THE BISHOP OF MANCHESTER ON MODERN HYMNS.

T

HE annual choral festival of several of the Church of England choirs in the rural deanery of Prestwich took place on Saturday afternoon at the Radcliffe Parish Church, six choirs taking part. Special hymns and an anthem by Dr. Bridge were sung in a manner which showed that the choirs had undergone a very successful course of training. A sermon was preached by the Bishop of Manchester to a crowded congregation. He said the Church of England, in framing her liturgy, had acted on the principle of doing all things decently and in order. If things in the Church required improving, let them be improved by all means, but let them be improved in a lawful and canonical way. Do not let one man say this or that was right, and that he would have it whether the Church had sanctioned it or no. That was not the spirit in which true reformation was ever carried through in any society, whether civil or religious. At the Reformation our forefathers adopted the principle, as he had said, of doing things with decency and order, and if the constitution of the Church required reforming, which he did not believe, we must follow the same lines upon which our forefathers of the Reformation built. He warned church choirs not to seek vainglory in such festivals as that, and said he could mention many cases where most unfortunate results had followed disagreements between the clergy and their choirs. He urged all to seek to recognise the rights which others besides themselves might possess, and to work together for the glory of God. He urged the desirability of having such music as the congregation could join in, and said he must say that many of our modern hymns, and some of them the most popular, were strangely namby-pamby, strangely silly. They were full of erroneous conceptions of all sorts of things-of Almighty God, of heaven, of hell, of angels, and he knew not of what besides. They were grossly materialistic many of them, and he suspected that these hymns had very much tended to form that sadly materialistic and superstitious conception of Christ's presence in His blessed Sacrament. Some of the hymns took what would be called the High Church view, and some the Evangelical view, but to him they all seemed filled with a gross and revolting materialism. Then some of the hymns addressed the Saviour in far too unctuous a form, they were too sensational, too sentimental. He was quite certain that our hymns had given a bias to popular theology, and that in two different and decided directions. One phase was the materialistic, and the other the emotional. Whether they resolved religion into a spectacle or a sentiment he thought did not much matter. He was quite certain it was never meant to be a spectacle, and it was meant to be something very much better and more penetrating than a mere sentiment.

The President of the Congregational Union, the Rev. J. Baldwin Brown, in his inaugural address at Liverpool, seems to have been for once in agreement with a bishop, as, amongst the signs of a falling away into a merely sentimental Christianity, he alluded to "the number of hysterically sentimental hymns in our new supplement.”

HOW TO FIND BIBLE PASSAGES QUICKLY. HE Rev. Moseley H. Williams has a short article on the above subject in a recent No. of the Christian Age, which well deserves to be carefully considered by all who have frequent occasion (as all

should have) to consult their Bibles: "Scholars are usually so awkward and slow in turning to cross references that most teachers, after a few trials, give up the attempt to illustrate the lesson by the parallel passages.

"A great benefit will be conferred upon scholars if they can be helped to overcome the mechanical difficulties in the way of prompt and easy reference. Mark how an unskilled man counts a pile of bank-bills. He wets his fingers, clutches the upper bill in the middle, lays it over in a separate pile; discovers one or two others cleaving to it, lays down the rest to separate them; finds the bills, by the perversity of inanimate things,' getting more and more mixed; begins again; repeats the process half-a-dozen times, only to find that the amount never comes out twice alike; finally, he hands the money over to an expert bank clerk, and the counting is done so quickly that the looker-on can hardly tell how. There is a like difference between a bungling and a dexterous use of the Bible. How often does the Bible reader neglect to turn to a passage he would like to refer to, because it is too much trouble to find it. "Learn first, where there are no desks or tables, to hold the book on the outspread left hand and arm. By a little practice even a large Bible may thus be held firmly and easily. Then turn the leaves from the upper right-hand corner for looking forward, and from the upper left-hand corner for looking backward. may find it more handy to work on the lower corners. Practise the scholar in this until he can do it neatly, easily, quickly, and without creasing the paper. Next (assuming that he has already been taught the order of the books), let him try to open at exactly the middle of the Bible. The first quarter ends in 1 Samuel; the last quarter in Zephaniah. All of the New Testament is in the last quarter of the book. Then minor subdivisions may be made in various ways, as the ingenious teacher can suggest. After this it will be found profitable to spend three or four minutes at every lesson in drilling the scholars to find the passages quickly. Tell them to find Job, and the dividing line between the Old and the New Testaments. Then show that all the distinctly historical books come before that. Find the first of the Epistles; the last, etc. This process should be continued until every book can be turned to at once, without any hustling the leaves back and forth in perplexity as to where in the world that book comes in. Such a mechanical drill will give the scholar a facility in finding places that will help him in Bible study all his life?"

