomes good, pure, holy,-can his character become elevated, angelic, heavenly, and can his actions become good and intelligent, pure and learned, holy and wise. True wisdom and real holiness are inseparably connected, wedded together by the marriageunion which is perfected in the celestial heavens.

This process of formation is continually going on, human character grows hourly more and more fixed and determinate, and the individual is becoming hourly more and more an angel or more and more a devil. Happy for those who can comprehend the importance, and commence the delightful, delight-receiving, and delight-imparting labour of building up spiritual houses which shall be, after the fluctuations of time and the changes of this life, "eternal in the heavens." For that state let all, and especially the young, strive, till the circumscriptions that fetter mundane thought, the limitations that exhaust mundane feeling, and the cribbed boundaries that restrict mundane activities, shall be widely enlarged into spheres, then angelic, and which shall continue increasing for ever. Man's character is the man, and according to his character must be his possibilities of advancement.

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THE CORRESPONDENCE OF SALT.

SALT is often mentioned in the Scriptures, and always in such a manner as to indicate that some important principle is signified or represented by it.

Thus, the Lord says to His disciples-" Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another."* Now, here is an express command. It is plain that it cannot be taken literally; some spiritual principle is evidently here signified by salt, which the Lord's disciples are required to have in themselves. In the verse preceding, there is a siugular passage which has cost the commentators great trouble, and to which, indeed, without an understanding of the spiritual sense, it is difficult to attach any meaning whatever-"For every one shall be salted with fire." On this passage Barnes, in his “ Notes on the Gospels," remarks:-66 Perhaps no passage in the New Testament has given more perplexity to the commentators than this; and it may be impossible now to fix its precise meaning. The common meaning affixed to it has been that, as salt preserves from putrefaction, so fire, applied to the wicked in hell, shall have the property of preserving them in existence; or they shall be preserved, amidst the sprinkling of fire, to be continually in their sufferings-a sacrifice to the justice of God." Barnes adds, however, with great naïveté, "but this meaning is not quite satisfactory."

No! we should think not. That fire should have a preserving instead of a destroying property, is slightly contrary to the nature of that element, as observed in this world at any rate; and that God should keep his creatures alive solely for the purpose of tormenting them (even though they had been wicked), is altogether contrary to the nature of a Being of Love, and of one who is declared in His Word to be "kind even to the unthankful and to the evil." (Luke vi. 35.)

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A presentation of these two passages is perhaps sufficient to whet curiosity, and to excite a desire of knowing what is the real signification of salt in Scripture, and what is the principle represented by it. Salt," says the doctrine of the New Church, "denotes the desire of truth for good [that is, the desire which should be felt by those who possess truth to join it to the good of life.] The reason why there ought to be a desire of the truth for good is because that desire is conjunctive of both-for so far as truth desires good, so far it is conjoined to it. The conjunction of truth and good is what is called the heavenly * Mark ix. 50.

marriage, which is heaven itself with man. Wherefore, when in divine worship, there is the desire for that conjunction; heaven is in it, and thus the Lord. This is signified by the requirement that the incense should be salted. That salt has this signification is from its conjunctive nature: for it conjoins all things, and thus gives them relish; yea, it conjoins water and oil, which otherwise are not conjoined [water signifies truth, and oil good.] When it is known that by salt is signified the desire for the conjunction of truth and good, it may be known what is meant by the Lord's words in Mark (ix. 49, 50.)—'Every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt is good; but if the salt be without saltiness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves. Every one shall be salted with fire,' denotes that every one should desire [the conjunction of truth and good] from genuine love; fire denotes love. Every sacrifice must be salted with salt,' denotes that in all worship there should be this desire from genuine love [sacrifice denotes worship]. Salt without saltness,' denotes desire from some other love than genuine love. Have salt in yourselves,' signifies that they cannot have the desire of conjoining truth to good" [that is, the desire of conjoining the knowledge of truth which they possess to the good of life]. (A. C. 10,300.)

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Thus simply and easily is this difficult passage explained, when there is a knowledge of the correspondence of salt. In the common version it is incorrectly translated "tempered together." It signifies, we see, a desire for the conjunction of truth with good. The command to the Lord's disciples to "have salt in themselves," signifies that all those who possess the knowledge of truth should take care that they are alive to the necessity of putting that truth into practice,-for thus will it be conjoined with the good of life,-otherwise it will remain barren. To be salted with fire, denotes that we are to take care, moreover, that the desire of joining truth to good proceeds from a genuine love (signified by fire), namely, love to the Lord, and a desire to do His will; not the desire to live a good moral life simply to appear well before the world that is the "salt which has lost its savour"-it is a desire proceeding from a wrong motive. But to be salted with fire, signifies the desire of conjoining truth to good, from love to the Lord.

