5–11 October 1829

I am glad to see that interpretations of Scrip- ture like those of the New Jerusalem Church can be accepted in our community. The most spirit- ual and sublime sense is put upon various his- torical passages of the New Testament. The in- terpretation of the passages is doubtless wholly false. The apostle John in Patmos and our Sav- iour in his talking, meant no such things as the commentator says he meant. But the sentiment which the commentator, puts into their mouths is nevertheless true and eternal. The wider that sentiment can be spread and the more effect it can have on men's lives, the better. And if the fool-part of man must have the lie, if truth is a pill that can't go down till 't is sugared with su- perstition, why then I will forgive the last in the belief that the truth will enter into the soul natively and so assimilantly that it will become part of the soul and so remain, when the false- hood grows dry and lifeless and peels off.