GOD'S BLESSING ON ISAAC.

Some

UR readers will be interested in the following passage taken from a work published some few years since, entitled "Types of Genesis," the author being the Rev. Andrew Jukes, a well-known clergyman of the Church of England: "It came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac.' If we ask, How? we are told only this, that 'he dwelt by the well Lahai-roi:' this was his blessing. And this is a blessing yet. To us few blessings would be greater than a spiritual dwelling by this same living well. Lahairoi means the life of vision.' It was the place where life and vision were preserved after the angel of the Lord had spoken and revealed himself. It figures that depth of the Word into which we drink when the well of the living and seeing, that is, the spiritual sense, is really opened to us. Nature cares not to drink of such a spring. The waters are too deep for the carnal, who, if they see them, only wonder and pass on. But Isaac

loves the well. In his eyes it is not his least blessing that he may dwell and drink here. Blessed it is, like Abraham, to dwell at Bethel and Hebron, by faith to rest in worship and happy fellowship. Blessed is it to see Salem and her King; in peace to eat the holy bread and wine. Blessed is it to know Beer-sheba, the well of the oath; to drink the refreshing streams which the Word of the Covenant makes to flow around us. But more blessed far is Beer-Lahai-roi, the well of the life of vision, where we learn to live among and see unseen things. None dwell here but the pure in heart. None else see God, or the hidden things of God. Others will see the world, or themselves, or their own or other's sins, or even certain doctrines. But the 'pure in heart see God;' and there, beholding His glory, are changed step by step unto His image, to see as He sees things which eye has not seen, even the things which the Spirit reveals to them who walk with God. O Lord, give unto me thus to dwell at Lahai-roi; to know yet more and more of this blessed life of vision; not only to visit the well and depart, but, like Isaac, to abide and learn there, until in Thy presence, still blessed in Thee, this 'life of vision' shall be mine for evermore."

LAMARTINE ON VOLTAIRE.

NE thing was wanting in Voltaire-the love of God. He saw Him in mind, and he detested the phantoms which ages of darkness had taken for Him and adored in His stead. He rent away with rage those clouds which prevent the Divine idea from beaming on mankind, but his strength was hatred against error rather than faith in the Divinity. The sentiment of Religion, that sublime résumé of human thought, which when enlightened mounts to God as a flame, Voltaire never felt in his soul. Thence sprung the results of his philosophy; it created neither worship, nor morals, nor charity, it only decomposed and destroyed. Negative, cold, sneering, it operated like poison; it froze, it never gave life. Thus it never produced, even against the errors it assailed (which were but the human alloy of a Divine idea), the whole effect it should have elicited. It made men sceptics instead of believers. The Theocratic reaction was prompt and universal, as it ought to have been. Impiety clears the soul of its consecrated errors, but does not fill the heart of man. Impiety alone will never destroy human worship. A faith destroyed must be replaced by a faith; it is not given to irreligion to ruin a religion on earth; it is only a religion more enlightened which can really triumph over a religion fallen into darkness. The earth cannot remain without an altar.