There are other passages in Scripture which a knowledge of the correspondence of salt will illustrate. For instance, the following in Leviticus, ii. 13:-"Every oblation of thy meat-offering shalt thou season with salt: neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat. With all thy offerings thou shalt

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offer salt." "By this law," says Swedenborg, "is meant that in all worship there must be a desire of joining truth to good. By a meatoffering (more properly translated a cake, for it was made of flour), and by an offering which is a sacrifice, is signified worship. Salt is there called the salt of the covenant of Jehovah,' because by a covenant is signified conjunction."*

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In 2 Kings, ii. 19-22, is related the following remarkable incident :"The men of the city (Jericho) said to Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren. And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more dearth or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake." Here, by the "water being naught, and the ground barren," is signified the knowledge of truth (water), but without any desire of conjoining it to good hence spiritual barrenness. Man in that state brings forth no fruits of a good life. The healing of the waters, by casting salt into them, signifies that when there is infused into man's soul a desire of conjoining truth to good, that is, of bringing his faith into life and practice, then there is no more such barrenness, nor any more spiritual “death,” that is, sin; but man begins to live the life of heaven.

We have thus seen the correspondence of salt, in a good sense, but the term has also an opposite or bad sense. Salt, in a bad sense, signifies the conjunction of falsity and evil (or rather, the desire of a bad conjunction); the consequence of which is the destruction of truth and goodness in the mind. Thus in Jeremiah (xvii. 5, 6), "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord, for he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land, and not inhabited." To "make flesh his arm" denotes to trust in himself, thus in his own proprium, and not in the Lord; and since proprium consists in loving self above God and the neighbour, it is the love of self which is thus described. By its being said that he "shall not see when good cometh, but shall dwell in parched places, and in a salt land," is signified that his life will consist in filthy loves and desires, which will destroy in him all the good and truth of the church.

We read in Scripture, that when a city was destroyed, and no more

* A. C. 10,300.

to be inhabited, the ground on which it stood was sown with salt. Thus in Judges ix. 45-"And Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and slew the people that was therein, and beat down the city, and sowed it with salt." By a city, in a good sense, is signified the doctrinals of truth; but a city sown with salt signifies false doctrinals, joined to evils of life,-thus spiritual barrenness and death.

In the last place, an understanding of the correspondence of salt, will enable us to explain the signification of that remarkable circumstance of Lot's wife being turned into a pillar or statue of salt.* Lot, who was fleeing from the destruction of Sodom, represents the good who are saved, from among the evil that perish. Or, abstractly, Lot represents the principle of good itself. Lot's wife represents the truth, or, personally, Lot's wife represents such as are possessed of the knowledge of truth. Now it is said that Lot's wife looked back behind him; that is, behind Lot. And as Lot represents good, this signifies such as turn away from good, and look back to doctrinals: for doctrine is as it were behind,-good is in advance. Now those who, though possessed of truth, do not look forward to the good of life, and thus have no desire of conjoining truth to good, are signified by the "salt that has lost its savour." With such persons, all good and truth perishes, and they come into the conjunction of evil and falsity, which is represented, in a bad sense, by salt.

An understanding of the above circumstance will also afford a key to the explanation of those difficult passages in the gospels, spoken of in connection with the story of Lot's wife:-"In that day, he who shall be upon the house-top, and his staff in the house, let him not come down to take it away; and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot's wife." (Luke xvii. 31, 32.) By the "house top" is signified a state of good; for the house signifies the mind, and the house-top the most elevated state of the mind, which is a state of good. By the "stuff in the house," are signified the knowledges of truth or doctrinals, which are, as it were, lower down in the mind. Not to go down for these, is not to leave good and think of doctrine. "In that day," signifies in the end of the church, when false doctrines commonly prevail. This is a warning, to those who are in simple good, to stay there, and not mind the false doctrines which they have been taught. In like manner a "field" signifies the church as to good; for as a field receives seed, so good is the soil in which truths are best sown. Thus a field, in the abstract, signifies a state of good. "Not to turn back from the field," signifies not to look back from a state of good to mere doctrine,

Genesis xix. 26.

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