the lungs and head of the soul; and that, consequently, as the human body is fitted to enjoy this world, so we are fitted with a spiritual body so provided as to enjoy all the blessings of the spiritual world. "There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." This doctrine we propose to carry on still further to-night in considering the great fact that death is but a continuation of life, a life which we have to a certain extent to realize, and do realize in this world, and that we more perfectly realize when we enter into the full possession of our spiritual and everlasting powers in the eternal world. We venture to ask for your very close attention to this subject because of its supreme importance; for unless we can fully understand this great truth, that we are in possession of everlasting powers able to live on without any reference to the earthly covering that is left behind, it is the feeling of a great number of souls at the present day that their belief in Christianity would be enfeebled if it is taught that the earthly body is wanted for men's happiness after death, that they are not complete men unless they get the old dust that was left behind; then the difficulties appear to many to be so great that their conviction of the truth of religion is greatly imperilled.

Resurrection is not destruction of life, for resurrection is continually taking place with all who quit the earth, as was the case with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as the Lord said, "Now that the dead are raised;" even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. All these persons had died hundreds of years before. When the Lord appeared to Moses the Israelites had left Canaan nearly 300 years before; Abraham had lived 430 years before that time, and yet they were then alive in the eternal world. "God is NOT a God of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto Him." But this presents a difficulty to a great number unless there is a clear conception that the outward body is not the man, that it is only the external covering by which we live and take part in this world, and is no more the man than the shell of the fish is the fish, than the bark of the tree is the tree, than the chrysalis is the butterfly, than the chaff is the corn. Everything in this world is covered; this is the world of covering; the eternal world is the world of manifestation and fulness. Hence the true idea is that the body is the soul's house, and that the man will no more need it again after he has left it than he will need his brick or stone house in the eternal world. The Apostle Paul says, "If our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens:" a beautiful body in which we can be absent from the earth and present with the Lord.

According to Scripture the resurrection of man is immediate; death does not leave him half a man, his body here and his soul somewhere else, for thousands of years. This notion is of the very crudest kind, and is nowhere taught in the Scriptures. Those who live in God never die is the constant doctrine of Scripture. In the sixteenth chapter of Luke the Lord gives an account of two representative men-a good poor man and a bad rich one. And after describing their life He says, "The beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom ;" not that half of him went into dust and half somewhere else. For a long time, in the dark ages, and after, man speculated whereabouts the souls. could exist, and there is by no means any clear teaching on the subject yet. In the various doctrines of the Churches, on account of this want of knowledge upon

this subject, you will find no doctrine about heaven, or hell, or the resurrection, but this is not because it is not clearly pointed out in the Sacred Scriptures. People in the dark ages only cared for their bodies; and if the body did not rise they did not know what would rise, and hence this idea of the bodily resurrection arose. It was "not knowing the Scriptures." And then for want of a fuller investigation some taught that good people only lived eternally, but bad ones went out, died out like a candle when it has burned itself away. But you will find nothing of this kind in Scripture, because it says in this parable, "And the rich man died also, and was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes."

Yes, some have ventured to say, it will be so thousands of years hence when the resurrection takes place and the body is brought up; for those who think in that way imagine that the soul has no eyes at all. But this parable teaches us that this was done immediately after death, and that the rich man was a complete man then, with eyes and tongue; for he says that he has five brethren still living, and asks that he may be allowed to visit them to warn them. So we see that when a man dies he is in a perfect human form in heaven or in hell. The heavenly form is described as plainly as possible, for there is a petition that the beggar's finger may be dipped in water to cool the sufferer's tongue. Evidently he had a finger; and if a finger, surely a hand and an arm; and if an arm, of course a shoulder and side; and if he had one side, would he not have two sides? and if a body, surely a head, and so on. So you perceive from the very nature of the case that he evidently had a body, and Dives also had a body fitted for his place.