CREATION AS A DIVINE SYNTHESIS.*

HIS is a work of such value that it can well bear criticism. It aims at giving that satisfaction to the religious sentiment which Professor Tyndall, at Belfast, announced as the problem of problems. This it strives to accomplish by a scientific and philosophic theology, presented under the form of twenty "Recognitions" or admissible propositions, some of which the author strives to prove, while others he attempts to invest with a very high degree of probability. Moreover, the

Creation as a Divine Synthesis: A Contemplative Treatise concerning the Inter-relations between Deity and His Creation as discoverable by and to the Human Understanding. By Wm. N. Haggard, London. J. Ridsdale, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row. 1878.

work is intended to be in some sort a sequel and completion to "The Unseen Universe," by Professors Balfour, Stewart, and Tait, which presents the analytic side of an argument, whose synthetic aspect Mr. Haggard has endeavoured to present in this small volume.

The reader will, however, be disappointed if he expects unmixed delight in the perusal. It is a privilege readily granted to the philosopher to coin new words on fit occasions where ordinary terms cannot express with accuracy his meaning, but then there must be real need for the new words-dabiturque licentia sumpta pudenter,but here the liberty is seized without modesty and without need, and the words employed are made, generally speaking, without any regard to those organic laws which govern the growth of speech. In its present form the book is doomed. No volume can command readers while it treats them with such terms as First-Causant, the Stellar-Spacial, and the Stative-Spiritual Cosmos, Sensated Impressions, Immotion, and the Supra-jective Divine Mind. If, however, any robust thinker of the New Church will face these and a hundred other such words and phrases, he will be delighted to find that the philosophic theology presented is derived by Mr. Haggard from the writings of the New Jerusalem. We have here doctrinals familiar to us, such as the Divine Mind Absolute, the Infinite itself, above all conception; the Human Divine alone conceivable by finite intelligences; the existence of two worlds, physical and spiritual; creation, not from nothing; discrete degrees and correspondence; proprium, mens et animus; the mode and necessity of regeneration; earth, the seminary of heaven, etc. etc. Nor will he be less interested to discover that there is scarcely a problem of scientific interest in connection with matter, mind, and organized forms, or with the present ethics and future destiny of our race on which the author has not some pregnant hints.

It is not to his discredit that he has failed to secure all at which he aimed. He says: "One logical demonstration having as much force as any number would have, I shall merely make a direct appeal to the axioms or postulates of the human understanding,-to facts,-and to their logical conclusions, feeling convinced that if Euclid's method of proving his geometrical propositions is not sufficient for the establishment of a purely intellectual truth, no other plan could be sufficient. Such proof, after a geometrical fashion, of theological and moral doctrines is unattainable, and it is well that this should be seen and acknowledged, for a binding proof or demonstration would be fatal to mental liberty, and would present an insuperable obstacle to our moral progress. The utmost that we should seek, the utmost possible, is such probable argumentation as shall remove objections to a principle and afford sufficient ground for action. Tried by this standard Mr. Haggard has been fairly successful. We especially direct attention to a very neat argument from consciousness in support of the recognition, (1) "Of an intelligent Deity, as the eternal, self-existent, First-Causant of the stellar-spacial universe, including all its constituents and inhabitants." The argument will of course be futile with those who have confirmed themselves in the belief that we know nothing about causation, and that the ideas of cause and effect are fallacious.

We also refer with pleasure to the treatment of the origin of species in the eleventh proposition or "Recognition," which is as follows: "A sentientizing of suitable ganglionic organisms by investing them with a mortal principle of nervous immotions and spasmoditive activities; as the Divine method for elaborating a compound motional-immotional progeny in the organic Nursery of Creation." These are far more beautiful than it seems. In

its elucidation we are reminded of the correlated and transmutable physical forces which are permanently associated with all matter. These are distinguished from vital power, or the "vito-organizive principle," which is associated with some collections of matter, can be reproduced and propagated in other such collections, can be readily destroyed, and never by natural means be reinstated. This introduces the subject of discrete differences, which is made much use of in subsequent parts of the volume. Then it Then it is shown that such discrete differences successively mark off from the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom of mere growth, the zoophyte kingdom of nerve-action, the animal kingdom of conscious life, and finally man, a rational being. All these being isolated from each other by severance impassable to mere natural evolutions.

