soul is not 'void,' but filled; not 'a lump of death,' but crowded with life; not 'a chaos of hard clay,' but a celestial garden of herbs and trees and flowers, while streams of Truth flow through it like rivers teeming with vitality. Now, Willie, observe-the earth by itself is death and darkness. Man of himself is in precisely the same condition as to moral and spiritual things. And yet there are philosophers so called who think their speculations the essence of all wisdom, and who, acknowledging that man was in the beginning dead and dark, the child of the ape, assert that he enlightened himself, warmed himself, fertilized himself; that all through the ages he has been the active agent and the passive recipient; that he originated the seed and scattered it into his own bosom; that he produced the rain and the light and the warmth that made the seed germinate; that he came down on himself like rain upon the grass, like dew upon the flower; that from one generation to another he tended the growing sympathies and quickening nobilities that sprang from the seed he had originated and sown ; that he was his own Day-spring, his own Divinity; in short, that being a creature he was his own creator, and being a creator he was his own creature."

"The position is so utterly absurd," said Willie, "that I cannot conceive of any reasonable persons holding it."

"Do not your sociologists assert that man has invented his own religions, formed his own moralities, acquired his own sciences, and guided and lifted himself from barbarism to civilization, from darkness into light? Do, my dear Willie, think of the preposterous assumptions of these people. Ask yourself, How could a being having no experience of a religion conceive and form one? How could a barbarian having no notions of morality originate a high moral code? How could a morally dead creature infuse into itself spiritual life?"

"I decline to be judged by the conclusions of these gentlemen," said Willie; "though there are some high names behind which I might shelter myself. Professor Tyndall has just said, 'It is now generally admitted that the man of to-day is the child and product of incalculable antecedent time.' If there is so little to be said in favour of these views, it is remarkable that so many intelligent men should be deceived by them."

"Don't call them intelligent.' A peasant who has never learned the alphabet, but who can discern the truth when it is placed before him, is more intelligent than a whole college of savans, whose minds are so warped that they can perceive beauty only in falsehood. Just consider the sentence you have now quoted from Professor Tyndall. Could an intelligent man conceive such a monstrosity? He says, 'The man of to-day is the child and product of incalculable antecedent time.' What is time? Is it an entity that wields a productive force? Is it anything more than the succession in which entities act? If I place a seed in the earth, and watch it, I shall see a succession of phenomena. First a tiny blade will spring up, then will follow leaves, then blossoms, and ultimately fruit. If I were to say, in view of the perfected plant, 'We have before us the child and product of time,' you would say, 'Not so; we have before us the child and product of the life in the seed, and 'time' is only the succession in which we observed the operations proceed. What, therefore, Professor Tyndall means to say is this, Dead matter has made itself through incalculable ages into a living, thinking, loving man, reasoning about eternity and aspiring toward immortality."

"Dead matter!" said Willie.

"Yes, dead matter gave itself life, shaped itself, and bestowed upon itself qualities it never had. Have you forgotten Professor Tyndall's dictum, 'I discern in matter the promise and potency of all terrestrial life'? In fact, he teaches that non-living matter gradually became living matter. Finding itself unorganized, matter proceeded to organize itself, and first produced Haeckel's protogenes, 'distinguishable from a fragment of albumen only by its finely granular character.' Not being satisfied with their low organic condition, Haeckel's protogenes proceeded to bestow upon themselves a higher organism and became Darwin's ascidians. The ascidians, feeling god-like aspirations, proceeded to create higher organic forms and became fishes. The fishes, dissatisfied with the water, gave to themselves wings and soared into the air. The birds, wearying of their flight, turned their wings into paws and became reptiles. The reptiles organized themselves into the marsupials, the marsupials into the monkeys, the monkeys into men, and men, with base ingratitude, have imagined that the God who created them is a Mighty Spirit, whereas the conception and formation of all things originated with the cosmic gas."*

"Ah," said Willie laughing, "the only puzzle to our scientists is the origin of the cosmic gas. If they could get at that point, there would be no more room for speculation. But confining one's thought to the growth of human society, I cannot conceive that Man was at the same time the pupil who had to learn and the Master who had to teach.