Take another instance of the case of the man on the cross, who was prepared to stake his faith and confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ when even the disciples had fled away. He saw the dying Saviour, and felt that He was the Saviour indeed, and he said, "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom;" and immediately Jesus said, "This day shalt thou be with Me in paradise;" not that half should be in paradise and half of him somewhere else; but thou, the whole man, all of him that was capable of being immortal, thou.

And in fact the Scriptures teem with teachings of the same kind. I can scarcely do more than remind you of that grand opening of John's spiritual sight. He beheld a great multitude out of all nations, such as no man could number, standing before the throne of God with palms in their hands. Must not every one of these have been in the human form. Perhaps these were angels, some one says, made before the creation of the world, repeating an old Babylonish fancy that has no existence in the Word of God or anywhere else save in Milton. There were no angels created so who have not been first inhabitants of the human race in this or some other world. First people must be created on the earth, and so be regenerated, and formed into angels. This is the very purpose for the earth; for if there had been a better way of making angels the Lord would not have made the earth at all. It is because angels may be made that the earth first is made, and not the contrary; for angels could not have been made right off without the universe of earths such as we see around us and know to exist. And instead of these being a creation of angels who had not gone through human life, it is said, "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Angels have become angels in heaven by co-operating with the Lord in their spiritual growth. When you are in trials and tribulations, that is the Lord's training to

make you into angels. A man who has gone through the fire of trouble and tribulation comes out blest and chastened, an angel-man in the likeness of his God and Saviour.

I think we must completely see that the doctrine of Scripture is the doctrine of immediate resurrection. You will be astonished when you examine the subject to see in how many places in Scripture it is said that the good man shall never die. There is no such thing as death. There is a rising to a higher life and leaving the outward husk behind; but what is meant by death is the dying of all that is pure and good, so that we have nothing in common with the angels.

You will find this again and again in the Old Testament, and more especially in the new declaration, to the effect that if any man hear the Lord's words he shall never see death. The Jews, not understanding, said, "Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead, and what is this that Thou sayest?" And the Lord reiterated the saying. In fact He had often said so to them before. In the sixth chapter you will find in six different places language equivalent to this, "Except ye eat My flesh and drink My blood ye cannot have eternal life." When He was giving instruction concerning Lazarus He said, "I am the Resurrection and the Life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die."

That is the world where everything is more perfect than this. How often our hearts' best dispositions desire to attain things in this world and cannot acquire them! The soul is more perfect than the body always. How many things we desire to do and cannot carry out because our bodies are not sufficiently perfect! In narrating something, how often a person will stop and say, "I wish I could explain this perfectly to you, but I cannot!" And when we come into the soul-world we are in possession of spiritual bodies as perfectly suited to carry out our aspirations and desires there as we can wish without any waiting for the old earthly imperfect body. If you were to go to the butterfly and tell it that in a little time it would have to go back into its old shell again, it would certainly say, "No, no, by no means, I am far better off as I am," and so it would be with an angel. Walking among the mummies of the British Museum, and looking at some poor thing wrapped up in rags, I have thought that that person, for anything I know to the contrary, might be Joseph himself; and then I have thought of Joseph as he is among the angels, a bright and glorious angel in the kingdom of God, and I have imagined what would be his feelings if he had to come down to a mass of rags again.

It is one of the discoveries of science that we change our bodies every seven years, that we are continually putting off used-up particles and taking new, so that in the course of a long lifetime we have fourteen or fifteen bodies, so that any one to have exactly the same body as he had in this world would require several bodies. The whole thing is as grotesque as it is absurd. But, on the other hand, if we take our Lord's teaching, that He is the Resurrection, that resurrection is continually going on, that when we leave the shades of earth behind we come into the brighter life and more glorious scenes of the eternal world.

It is one of the most important reflections that we can make in connection with this subject, that we are inhabitants now of two worlds, and though we are only in perfect manifestation to the outer world at the present time, that we are in certain communication with the inner world, as surely as we are in outer communication in this world.