We venture to suggest that there is a certain confusion of thought in the author's use of the terms mens and animus. These are well distinguished in "Adversaria," vol. i. No. (A) 31, which we cite because as yet untranslated: "That the intellectual mind is not the same as the natural mind, which is also called animus, is clear from this, that the natural mind, to which the imagination appertains, is first awakened in infants and children, and afterwards the intellectual mind, to which belongs thought and judgment, and this grows and is perfected by time and age. Furthermore, even among adults there are some who have great power of imagination, and but little of thought and judgment; wherefore, as they are distinct faculties, the ideas of the former mind are called immaterial ideas, but those of the latter material ideas. It appears, once more, from the desires (cupiditates) and appetites, and from the very delights of life, arising from love, which belong to the natural mind; they are called affections, passions, emotions of mind, and also of body, for they share its nature, and have special relation to the loves of the world inflowing by the senses, and to the loves of self which arise from the body's depraved nature; but the affections of the intellectual mind introduce themselves into its will, and thence spread into its understanding, and when man is ruled by the Divine Spirit they are peace or tranquillity, gentleness, mercy, and charity, etc., which spring from celestial love. Hence there is a spiritual man and a natural man, or the internal and the external. Indeed, these minds distinguish themselves perfectly in somnambulists, in whom the inferior is awake and the superior asleep. That, the lower, is also present in brutes, but not the higher or rational mind, for its imagination is a sight, like that of the eye, but a more universal one; but the thought (of the intellectual mind) is a sublimer sight, which gazes upon its interior and higher things."

66

In the light of this exposition one sees that there is a mistake in usurping the name animus for the will and love, and in limiting the mens to the understanding and thought, as is done by the author when he contrasts the generous impulsations of the Divine Animus" with the "analytic-synthetic activities of the Divine Mens," and when he speaks of pleasurable contemplations as delighting the human mens, while all sympathetic originate in or "emove the animus.”

When talking, however, of the future state, and of man's constitution as distinguished from that of brutes, the author observes duly the distinction. Then the animus is the animal soul; the mens the rational mind. But even then there is a strange error, if we have rightly read Swedenborg, and, under the guidance which we have through him, have rightly understood the Word of God. In Recognition VIII. we are told that the law of man's life is". progress towards either eternal happiness or

final extinction of conscious being." This alternative of "extinction of conscious being" is explained in Recognition XX., where we are reminded that while matter is indissoluble, organic life is terminable, and are taught that nerve-sentiency and animal consciousness are dependent on the material organism; so that though the animal soul (of brute as well as of man) is immortal, it is eternally unconscious, the mere body for the mens. which in the case of the hopelessly wicked will be resumed by its Originator, while the animal soul will in the spiritual (-stative) universe serve a similar office to that served by material substances in the natural universe.

Thus strangely has Mr. Haggard read and understood the beautiful teachings of the New Church as to the manner in which order and its blessings are, through discipline, conferred on those who have made themselves incapable of any obedience except that which is enforced by discipline.

We do not dwell upon some other important mistakes or errors of this treatise, the "morganatic marriage" on page 62, or the unintelligible but visibly unsatisfactory statement of the Doctrine of the Trinity in Recognition XXI., in which we are informed that the Holy Spirit is a "genuine, though imperfect and partial, concept and reflect of Jehovah Christ, begotten by Divine influence in the human mens."