"I am glad to hear you say so. Now observe the Divine teaching on the subject. We have it in the opening words of Revelation. In the beginning the earth is said to be 'without form and void,' and it is added that 'darkness was on the face of the deep.' As I have said, the Earth is the correspondence of Man. We are thus taught what is the innate condition of the Human Mind. We learn that in itself it is formless, empty, dark. In fact, I believe our scientists will acknowledge that the Apelike Man in comparison with Civilized Man was in this condition. Now, can that which is formless shape itself into symmetry? Can that which is empty fill itself from its own emptiness? Can that which is dark illuminate itself? I don't wait for an answer. God, who possesses light and is Light, gave the light: Let there be light.' From Him, the Superior, emanated the inferior. God, who possesses life and is Life, gave life. He said, 'Let the earth bring forth.' His Divine forces operating on the dead Mind filled it with vitality. You thus, my dear Willie, see the difference between the teaching of the socalled Philosophy and that of Revelation. The former asserts that the dark and dead thing gave to itself light and life, though it did not possess them to give. The * These remarks may appear extravagant. They are, however, far too mild to meet the justice of the case. Having exhausted their ingenuity in the attempt to degrade man, and to exhibit him only as an automaton, the scientists are now seeking to extol animals and plants, and to prove that both are intelligent. Mr. Romanes, who read a paper at the late meeting of the British Association at Dublin, says that the only difference between the intelligence of man and animals is, that the latter are unable "to elaborate that class of abstract ideas the formation of which depends on the faculty of speech." Thus Mr. Romanes virtually asserts that thought depends on the language in which it is dressed, that ideas are begotten by the sounds in which they are conveyed. Such is the folly of the wise. This paper has been quoted with approval even by religious journals. Professor Haeckel has threathened to prove very shortly that the primitive organisms were formed chemically by spontaneous generation at the bottom of the sea, and that natural selection has done the rest. What profound sagacity! The first living thing made itself, and then made all other things that are. Nothing out of its bosom evolved Something, and that Something evolved out of its bosom all living creatures! Such is Evolu tion; and yet there are students of the highest spiritual philosophy who condescend to coquet with the monstrosity.

grand old Book teaches us that the dark and dead thing had light and life given to it by the Eternal, whose essence is Life and Light."

"I am amazed," said Willie; "do you mean to tell me that the Mosaic cosmogony has relation to Man rather than to the material universe?"

"Certainly. In the first chapter of Genesis the subject treated of is Man, and his state and formation are described under the symbol of the earth and its formation."

"Perhaps," said Hettie, "there is more meant than I ever before thought in George Herbert's poem on Man. He says

and again—

'He is in little all the sphere;'

'Man is one world, and hath Another to attend him.'

I always thought that was only a pretty fancy, but perhaps it is a fact."

"My dear," I replied, "the ancients held that Man was a microcosm or little world. Hermes taught that the visible world is but a picture of the invisible world. The wise of all times have so considered it. Sir Thomas Browne says, 'To call ourselves a microcosm or little world, I thought it only a pleasant trope of rhetoric till my near judgment and second thoughts told me there was a real truth therein.' Because Man is a microcosm or little world, therefore in the word of eternal truth his state and progress from mental darkness and chaos are described under the figure of the macrocosm or great world."

Mr. Morse kept a long silence. At length he said, "This indeed seems like the solidifying of aery theories that for years I have considered the fancies of poets and the vagaries of philosophic dreamers. Who would have believed that any one would seek to prove that these gossamer speculations are solid truths?"

"Because they are solid truths," I answered, "and because man is in little all the sphere,' therefore it is said, 'Let the earth open,' in that verse to which Hettie has called our attention. Does not that mean, Let the Mind, let the Man, open? For the same reason a desire is expressed that salvation' and 'righteousness' should spring up in the earth. Can that have reference to anything else than the springing up of salvation and righteousness in the Mind, in the Man ?"

"I grant you that text and all you can make of it," said he, "but concerning that first chapter of Genesis I am in the direst perplexity."

"I imagine you are not more perplexed about the first chapter of Genesis than you are about the last of the Apocalypse. Revelation opens with the history of the first heaven and the first earth, and it closes with the history of the new heaven and the new earth."

"And, Willie," said Hettie, "the first heaven and the first earth correspond to the first Man with the first lights and loves within him. The new heaven and the new earth correspond to the New Man with the new lights and loves kindled by Jesus in his soul. Ask Mr. Romaine."

Willie did not comply with her request. As she looked up into his eyes, her sweet affectionate spirit seemed to steal into his soul, and infuse into it a joy sober but ineffable. He made no verbal response, but looked down upon her with a calm approving smile and drew her closer to him. The chime of the bells harmonized with the incessant murmurs in the air, and sounded in my ears like Nature's anthem to the divine. We were now within sight of the church, and walked on slowly in

silence, a hallowed feeling too deep for words having slid as it were into our spirits. A few moments brought us into the little churchyard. The bells having ceased, a soft and solemn strain came stealing through the porch like a friendly voice inviting us to enter, yet warning us to prepare for the unseen Majesty of Heaven.