What is more common in Scripture than for the prophets of Israel to tell how their spiritual sight was opened, and they saw the eternal world close at hand?

In the Psalms it is said, "The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him;" "He shall give His angels charge concerning thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." And again in the New Testament, "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of salvation?" These angels watch over us through life and in death, as was the case with our Lord. There will be two angels, one at the head and another at the feet, to welcome us into that more glorious and blessed life to which they have been leading us. Do not be afraid: there is no death except the death of sin; the Lord has destroyed all other death, so that He will say to the true Christian at the close of his earthly life, "Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

So let us remember while in this world that we are inhabitants of two worlds, one perfect and the other imperfect, the one an image and representation of the other. "This world is full of beauty, Like better worlds above, And if men do their duty, It may be full of love."

We have got the capabilities for the still more glorious world near the throne of God, and let us so live that we may rise above everything that is carnal, selfish, and evil, and prepare, that it may be said of us, “These are among the truly loving, let them enter into the land of the living, because they belong to the God of love, for all live who have love to Him.

PERSONAL BEAUTY.

O be beautiful is one of the spontaneous ambitions of the human heart. There is no use of disparag ing the motive, or of trying to wink it out of sight as something to be ashamed of, or to shut it out of the breast as an unholy thing. It has heaven's own autograph upon it, and its universality and intrinsic worthiness give it permission to be. It should be recog nised for what it is, and taken up into the family of motives whose function it is to spur mankind to noble endeavours and holy living. It is not a right, but a duty, to try to be beautiful.

How to be beautiful, that is the practical question. We begin with admiring beauty of form and feature, a particular cut, contour, and colour of face and countenance; and these are admirable. But as we grow older we perceive that there is a higher order of beauty than this a beauty of expression which enfolds the features in an atmosphere of indefinable fascination—a beauty of mind, of disposition, of soul, which makes us forget the absence of regular features and lovely tints where they are not, and overlook their presence where they are. Everybody has seen men and women of irregular features and ungraceful form who, notwithstanding their physical defects, were so irradiated and glorified by the outshining of noble thoughts and kind affections that they seemed supremely beautiful. A perfectly-developed, symmetrical figure, a finely-chiselled face, delicately-tinted complexion, a clear eye and an elegant mien, are attractive, if not commanding; but when contrasted with this higher quality and transfiguring spirit of beauty which irradiates

the intelligent and kindly face, informing every feature, and glowing in look, act, and air, all merely physical prettiness and elegance seem petty, if not contemptible. Not every one can have the symmetric form and finelychiselled face; but no one is so poor or so deformed but he can acquire a beauty as superior to these as the diamond to the gilt it is set in.

This fact respecting personal beauty, a fact of the utmost importance, is so generally overlooked that it cannot be stated too often and urged too strongly upon public attention; and this fact goes far to determine the means by which that personal beauty which every one desires is to be attained. There are a great many things that contribute to personal beauty-a simple, various diet, pure air, proper exercise, regular habits, constant occupation, cleanliness, temperance in all things. These things are of far more importance, as a means of increasing beauty of person, than people generally imagine. They add immensely more to personal good looks than the costliest clothing and the richest ornaments. The glow of health on the cheek, the upright form and elastic step and noble bearing which come from the constant practice of nature's physical commandments, do unspeakably more to beautify a person than any cosmetics art has contrived, or any decorations human ingenuity has invented, or any fashions that have been spun from the exhaustless cunning of the human imagination. But these are not the only means, indispensable as they are; they are merely the beginning. They furnish the materials out of which true beauty is built up. Indeed, they give only the canvas and outline, which must be completed by the artistic and perfect blending of ethereal colours and a spiritual expression, to represent that highest order of beauty which realizes our ideal and wins the admiration of all cultured minds.