Notwithstanding, however, the defects which we have pointed out, the book is a valuable one, and should be read and re-read by every philosophical thinker in the New Church. Yet for all this we are glad to hear that this is not to be the only sequel to the "Unseen Universe," but that its authors are about to carry further the examination of the topics of that remarkable volume. The Professors will not, we expect, write a book so filled with ideas derived from Swedenborg; but they will certainly give us a book which will incite Mr. Haggard to give us a new and vastly improved study of Creation as a Divine Synthesis, written, let us hope, in English.

CONGREGATIONAL UNION OF ENGLAND AND WALES.

THE Thirty-ninth Autumnal Session of the Congregational Union was held at Liverpool under the presidency of the Rev. J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.

The President's inaugural address was largely devoted to a criticisin of the resolutions adopted at the spring session in reference to the Belief of Congregationalism. After stating he was still convinced that their action was a perilous departure from their firm and noble independence of man-made formularies of faith, Mr. Brown went on to say: "I believe in the independency that seeks to keep the truth in the Church, and the Church in the statutes of life, by the light of the Scriptures and the grace of the Spirit alone. I value, I think, as much as any one can value, the records of human wrestlings of mind and spirit which the creeds of the past hand down to us; but I dread them when they are set up as guide-posts, especially when there are mists, for just in the proportion in which they are trusted do they rob the soul and the Church of the living guidance of thei Lord. The Athanasian Creed is the most complete system of guideposts for mist-belated wayfarers which the past hands down to us. (Hear, hear.) I tremble to think of the measure in which, in all ages, that formulary has robbed men of the comfort and inspiration of the unseen but ever-present Guide. When the mists fall very thick and drear around us, as they are falling now, I would look more closely to that more sure word of testimony which our Lord has left to us, which is as a light shining in a dark place,' and which, if we trust Him of whom it testifies, will guide us surely in the way. That method of independence of human formularies and sole dependence on the Divine teaching and guidance which we have proudly made our boast in past years, I believe in at all times and under all conditions; I believe in it as we all do when it succeeds ; I believe in it as firmly when it seems to fail, for I am sure that in it is the method of Wisdom, and Wisdom will justify all her methods to all her children, and to the great world in time. (Hear, hear.) It saddens me to think that in future we must make this boast at any rate with bated breath. Were we to persevere in

the policy thus inaugurated we should soon be ashamed to utter it at all.

"My conviction has grown that these resolutions are really to be regarded as a relief to our burdened feeling, the utterance of anxious and distressed hearts, sore with doubts and denials, the pain of which I feel as deeply as any, and eager to declare to all the world their faith and love rather than as the commencement of a new policy of doctrinal definition, which, I need not point out, would have to be carried much further before it would be of any effectual

use.

Were there any signs of a disposition to use the resolutions as tests of orthodoxy or instruments of excision, I could not with selfrespect continue to preside over your meetings. But I believe that there is no such disposition. (Hear, hear.) We have our bigots of course, like all the Churches, but I believe that they are few, and are becoming fewer. I am led to think, in a word, that a very substantial unity reigns among us as to the true policy of the Independent Churches, as regards creeds and excommunications, and therefore I have come to the conclusion that so long as you honour me with your confidence, during my year of office, my right place is in this chair. (Applause.) Taking a calm survey of the whole situation, noting the comfort and relief which some found in verbal profession on the one hand, and the pain and dissatisfaction which a larger number than many of you suppose felt at the policy which ruled in many on the other; reading all that I could about the matter; hearing how wise and experienced age looked at it from the one side, and how fervid and impassioned youth looked at it from another, my advice is earnestly, 'Let the past alone, let the dead past bury its dead.' There is no fear, I think, that this Congregational Union will commit itself to the composition of a new formulary, or will hold the bolt of excommunication quivering in its hands. (Hear, hear.) I believe that, thanks to the full discussion which was secured in May and since, we shall find ourselves when the present excitement has passed over very much in the old lines, and walking in our accustomed, and time-honoured, God-honoured ways. (Loud applause.) And I may, perhaps, claim to be listened to with some little attention, for I am as sore about it all as any of you. It saddens me to think that by taking up the challenge of that Leicester Conference we have put ourselves forward as the body most in peril from the influence of the doubts and denials that are abroad. I believe that in the sight of God we are the body which is least in peril, and that we have put ourselves to needless shame. (Hear, hear.) We have gratified many by our resolutions. Eminent preachers have patted us on the back and said, 'You have done very well.' Organs of sects that believe in the restraints of formularies and the head of authority have rejoiced over us with offensive gratulation, by which I confess I have been not a little distressed."