ORDINATION OF MR. JOHN MARTIN.

N Wednesday evening a special service was held in the New Jerusalem Church, Avenham Road, Preston, for the purpose of ordaining Mr. John Martin as minister of the church.

Previous to the ordination service being held, the Church Committee and as many of the members as could conveniently attend assembled in the vestry for the purpose of presenting Mr. Martin with a surplice.

In making the presentation Mr. Bates said: "Dear Mr. Martin, I have been requested on behalf of the Society to present you with your ministerial robes of office; and in doing so I sincerely wish you the blessing of good health, and the ability to perform aright the duties of your sacred office. And it is the fervent prayer of my heart that when those duties on earth are ended, you may be found worthy to wear the Robes of Righteousness' which fade not

away.

Mr. Martin, in accepting the robes of his office, thanked the Society for the good wishes and the kindly sentiments of esteem and affection which had been so lovingly expressed by their muchesteemed friend Mr. Bates.

He said that his heart was too full and his appreciation of the great kindness shown to him was too deep to find adequate expression in words. It would be his constant effort, with Divine assistance, to prove himself worthy of the position he had been called under Divine Providence to occupy; and his earnest prayer would ever be, that he might not only be enabled to teach the truth, but also lead his people into the love and practice of every heavenly

virtue.

Mr. Martin has conducted the ministrations of the congregation for the last two years, during which time he has been very successful in his labours.

The service was performed by the Rev. Dr. Bayley of London, assisted by the Rev. E. Whitehead of Dalton. After the preliminary part of an ordinary service had been concluded, the officiating ministers descended from the pulpit, and came to the communion rails, in front of which Mr. Martin was kneeling. The Rev. Dr. Bayley then read the induction service, in the course of which he asked Mr. Martin to declare his faith in the doctrines taught by the connection of which he was being ordained a minister. This Mr. Martin did, after which Dr. Bayley laid his hands upon his head and declared him an ordained minister of the New Jerusalem Church, as set forth in the Revelation.

The Rev. Doctor, after offering up a prayer for God's blessing upon His newly-appointed servant, preached an appropriate sermon from Matthew x. 7, 8. He spoke at some length upon the necessity of men being set apart for the preaching of the everlasting and important truths taught by Christ. Some persons had spoken lightly on the subject, but he maintained that it was more needful for men to be dedicated to the preaching of the Gospel, and thereby bring the blessings of heaven home to every creature, than it was for persons to be put to other certain professions or occupations. He believed in the adaptability of individuals for specific duties. Each man had given to him talents of one kind or another. Some were able to build better than others; and so some men were more especially adapted to perform the sacred functions of a minister. It was an office which had been held through all ages, as proved by ancient histories. No country, land, or people was without its priest. A minister's duty was, as stated in his text, to preach "that the kingdom of heaven is at hand." They had to declare that their eternal home was at no immense distance from them-which might cause distress-but near at hand. A great truth which had to be brought home to men was that they were intended to be the companions of angels, and it was a minister's office to teach how to prepare for such companionship. In coming to the service of that night, the rev. gentleman contended that it was necessary for such services to be held. When a person was undertaking an important office it was felt that it should be sanctified by some specific and distinct act. At such an ordination a man undertook that he would perform the duties of his calling to the best of his ability; and also the congregation made a resolve to assist him in doing them aright. At that service their minister gave himself manifestly to the work, and the people congratulated him and determined to give him an opportunity of successfully carrying out the work. Some people questioned why they as ministers wore a distinct dress-why a white robe. In reply to such he would say, Because it meant that the minister was not

He

undertaking a work in his own strength, but that he was going to tell to men the white truths which were represented by white robes. He put aside his ordinary condition, and took upon himself to perform the sacred work of Christ. It signified that they were not to listen to him as a man, but as Christ speaking through him. He condemned the wearing of black or gaudy robes. He thought that such robes were outward demonstration of the impurity of the truths taught by the wearers, for they were first brought into existence when men turned from the simplicity of the Gospel truths. thought there was power in those outward symbols that were right. A minister's work, as shown in his text, was to heal the sick, cleanse the leper, raise the dead. Sick men were those who were heart-sick and required comfort, those who had lost all hope and needed encouragement. To such the servant of Christ had to act as a physician. The lepers were those who were unclean in sin, and it was for the minister to cleanse them. The dead were those who were dead in trespasses and sins, and it was the sacred office of the pastor to awaken such from their deadly sleep, and teach them how to walk in the paths of life. Such were the duties their brother had undertaken to perform, and there was no doubt that he would be able to carry them out. For some years he had been going on from success to success, and he trusted they would go on working together earnestly and lovingly-he leading, the congregation following. By doing so they would fulfil the Lord's command-"Freely ye have received, freely give." The chapel was crowded during the

service.

