The Hidden Sense in the Bible [excerpt]

     But you say: “Swedenborg says the inhabitants of hell are all insane.” Swedenborg tells the truth; so they are, but they are only insane as to what pertains to law and order, good and truth, but as to cunning and planning all kinds of devices of evil and mischief of every kind they are not insane.
     It was clearly proven in court that Guiteau, the assassin of President Garfield, was insane as to what pertains to law and order, good and truth, but he was not insane as to his plans of taking Mr. Garfield’s life, for in this he was successful, and we may say the same of Czolgosz, the assassin of President McKinley. This man was also insane as to everything pertaining to law and order, good and truth, and I am fully convinced that whether he was influenced by outside forces or not, visible or invisible, makes no difference, but he was not insane as to planning evil against Mr. McKinley and in laying out a skillful, bold, and cunning plan whereby he took the president’s life, and not only that, but rejoiced in his heart over his cunning device and success when he saw he had stricken down a man who had never in all his life harmed him, and who was the standard bearer of 70,000,000 civilized and intelligent people. Just think of this, my reader, one single infernal mind was able to plan and execute an act of this kind successfully, alone. Shall we then wonder over the fact that the inhabitants of the infernal kingdom who have lived there for hundreds of thousands of years are able [166][167] to devise and execute plans of evil of every kind, and that the angels are not always able to control them as to their respective places in the society to which they belong, and as it is well known that man after death does not change in the least in what pertains to good and evil any more so than he is progressing in either good or evil, it then follows that if he progresses in evil fifty or one hundred thousand years he will by that time be beyond the comprehension of man, so far as doing evil is concerned.