Mr. Brown after urging that it was undesirable to fetter men too closely, and to shut out from the body men who have doubts on many of the fundamental questions of religious belief, proceeded : "There is One on high who would not drive such doubters from His bosom. (Applause.) The world abounds with them in these times; let us beware, brethren, how we cast them out, lest their death lie at our door. (Applause.) I am far from blind to the force of the argument that these men are teachers, and that we are bound by sharp measures to protect our own reputation and our young people from the influence of these errors. I confess that the more I look at this argument the less Christian does it appear. If you are of any kind of service to the souls of these men and their disciples, and I believe you are of much, you are doing the very best thing to guard all that is precious in your Christianity. Christianity guards itself by helping, protects itself by saving. When it is not thinking of itself-its honour, its reputation, its influence, its anything-but its ministry to the weak, the erring, the hopeless, it is in the way of saving itself from all possible dangers, and of making sure its position against every foe. And even for those who are in danger of being misled, you would bring fatal help by excommunication. I have spoken with many of our young people, yes, and elders, who tell me that they are drawn to certain of these teachers by the elevated tone of their teaching about the Christian life. They do not agree with their doctrine, much of it grieves and saddens them; but they get what uplifts the spirit within them, and so they become their disciples. While things remain as they are we have a hold on this class, and a strong one. They belong to us, and their beliefs get supported against the doubts and denials which they listen to. Use the knife and they will be lost to us, and to how much strength, joy, and hope which the Gospel only can nourish in human hearts? Those who think that sharp measures would warn such, and recall them, show little knowledge of the workings of man's nature, and little appreciation of the tendencies of such an age as this. We have borne our witness. There can be no doubt about our belief; and now we leave the evil to the truth and to God. In matters medical the surgeon's knife is falling into disuse. How many perilous diseases for which of old the surgeon's knife was the only remedy may now, as the German army surgeons found to their amusement in their tent hospitals before Paris, be successfully treated by fresh air and cold spring water? Let the waters of loving truth and the breath of a living charity in upon

these errors: touch them, oh! touch them with tender medical hands; apply the healing energies which God in His mercy has always put closely by the saddest forms of disease and pain, and they will yield to your medicine when they would bid your surgery defiance. Ah! we could cure this unbelief with swift certainty if we could cure our own spirits; if we could cast out the selfishness and the worldliness which poison the springs of life in our Churches. Had we but been pure, lofty, earnest exponents of Christian truth and organs of Christian ministries; had we had our kingdom of heaven fair to look upon, a joy of all longing hearts, we should not be mourning over the wanderers that go forth from us in search, they tell us, of a purer and loftier life. You long to purge our body from this unbelief which afflicts and weakens it. You must live it down." (Applause.)

A resolution was adopted favouring the effort to increase a healthy denominational sentiment in the Congregational body, in order to the due administration of Congregationalism as a Church polity.

It was further resolved on the motion of the Rev. S. Pearson, "That the assembly hereby instructs the Committee to enter into immediate correspondence with the representatives of the nonestablished Evangelical Churches with a view to a Conference at an early date on matters connected with the religious condition of England, and the co-operation of those Churches for the promotion of faith and godliness among the people." Some of the speakers to this resolution expressed regret that the invitation did not include Evangelical clergymen of the Church of England.