AMERICAN CONFERENCE OF NEW CHURCH

MINISTERS.

HE Journal has reached us of the Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the American Conference of New Church Ministers, which was held at Bridgewater, Mass., in May last. This is a body which has no parallel in the organization of the New Church in England, though it cannot but prove itself to be in its way most useful and profitable.

When ministers actively engaged in common work for the same end come together and compare notes, it is seldom found fruitless if carried on with a sincere desire to reach better and more practical methods of conducting Church work. But when such a thing is done systematically and not by haphazard, when it includes in fact the entire range of topics which are interesting to the New Church minister, from the consideration of a point of ritual to a consideration of points connected with the doctrines of the Church itself, it must have a beneficial effect in deepening and strengthening the hold of all that is true and therefore permanent, in them, and in enabling them to see more clearly what is merely ephemeral and possessing no solid basis either in the doctrines themselves or in human nature on its better side. It would also seem that proper order requires such an organization for the discussion of the class of questions this body takes in hand. For it is but right and proper that those best qualified and those most directly interested-those, in fact, who by education and training are most accustomed to the consideration of such topics-should meet together and discuss them, not in a mixed body, but in a body consisting solely of the teachers of religion themselves.

In the American Conference there are twelve Classes (a term which seems to be the equivalent of select committees), comprising apparently a greater or smaller number of members according to importance. There are subjects referred to these committees which may be raised by any of its members. These are considered during the year and reported to the following session. That is to say, a paper on each question is prepared, and, as approved by the Class, read and discussed at the following session. We are sorry to have to confess that the Journal so-called is rather a bony affair. It tells us, for instance, that "on the motion of Mr. Reed it was voted to take up the paper by Mr. Frost upon 'Extemporaneous Preaching.' The paper was read. Remarks were made by Messrs. Burnham, Stearns, and Wright." Now this is, to say the least, save to the few who heard the paper and the discussion which followed, a record of a very barren kind.

It would certainly be impossible to print in full even the papers submitted, leaving the discussions quite out of consideration; but, except as illustrating the nature and extent of the work brought before the Conference, the record is quite valueless. An effort should, we think, be made to secure the publication of the more valuable of the papers. If printed in the Journal, it would, we think, give it a value which would probably ensure a sale sufficient to pay for the extra printing which that would involve, though possibly not for the printing of the entire Journal. On this subject it is but fair to say that a resolution was passed to the following effect, "That full liberty be given for the publication of any of the papers or addresses, presented at the session of the Conference, that may be desired by the editors of the Magazine, or the Messenger, or any other New

Church publication, with the consent of the writer of the paper or address.' We do not, however, think this answers the purpose, for it is not to be expected that one who has not heard a paper, and who has no idea in what way it treats a subject, would be disposed to apply in the manner indicated. Yet the real importance or the publication of some of the reports which come before this body may be strikingly shown by the pamphlet entitled "Discussion on the Importance of a Literal Translation of the Word of God," which consists of the report of the "Class" in that subject made to the Ministers' Conference which met last year. It consists of two reports, as the Class was not unanimous-a majority report prepared by the Rev. L. H. Tafel, and a minority report presented by the Rev. John Worcester. Certainly of absorbing interest, and containing information of a most surprising kind. A layman can form a very correct judgment on the merits of the matter under considera. tion after he has read this pamphlet (supplemented as it should be by a reading of the criticism of the minority report referred to above, which appears at the end of "Words for the New Church," No. III.). And yet though they are placed in this position by having these reports accessible to them, there are few, if indeed any lay men who could have made such a report themselves, and, any opinion they might have had on the matter, even when not erroneous, would have been of little value, and of no utility at all in spreading a right view of the subject, because they would have been unable to support it by either fact or argument.

