New Church Life March/April 2017 | Page 18

new church life: march/april 2017 A Beautiful Story To The Editors: I just finished reading from the September-October 2016 issue the sermon by the Rev. Chris Barber on the story of Balaam. What a wonderful review of the story. Chris is to be commended. There is strength, beauty and affection in this story as told. I always loved the story. Now I like it more than ever. Kudos to Chris Barber. Kenneth Blair Sarver, Pennsylvania O U R N E W C H U RC H V O C A B U L A R Y Part of a continuing series developed by the Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, 1961-1966. INSPIRATION By this term, we are told, is not meant dictation but inspiration from the Divine. The distinction is that whatever inflows from the Divine is Divine in itself, but passes through heaven, in which it becomes celestial and spiritual, and then enters the world, where it becomes worldly, but with the Divine and what is heavenly within it. This definition shows what is the nature of the inspiration of the Word and enables us to distinguish between it and what is commonly called the inspiration of secular writers. Inspiration is also defined as insertion into angelic societies, which has the same general implication, namely, insertion into the spheres through which the Divine proceeds. (See Arcana Coelestia 9094; True Christian Religion 140.) 84