It is strange that so many people overlook a fact so important as this. A beautiful person is the natural form of a beautiful soul. The mind takes precedence of the body, and shapes the body to its own likeness. A vacant mind takes all the meaning out of the fairest face. A sensual disposition deforms the handsomest features. A cold, selfish heart shrivels and distorts the best looks. A mean, grovelling spirit takes all the dignity out of the figure and all the character out of the countenance. A cherished hatred transforms the most beautiful lineaments into an image of ugliness. It is as impossible to preserve good looks with a brood of bad passions feeding on the blood, a set of low loves tramping through the heart, and a selfish, disdainful spirit enthroned in the will, as to preserve the beauty of an elegant mansion with a litter of swine in the basement, a tribe of gipsies in the parlour, and owls and vultures in the upper part, Badness and beauty will no more keep company a great while than poison will consort with health or an elegant carving survive the furnace fire. The experiment of putting them together has been tried for thousands of years, but with one unvarying result.

Some people imagine that there can be no sufficient punishment for sensual indulgence and a sinful life without an everlasting prison-house of fire. But the laws of But the laws of the spirit work in finer and surer ways than any that the old doctors dreamed of, making sin punish itself, transforming the guilty face, cutting and staining the features and countenance into shapes and hues of ugliness. Stand on one of the crowded streets and note the passersby, and any one can see how a vacant mind has made a vacant eye; how a thoughtless, aimless mind has robbed the features of expression; how vanity has made everything about its victim petty; how frivolity has faded the

lustre of the countenance; how baby thoughts have made baby faces; how pride has cut disdain into the features and made the face a chronic sneer; how selfishness has shrivelled and wrinkled and withered up the personality; how hatred has deformed and demonized those who yielded to its power; how every bad passion has turned tell-tale and published its disgraceful story in the lines of the face and the look of the eye; how the old stain of every sort of wickedness is branded all over with deformity and repulsiveness-and he will get a new idea of what retribution is. This may not be all, but it is terrible-this transforming of a face once full of hope and loveliness into deformity and repulsiveness.

But

There is no sculptor like the mind. The man who thinks, reads, studies, meditates, has intelligence cut in his features, stamped on his brow, and gleaming in his eye. There is nothing that refines, polishes, and ennobles the face and mien as the constant presence of great thoughts. The man who lives in the region of ideas, moonbeams though they be, becomes idealized. There are no arts, no gymnastics, no cosmetics which can contribute a tithe so much to the dignity, the strength, the ennobling of a man's looks, as a great purpose, a high determination, a noble principle, an unquenchable enthusiasm. more powerful still than any of these, as a beautifier of the person, is the overmastering purpose and pervading disposition of kindness in the heart. Affection is the organizing force in the human constitution. Woman is fairer than man, because she has more affection than man. Loveliness is the outside of love. Kindness, sweetness, good-will, a prevailing desire and determination to make others happy, make the body a temple of the Holy Ghost. The soul that is full of pure and generous affections fashions the features into its own angelic likeness, as the rose by inherent impulse grows in grace and blossoms into loveliness which art cannot equal. There is nothing on earth which so quickly and so perfectly beautifies a face, transfigures a personality, refines, exalts, irradiates with heaven's own impress of loveliness, as a pervading, prevailing kindness of heart. The angels are beautiful because they are good, and God is beauty because He is love.

To be beautiful in person, then, we must not only conform to all the laws of physical health, and by gymnastic arts and artificial appliances develop the elements of our physical being in symmetry and completeness; but we must also train the mind and develop the affections to the highest possible degree. To be beautiful we must feed the spark of intellectual fire by reading and meditation, until it burns in a steady flame, irradiating the face by its brilliancy, suffusing the countenance with light. To be beautiful we must put a great, organizing and ennobling purpose into the will, and concentrate our thought and affection upon it until enthusiasm wells up in the heart, and suffuses the countenance, and rebuilds the body on its own Divine plan. To be beautiful we must cherish every kind impulse and generous disposition, making love the ruling affection of the heart and the ordering principle and inspiring motive of life. The more kindness, the more beauty; the more love, the more loveliness. And this is the beauty that lasts. Mere physical good looks fade with the years, bleach out with sickness, yield to the slow decay and wasting breath of mortality. But the beauty that has its seat and source in kind dispositions and noble purposes and great thoughts outlasts youth and maturity, increases with age, and, like the luscious peach, covered with the delicate blush of purple and gold which comes with autumn ripeness, is never so beautiful as when waiting to be plucked by the gatherer's hand.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE

W

OF THE AGE.*

E are met to-night on the occasion of this Annual Meeting in support of one of the most useful institutions of the New Church. These

meetings coming, as they do, only once a year, are always looked upon by the friends of the cause with a very kindly eye. It is perhaps difficult to say which of all the various institutions of the New Church are most deserving public support. Some think the Auxiliary Some think the Auxiliary Society, others the Missionary and Tract Society, others again, and amongst them our Secretary, Mr. Elliott, the Swedenborg Society. And I have no doubt that in his opinion it has been very wisely ordained that the anniversary of the Swedenborg Society should take place a little later in the year, and after the annual meetings of our other institutions, so that the collective intelligence and wisdom of these might finally meet and flow into the proceedings of this.

Fully acknowledging, therefore, that this is a most, if not the most important of all our annual gatherings, it is only right and proper that those who address you should come prepared with something worthy the occasion. Now do not misunderstand me. I do not mean to insinuate that what I am going to say is worthy the occasion. To do so would be egotistical, besides, a speaker should of course always leave the value of the speeches to be decided by the good sense and judgment of his critical and discerning audience.

But what I do wish you to infer is, that on these rare and golden occasions the speaker should endeavour to be more than usually wise and happy, and to attain this very desirable end, the first thing necessary is to have some clear and definite subject on which he is going to speak. I have therefore selected as the topic of my address "Some Characteristics in the Religious Life of our Age," a theme closely connected with the resolution before you, and on which, I am sure, you must all feel deeply interested.

The subject is so wide that I scarcely know where to begin. Had we lived a century ago, when religious thought and life in England were cold and dead, one could perhaps have managed to have condensed in a brief address a comprehensive summary of the characteristics of the age. But in this age, this most extraordinary age of active thought and life in religion,

one is really at a loss to know how to deal with his subject. There is no want of materials for a speech, but they are so varied and heterogeneous that the difficulty is to know how to put them together, and I think you must all admit that out of the chaos and confusion which at present reign in the various sections of the Christian Church it seems almost impossible to create harmony.

Well now, my friends, the first characteristic of our age with which we must all be struck, is the restless activity of the human mind on all the fundamental doctrines of religion. One writer describes it as "a revolution in theological habits of thought impossible to exaggerate." + Another describes it as "a conflict between a supernatural Christianity and a merely natural theology." + A third authority informs us: "There is no denying it, a change has begun, and may be advancing, a change of doctrinal views and modes of statement on

A speech delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Swedenborg Society held at 36 Bloomsbury Street, London, 18th June 1878. + Times, in its leading article on the Scotch heresy cases, 5th April 1878.

Rev. W. M. Statham, in Christian World, on Leicester Conference.

some points at least. Certain articles of our Creed are approached from a different side, viewed in a different light, tested and appraised by a new standard, and rejected and modified accordingly."*

This activity of religious thought is not confined to one denomination; it is to be found in all; in the Church of

England, the various Nonconformist bodies of England, and in the hard and bony Calvinism of Scotland; even the Church of Rome, which of all religious organizations has done most to fetter the human mind, and to gag and influence. That the opinions of these various writers are muzzle liberty of thought and speech, is not free from its well founded it would not be difficult to prove. We need not go far from our own doors to find corroboration of them.