We will now give a list of the Classes, and attached to each Class a single instance of the kind of question brought before it. In some of the Classes there are eighteen such questions for consideration during the coming year. CLASS I. IN THE WORD. How shall we determine what portions of the letter of the Word are literal events in the natural world, and what portions are scenes in the spiritual world? CLASS II. IN THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH. What is the Universal Church; and what is the specific Church? CLASS III. IN THE OFFICE OF THE MINISTRY. Is it well to intersperse the reading of the Word, to a congregation, on the Sabbath, with explanations for the sake of making it understood by them at the time? CLASS IV. IN RITUAL Is it well for a company of worshippers, either public or private, to audibly repeat the Lord's Prayer in unison? CLASS V. IN CHURCH ORGANIZATION AND MISSIONS. Ought there to be Societies of the Church? and if so, why, and for what purpose? CLASS VI. IN THE TEXT OF SWEDENBORG. Does Swedenborg in T. C. R. 20, refer to his own 'Principia," in his allusions to the origin of the universe from points? CLASS VII. IN CHURCH HISTORY AND STATISTICS. CLASS VIII. IN DIDACTIC LITERATURE AND CRITICISM. What is the character and use of the Books of Chronicles? CLASS IX. IN DEVOTIONAL LITERATURE. CLASS X. IN CORRESPONDENCE AND DOCTRINE OF DEGREES. What degree or degrees in man's structure does he inherit from his mother, and what from his father? CLASS XI. IN PASTORAL WORK. What is the best hour in the day to hold Sunday-school? CLASS XII. IN THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. Is it proper for New Church ministers to exchange pulpits with the ministers of denominations around them? This recital will better than any amount of description enable all to realize the nature of the work with which the Conference of ministers undertakes to deal.

66

At the last session thirty-five ordained ministers, three licentiates, and six students were present. Two reverend gentlemen not formally connected with our Church were present as visitors, and were invited to sit and deliberate with the members.

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

T the recent meeting of the British Association held in Dublin, Professor Huxley delivered an interesting address in connec tion with the Anthropological Section, in the course of which he remarked that "history repeats itself. The greatest apprehensions are at present expressed by persons who attend our deliberations-apprehensions with regard to questions of morality and reli gion-but I do not think that should be the case. Depend upon it that whoever thirty years hence may be present in this department will find themselves exactly as the members of the Geographical Section of a past period now find themselves. What are our paradoxes, and the horrible things we say, and our conclusions which are supposed to shake the foundations of the world, will become part of the knowledge of everybody, and will be taught in our schools as accepted truth, and nobody will be one whit the worse. The points which I think it desirable to put before you, in order that I may in a few words express the foundation of my confident conclusions, are these. The first is a reason based entirely upon a philosophic consideration—namely, this, that in the regions of pure physical science, and the regions of what especially constitutes humanity, the conclu sions reached by the one can have no direct effect on the other. If you acquaint yourselves in the slightest degree with the history of philosophy and the variations of human opinion, you will find that

speculative difficulties have given way.

Whoever admits the exist

ence of evil in this world and the law of causation, has before him all the difficulties that can be raised by any form of scientific investigation, and these truths have been present to the mind of man since the mind of man began to think. The next consideration I have to put before you is that, whatever be the results of physical research as to the mind of man, they arise out of the necessary progress of scientific thought as applied to man. You all heard, in the excellent address of our president, the marvellous progress that has been made in our knowledge of animals. The merest tyro in the science now knows a thousand times as much as did Linnæus. If you consider what zoology, or the study of animals, means, it means the endeavour to ascertain all that can be studied in reference to animals from four different points of view. The first embraces the consideration of the structure and the mode of development. In the second place, every animal exhibits a great number of active powers. We have to take in other lines of activity, such as I see announced in the Zoological Section, where a highly interesting paper on ants will be read by Sir John Lubbock, for the purpose of showing the amount of intelligence possessed by the lower animals. There is a third point of view in which we should regard every animal, and it is this—that each one has a place in the geographical distribution of animals, and that the great majority of animals have a past history. All these are legitimate subjects of inquiry. If it were true, as my friend Sir John Lubbock would point out, that ants manifested certain sentiments, he would have made a great and interesting discovery, and no one can doubt that the ascertainment of the fact is completely within the province of zoologists. So, in the same way, anthropology has nothing whatever to do with the truth or falsehood of the different religious systems. It holds itself aloof from these, but the origin and growth of religions, and the different forms of religion, these are proper and legitimate provinces. (Applause.) I go a step further, and pass to the distribution of man. This, of course, for the anthropologist, is in his special region. We have had descriptions of different countries, and the habits and customs of the people, while the great question of the origin or multiplication of the human species stands untouched. There is not any allusion in the whole of the proceedings of the Association of 1857 to these questions, which are now to be regarded as the burning questions of anthropology. On this subject, as in many others, a great stimulus to man's reasoning a complete metamorphosis in the direction of modern investigation-has been given by the publication of a single bookThe Origin of Species.' It was only subsequent to the publication of the ideas contained in that work that one of the most powerful agencies for the advancement of anthropology was founded in Paris, and also the great Anthropological Society of Berlin, until it may be said there is now no branch of science which is represented by a larger or more advanced body of working men than this science of anthropology. And the whole of these workers are engaged more or less in the working out of the ultimate goal. The great problem -the great ideas which Darwin put forward in regard to the animal world-are capable of being applied in the same sense to man. question, I need not say, is not answered. It is an enormous question, and one to which a definitive answer may be asked for possibly in the next century; but the method of inquiry is understood, and the materials are now being accumulated bearing on that inquiry. Circumstances tend to the belief that that problem also will, some day or another, be solved. I cannot undertake to determine in what scientific method that question will be solved. We have," he added, "the most astonishing accumulation of evidence of the existence of man in ages antecedent to this. What the exact date is I do not think any one can say. It is beyond all question that man existed at a time when the whole physical conformation of the country was different to what it is now. Whether the evidence we have justifies us in going backward still farther would be a startling question. It is, to my mind, of a dubious description. Then comes the very interesting question whether, with such evidence of the existence of man before us, it is possible to trace in history any evidence of a human type essentially similar to that which exists at the present day. I am free to confess that in my opinion the matter remains exactly where it was some eighteen years ago, when I published a little book, to which, to my surprise, I heard Professor Flower refer, for I had thought that these questions had been forgotten in the greater scandal of later times. I did not venture to put forth the opinion that what is common to all such human remains is that they present a most marked and definite trace of what are called the characteristics of a lower type. I must confess that the arguments brought forward to show that the skull is an abnormal skull have no weight whatever with me. From the remains that accompanied the skull of the human being, I must say that, so far as all the fundamental points are concerned, they are the same as those of the man of the present day, and that that being could wear boots just as well as we. I do not know that there is any more reason for believing that the man who existed in that day could not have been in all respects similar to the man of the present day than to object to the evidence that the horse which existed in that day was in all respects identical with the horse of the present day."