At a meeting held in Great George Chapel for the exposition of Free Church principles, the Rev. E. Condor said that the idea of liberty of thought, which was very prevalent amongst a large number of Englishmen, amounted to this-bigoted adhesion to the newest fashion of thought, or the newest dogma of scientific authorities, followed by the denunciation of those who refused to cast their grain of incense upon their altar, as dunces or hyprocrites. (Laughter and applause.) There was a fussy intellectualism which substituted views for faith. Men came to think that the less a man believed, the broader his views must be. (Laughter.) You had only to differ from everybody to be ahead of everybody-(laughter) -to be a very advanced thinker. There was a form of diseased and distorted liberty to which he supposed they were specially exposed, not from anything in their principles, but from the temper and character of mind that disposed men to accept their principles. He meant a sort of morbid individualism, a tendency which led a man so to exaggerate the value of personal conviction that he came to feel as if truth was true because he believed it, not that he believed it because it was true.

Among the features of the assembly was a grand "reception" given by the Mayor of Liverpool (a Conservative member of the Church of England) to the members of the Union.

ARGYLE SQUARE CHURCH.

QUARTERLY MEETING.

THE Quarterly General Meeting of this Society was held at the October.

After tea the Rev. John Presland took the chair shortly after seven o'clock. The meeting having been opened by prayer, the Chairman said that many matters had lately been under the consideration of the Committee for the welfare of the Society. The alteration of the rules of the Society had been found necessary by the altered condition of the Society, and a new code would soon be submitted to the Society; although several alterations in the services of the church, such as the introduction of the Offertory and other changes, rendered this step necessary, there would, however, be no alteration in the spirit of the rules.

Accompanying the Annual Report a printed catalogue of the Library had been sent to each member, and it was hoped that the Library by this means would be more extensively used.

The condition of the Sunday-school had received the earnest attention of the Committee, and a movement was in progress by which they hoped to enlist the interest of the general body of the Society.

The choir also, which had been a subject of great interest to the Committee-he might even say anxiety-had received their attention. More voices were wanted to render that portion of the services efficient. But what he would more particularly urge, was the necessity for every member of the congregation to sing, especially would he recommend all to join in chanting the Amen. These and many other matters would, he hoped, receive the co-operation of the Society in general.

Three gentlemen were admitted as members of the Society. The Conference address was then read by the Chairman. After which Mr. F. Pitman, one of the Society's representatives to Con

ference, gave an interesting and amusing account of some of its proceedings and incidents. Referring to the speeches at Conference, he bestowed a tribute of praise upon and quoted at some length from Dr. Bayley's speech on the Hymn-Book question, and regarded it as one of the finest speeches which had been delivered at the Conference. The Chairman considered the last Conference the most successful ever held, and referred especially to the general good temper manifested throughout its proceedings, and also to the American element present in Conference being greater than on any former occasion. The best thanks of the Society he accorded to the representatives to Conference for their services.

At this point Mr. Tarelli, as Secretary of the sub-committee of the London New Church Association, according to previous arrangement, introduced the subject of week-evening home-reading meetings. The recommendations of this Committee on this subject were very fully reported in Morning Light of July 13th last, to which we refer our readers. At the close of Mr. Tarelli's address, Mr. W. A. Presland moved that the deputation be requested to convey to the New Church Association the thanks of this meeting, and the Society pledges itself to give the matter its early consideration.

After remarks on the subject by various friends present, the resolution was carried unanimously. And it was further resolved that Mr. A. Faraday, Mr. Tarelli, and the Rev. J. Presland as Secretary, be a Committee to keep the matter before the Society. As a further practical result the Chairman announced that he proposed holding such a meeting at his house fortnightly, further particulars of which he would shortly make known to the Society.

It was resolved that in order to make the quarterly meetings more interesting, some special subject should be introduced after the routine business had been disposed of, and it was decided to take into consideration at the next quarterly meeting the subject of the Second Advent to be introduced by Mr. A. Faraday.

After a few concluding remarks from the Chairman, the doxology was sung, and the meeting brought to a close about half-past nine o'clock.

THE EPISTOLARY WRITINGS.