In Scotland we have just had the edifying, and in some respects the amusing, spectacle of three Presbyterian divines arraigned on a charge of heresy, two of them for being too loose in their ideas of Biblical Inspiration, and the third for being unsound on no less than four of the doctrines of the Presbyterian faith. All three have been tried by their ecclesiastical superiors, and after a fashion which I trust will be confined to the other side of the border. In the first case the prosecution has been withdrawn; in the second the accused has been suspended; and in the third, in the peculiar language of our Northern ecclesiastical Law Courts, "the libels have been found relevant," whatever that may mean, by varying majorities.+

Such is a little episode, full of meaning, from the religious life of Scotland, and if we come further south we shall find that things are even worse in England. The whole religious fabric is here violently shaken. Its walls are crumbling to pieces, its foundations sapped and undermined, this spirit of modern innovation threatening like a blind Samson to pull the edifice to the ground alike on the heads of friends and foes. There is scarcely a newspaper, book, or periodical, dealing with the subject of religion, but is more or less imbued with its influence. Heresy was at one time in the history of our Protestantism a thing to be dreaded and shunned, a plague-spot to be extirpated from the land by fine and imprisonment, and in extreme cases by the purifying fires of the stake.

But it is so no longer. Heresy is now becoming quite fashionable. She proudly lifts her head in our colleges and stately cathedrals, in our sober-minded, democratic, Dissenting chapels. It may very truly be said of her Scotch kirk, and in the highest and humblest of our what the poet once said of Vice

"Heresy is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
But seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace."

Our religious teachers are now becoming quite familiar with her face, and the consequence is she is being embraced on all sides. As a leading Nonconformist divine, himself neither blind nor averse to her charms, very happily says: "The tables are turned. A man is none the worse nowadays for the reputation of being a little free and broad, having just a little soupçon of heterodoxy to flavour his sentiments and make them piquant; while an orthodox brother, one strictly orthodox I mean, is regarded with less respect than curiosity, as an interesting specimen of a rapidly-vanishing race, which by the laws of development, and the survival of the fittest, must *Address to Congregational Union, 1875, by the Rev. Alex. Thomson, M. A.

The three cases here referred to are those of the Rev. Dr. Dods and Professor Smith, both of the Free Church of Scotland, and the Rev. Fergus Ferguson of the United Presbyterian Church.

retire and make way for a higher type of theological humanity."*

And one of the types of theological humanity which is now rapidly disappearing from our midst is what we may call the Hell-Fire type, those who believe in a material hellfire punishment, with God as the Being who consigns them to its torments. This doctrine, at one time so universally taught and believed in the Christian Church, is now virtually abandoned. It lingers perhaps here and there in a few minds who cling with a stubborn tenacity to the old ideas, and who, ostrich-like, close their eyes and plunge their heads into their theological thickets in the hope of thus escaping their dreaded enemy. But in the minds of our leading religious thinkers, both in the Church of England and in the great Nonconformist bodies, this doctrine is now to all intents and purposes a teaching of the past.

Another type of theological humanity which is fast. becoming extinct is the Graveyard type, and of whom you cannot have a finer specimen than Dr. Young, the author of "Night Thoughts." The ideas of this class on the subjects of the Resurrection and the Future Life are grossly carnal and materialistic. They haunt the sepulchre in the hope of finding the living amongst the dead; indeed, we are informed on very good authority + that Dr. Young's favourite musing-ground was the parish churchyard, and that his library was adorned with a human skull, once perhaps the property of some mute inglorious Milton, or of a Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood. In all soberness he wrote

"This severed head and trunk shall join once more Though realms now rise between and oceans roar. Again

"No spot on earth but has supplied a grave,
And human skulls the spacious ocean pave,
All's full of man (!), and at this dreadful turn
The swarm shall issue, and the hive shall burn."
Again-

"Now monuments prove faithful to their trust,
And render back their long-committed dust;
Now charnels rattle; scattered limbs, and all
The various bones obsequious to the call,
Self-moved, advance; the neck, perhaps to meet
The distant head; the distant legs, the feet;
Dreadful to view, see through the dusky sky
Fragments of bodies in confusion fly,