That

CARDINAL MANNING ON CHRISTIANITY.

T Middlesborough Cardinal Manning opened the new Roman Catholic Church of St. Mary's, Sussex Street, Middlesborough, and preached to a congregation which filled the building in every part. The Cardinal dwelt principally upon the unity which existed between the Holy Spirit and the Church on earth. Directed by the light which had been shed upon it at the day of Pentecost, the Church had throughout the ages taught the same doctrines and promulgated the same truths. The faith which St. Augustine brought to the shores of England by the command of St. Gregory had lived from that hour to this immutable in all its glory. The very same doctrine that St. Cuthbert preached at Durham and St. Hilda believed at Whitby, those very same doctrines were taught to this day. They never changed. How could they? England was a Christian land, and Englishmen were baptized people, and because baptized they were born again. They believed Christianity was a Divine revelation. They believed all they knew and had been taught. They believed the Holy Scriptures to be the Word of God, and that those who wrote them were Evangelists and Apostles. At this time the faith of England was assailed in many ways. They were in contention one with another about religion. The Apostles were not so. The contentions in religion seen now were unworthy of Christian men and unworthy of the disciples of Jesus Christ. Why was it that the children of England could not be taught the name of Jesus and their baptismal faith all day long in the schools of the poor? Why had Christianity been banished from our common schools? Because grown-up people could not agree about religion, little children were robbed of their inheritance in the faith. These axioms were as certain as the axioms of science. Christian education reared a Christian people. Education without Christianity would infallibly rear a non-Christian people. How could men realize that which they had never learned and never been taught? They might be sure of this, no stream could stand still. It must either run its course downwards, or by a miracle return to its source. A people that were un-Christian would soon go down with the impetuous tide and become an anti-Christian people. Might God in His infinite mercy take pity on Christian England, and raise up the hearts of fathers and mothers to look after the Christian education of their little ones.

"THE COMMON PEOPLE HEARD HIM GLADLY."

To the Editor.

THE slow growth of the Lord's New Church has often been commented on, and though an unpleasant subject, it is one of vital importance, and the opinion of the Church generally should be directed towards it, with the view of ascertaining and deciding upon some other fields of action than those already worked.

The

So far as the organism of the New Church is concerned it is unique. Our intellectual men are second to none. Our literature, both scientific and theological, in quantity and quality, will bear comparison with any association of much larger growth. Our ministry are "living epistles" exemplifying the doctrines in their lives. donations to the Swedenborg Society, the College, and other institutions are munificent. And yet, sir, in the face of all this grand machinery for good, on comparing the registered members reported at the last Conference with the registered members eighteen years ago, I find that the average increase of members to each Society will be something less than two per annum. I am inclined to ask, by way of sending the matter home to every New Churchman, If "the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of our Lord," and the New Church is to be instrumental in bringing about that glorious era, what time is it likely to take, proceeding on the same ratio as we have been doing the last eighteen years?