To distant regions journeying, there to claim
Deserted members, and complete the frame." +

Such were the prevailing ideas on the subject of the Resurrection up to a very recent date, even amongst our more educated and intelligent religious classes; and if you will turn to the pure and undefiled theological literature of the Graveyard School, and compare their materialistic notions with modern ideas, you will be surprised to find how far this generation has departed from the ancient faith of the fathers. The flock have leaped the graveyard fences and gone off in search of pastures new. commend this fact to the attention of the Congregational Union, for whilst the shepherds are about it, they may just as well be consistent, and endeavour to lead back the black and wandering sheep of the Leicester Conference into the graveyard fold once more.

We

But this restless activity of the human mind has done, and is still doing, a useful and indispensable work in the great cause of Religious Progress. As it has enabled men to get rid of their carnal and materialistic notions of hellfire, and to see that hell and its miseries are, like heaven * Alexander Thomson, M. A., in "Doctrine Old and New.” + Memoir of Dr. Young prefixed to Kendrick's edition of his works. See poem of the Last Day.

and its joys, spiritual in their nature, so is it gradually preparing the ground of the human mind for the reception of the still higher and sublimer truth as taught in the New Church, that man is essentially a spiritual being, clothed for the time whilst living in this material world with a garment of flesh, and when at death that is laid aside, the spirit, the real man, rises into the eternal world, there to be judged and rewarded for the life he has loved and lived on earth.

Besides the changes on religious doctrine here indicated, there is another and still more important one impending, that on the subject of the Atonement. There is no denying the fact that this doctrine as once popularly understood is not now preached as it used to be. The substitution and vicarious elements are being eliminated, and in some quarters more rational and spiritual, and at the same time more scriptural, ideas are taking their place, whilst in other quarters the tendency is towards Unitarianism.

This falling away from the old faith has naturally excited great attention and uneasiness in the Congregationalist body; and to counteract the tendency of the Leicester Conference in this direction, several of the more orthodox of that denomination have drawn up a set of resolutions setting forth the distinctive doctrines of their Church. By this means they hope no doubt to be able to arrest the change that has begun, and so preserve doctrinal unity.

Now this appears to me one of the most significant signs of our times. It is significant, because of all religious bodies the Congregationalists have hitherto been the most unfettered by creeds and catechisms; they possess amongst them some of the most thoughtful and intelligent, liberal and progressive minds, and no religious body has done more for the great cause of civil and religious liberty than has been done by them.

It is therefore a singular fact, and characteristic of our age, that they should have now, in this nineteenth century, to resort to resolutions to make known to their own ministers and congregations what they believe, and what it is their duty to teach.

These resolutions have been carried by a large majority, but to this no great importance need be attached. The decisions of majorities have before now proved to be fallacious; and I have no doubt that you would get to-morrow from another section of the Church an overwhelming majority to affirm that the Athanasian Creed is pure and simple Gospel truth notwithstanding its gross tripersonalism and damnatory clause. But these resolutions will fail to prevent changes in their creed or preserve doctrinal unity.

In the first place, the moral and spiritual forces at present at work in the human mind are far too deep and powerful to be successfully met by mere cut and dried resolutions, which may mean anything or nothing, and may have just as many different interpretations as there are people to read them.

In the next place, these resolutions can never produce doctrinal unity, for the simple reason that the cause of the present disunion lies at the very root of their theology, and you can only cure this evil as you can cure any other evil, by removing its cause.

Now the cause, or at least one of the causes, most prolific of disunion in the Christian Church, is to be found in the doctrine of the three separate and distinct Divine Persons, each by himself God and Lord, and all three presented to the mind as one God.

This division of the Godhead, as many of you are doubtless aware, was introduced into the Christian Church at a very unhappy period of her history, being adopted