I know it will be said that the New Jerusalem is a dispensation, not a sect, and that the 4849 registered members do not include all the receivers of New Church truth in England; and I am very glad it does not, but I am not so sanguine as some about the New Jerusalem descending through Old Church teachers. I have heard Swedenborg's name mentioned as "a visionary" in the Old Church, but I never remember having heard any quotation from his works. This may by some be considered somewhat extraordinary, considering the large sums which have been expended to enlighten the clergy and ministers on New Church truth. But if looked at closely, it is not so marvellous as it at first sight appears. The reason I will try to make clear presently, but I wish now to state what came under my own observation only yesterday. A minister, whom I had heard had read some of the works of Emanuel Swedenborg, and wished to enter the New Church ministry, preached in this neighbourhood. I thought I would give myself a treat, and hear New Church truth preached in a Baptist chapel. I went, and the text was announced, "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man." But, alas! I watched every word, and I found the Lord was a perfect man and an inferior God, and therefore suitable

for a Mediator between fallen man and the Supreme Being. Is this diluted Swedenborgianism? I make no hesitation in saying, that we can never expect any good result from such teachers. The preacher certainly began well but finished badly. Diluted doctrine I decidedly object to. If a minister preaches the doctrine of the Atonement in the morning as held by orthodoxy, and the true doctrine of the Trinity in the evening, he is like a builder who stuccos a rotten house to make it presentable. Every New Churchman will see that the old doctrine must fall, and the sooner it is demolished the better. The Old Church teaching of "satisfaction" is unsatisfactory; it is neither human nor divine, it is monstrous. Let any father of a family act towards his sons as the Divine Father is said to act, and he would be scouted from society or put into a lunatic asylum. The Old Church maintains God's justice by making Him do a greater injustice, and that towards His well-beloved Son. I say, whatever the issue of the New Church, they must level this doctrine with the ground. Well, how is it that the works circulated among orthodox ministers and the clergy have not shown greater results? That is the question. I believe that the answer will be seen at once. Suppose our Dr. Bayley was suddenly impressed that the doctrine of election and predestination was the proper doctrine to preach, the pews of Palace Gardens Church would soon be deserted, and he would have to find a new congregation; and the like would no doubt take place if an Old Church minister were suddenly to read one of Swedenborg's innumerable relations in explanation of his new views. There is so much to unlearn before orthodoxy can perceive the new truths, that I don't think we ought to expect too much from that quarter. The difficulty respecting the spread of the New Church doctrines, however, still remains, and the difficulty is not a new one. Our Lord found the self-same difficulty in propagating the truths of the first Christian Church. The Scribes and Pharisees spurned His teaching, but the " common people heard Him gladly." I have not heard of any distinguished Old Church clergyman seceding from the Church and joining the New in consequence of reading the T. C. R., but I have seen a hall crammed full of people, and Dr. Bayley lecturing to them, and their intelligent faces proclaiming, in language unmistakable, that "the common people heard him gladly." I went again, and they, "the common people," were there to meet him.

I wish it clearly to be understood that I am not going in for class legislation in the New Church, not one of our first-class passengers we can spare on this heavenward railway; but we must have thirdclass passengers as well, if it is to be a success. We want to see all the old familiar faces in the pews, and the aisles filled as well, with common-sense people. They are, as a rule, readers of literary journals, they attend literary institutions, they discuss religious and other topics under railway arches and other out-of-the-way places. There is a large quantity of them up and down London. They are quite free from the trammels of orthodoxy, which hang like a dead weight on so many, preventing them from rising to the perception of the exalted views held by the readers of the works of Emanuel Swedenborg. They are the searchers after truth.

I have heard something about coldness in the New Church; that is a myth, there is only one person that I know of who is cold, that is myself, and I have come to the New Church to get warm. I once met a New Churchman, an entire stranger to me, who put me all in a blaze. He had a dozen or two of Dr. Bayley's "Brighton Lectures" always in circulation. He was a shipbuilder, and he named one ship "Swedenborg" and another ship "Arcana Coelestia.' He was a red-hot New Churchman, and one whose grip of the hand sent my blood glowing through my veins.

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

H. EDWARDS.

A correspondent of the Christian Signal writes: "At a meeting recently held in one of our provincial towns, on the occasion of laying the foundation-stone of a Baptist chapel, it was remarked by a reverend brother that they (the Baptists) had the true apostolic succession, and that they were the representatives of the Primitive Church. The Wesleyan minister in whose place of worship the meeting was held affirmed that however far the Baptists could trace their descent, the Methodists could go much further, in proof of which he mentioned the existence of class meetings in the time of David, whose words were ever being employed by them in that sense, 'Come all ye that fear God and I will tell you what He hath done for my soul." The said brother also hazarded the opinion that in the future world there could be no Baptists, inasmuch as there would be no more sea '-a fact which had never struck the friends of that denomination. The climax, however, was reached when a Presbyterian brother, who was the next speaker, spoke of the assumption that had characterized the addresses of his two friends, and asserted that his Church was traceable not merely to the time of the Apostles, or to the age of David, but to a much earlier period, for it is written, 'The elders-the Presbyters-have obtained a good report.' 'Not only,' said he, 'are we the oldest of the denominations, but we shall be the last and the everlasting, for we read "that

round about the throne were four-and-twenty seats, and upon the seats were four-and-twenty elders "-the representatives both of the old and the new dispensations.' The Baptist brother who had thus elicited the opinions of his brethren respecting the origin and history of their denominations will be more careful as to his facts in time to come in speaking in the presence of Wesleyan and Presbyterian ministers.

So far as regards the Sparkbrook mission services, the friends have met with such success as fully to warrant them in the hope of ultimately establishing a second Society of the New Church in Birmingham. They get an average attendance of twenty in the morning; whilst in the evening it varies from fifty down to thirty. five. Much interest is manifested by the visitors in the (as one of them observed) novel and beautiful way of interpreting the Scrip tures; but what more than anything else gives them hope is, that they begin to get the same people over again, and notice that they in turn bring others. They have opened a Sunday-school, and this, too, is very promising; so much so, that they begin to want teachers instead of simply a teacher. Perhaps the most encouraging sign, however, is the interest taken in the Bible class, intended specially for adults, and open to both ladies and gentlemen. It affords the best opportunity of judging what they think of our doctrines. It now numbers about a dozen members, and every week adds one or two to the list. The great use of this institution is that it affords opportunity to the interested and the inquiring for putting questions (and thus obtaining information) impossible in any other way of being satisfactorily answered.

The Bishop of St. Alban's, in consecrating an addition to the churchyard of Dovercourt, took occasion to condemn strongly the system of cremation. He believed that the religious feelings of the people of this country would be terribly shocked by the adoption of any other mode of disposing of the dead than that to which they had been so long accustomed. In this restless age nothing was considered sacred, but he trusted that the new-fangled doctrine of cremation would never be approved by a religious people.

"Dr. Cumming, in spite of past non-success and a good deal of ridicule of which he has been the object, has again attempted the rôle of the prophet. On Sunday, in preaching to his congregation on the Millennium, he once more expressed his firm belief that many of his hearers would live to witness Christ's Second Coming, and to join in the chant, Behold, He cometh, and the glory of the Most High is with Him.' Those who are sceptical of the divine's gift as a seer are rather apt to think that this is only his own peculiar way of wishing long life and happiness to his congregation," says the Christian Signal.

SUNDAY-SCHOOL LESSONS.

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JESUS' TEACHING ASTONISHES. September 22, Morning.-Mark i. 14-22. A greater measure of Divine power was communicated to the Lord's Humanity to announce the descent and nearness of Divine truth and good after John was delivered to custody Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel. Calling upon men to forsake all evil as sins against God, and to believe in the manifestation of God in the flesh; saying that "the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is near: repent ye, and believe the Gospel." This announcement was first received by those who were in the investigation of scientific and rational truth, and who were led by it to the pursuit and acquisition of spiritual and celestial truth: walking near the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And Jesus said to them, "Come ye after Me, and I will make you fishers of men." They renounce the delights of self-love, and worship the Lord as the Divine source of all that is good, wise, and blessed: immediately leaving their nets they followed Him.

SAMUEL REPROVETH SAUL FOR SACRIFICING. September 22, Afternoon.-1 Samuel xiii. 8-16. Here is a case in which Saul, impatient at the non-arrival of Samuel, the prophet and priest of the Lord, and fearful that the people will scatter from him, assumes the priestly functions and sacrifices in the place of Samuel. It indicates a presumptuous degree of self-will and selfreliance; an amount of impatience that the ways and times of the Lord do not fit in with human plans and objects, that shows completely that such a man is not after the Lord's own heart. It is always accompanied, too, by the same decree, and the purposes of that man will be brought to nought, as Saul was himself deposed from his kingdom.

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