To the Editor.

HE article on the "Foundations of Evangelical Doctrine" in No. 39 of your journal deeply interested me; they confirm my previous impressions upon the habitual neglect of the Gospels and the Old Testament by so-called orthodox preachers.

I am afraid, however, lest some of the remarks of “G. T., Jr.,” should lead to a mistaken impression as to the value set upon the Epistles by Swedenborg and the New Church, and therefore ask your permission to cite the testimony of Swedenborg on the subject, and to offer a few observations.

In a letter addressed to Dr. Beyer, dated Amsterdam, April 15, 1766, Swedenborg says: "In regard to the writings of St. Paul, and the other Apostles, I have not given them a place in my Arcana Coelestia,' because they are dogmatic writings merely, and not written in the style of the Word, as are those of the Prophets, of David, of the Evangelists, and the Revelation of St. John. The style of the Word consists throughout in correspondences, and thence effects an immediate communication with heaven; but the style of these dogmatic writings is quite different, having, indeed, communication with heaven, but only mediate or indirectly. The reason why the Apostles wrote in this style, was that the New Christian Church was then to begin through them; consequently, the same style as is used in the Word would not have been proper for such doctrinal tenets, which required plain and simple language, suited to the capacities of all readers. Nevertheless, the writings of the Apostles are very good books for the Church, inasmuch as they insist on the doctrine of charity and faith thence derived, as strongly as the Lord Himself hath done in the Gospels and in the Revelation of St. John, as will appear evidently to any one who studies these writings with attention. In the Apocalypse Revealed,' No. 417, I have proved that the words of Paul in Rom. iii. 18 are quite misunderstood; and that the doctrine of justification by faith alone, which at present constitutes the theology of the Reformed Churches, is built on an entirely false foundation" (Hobart's Life of Swedenborg, pp. 117, 118).

In a letter to Dr. Menander, Archbishop of Sweden, Swedenborg quotes Rom. ii. 10, ii. 13, and 2 Cor. v. io.

In addition the Epistolary writings are referred to in nearly one hundred places in the T. C. R., and several times in the A. E. and A. R.

We advance these testimonies for the purpose of showing that Swedenborg does not reject the authority of the Epistles. They are very good books for the Church; they are true in point of doctrine; through them there is communication with heaven; their style is that which was best adapted for the teaching of Christian dogmas to the infant Christian Church.

But yet it is laid to our charge that Swedenborg denies the in

spiration of the Epistles! How far is the charge true? It is true in the sense in which the New Church understands inspiration, but it is not true in the sense in which the Old Church understands inspiration. That is to say, Swedenborg, in the admissions he makes as to the truth and value of the Epistles and the implication that they were written in the style best suited to the age, places the Epistolary inspiration on the same level as the Old Church places all inspiration. In denying that the Epistles are written throughout in correspondence, Swedenborg only does that which members of the Old Church do in relation to the whole Scripture.

Our position in relation to the Word and the Epistles is that we value the Epistles as highly as the members of the Old Church can possibly do, but we place a much higher value on the books of the Word, because we recognise that these contain a consecutive internal sense.

While, therefore, we lament the practice of expounding the Epistles to the (comparative) neglect of the Gospels, etc., we, as members of the New Church, ought not to ignore the value of the Epistolary writings as expository of the doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

J. D.

"Scriptum ex Mandato;" to what did Swedenborg apply these words? Dear Sir, I venture to ask through your columns for information on the following point :

In the recently-issued pamphlet by Dr. Tafel in answer to the article on "Swedenborg's Illumination" contained in the Intellectual Repository for August last, I do not see that any reply is made to the editor's remarks respecting the now famous inscription, "This book is the Lord's Advent. Written by command."

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I should be glad to be informed whether the editor of the Intellectual Repository is right in applying the words "written by command" to the book instead of the inscription. That he so applies it is evident from his remark, "Written by command, is not written by dictation,' and further, "that all the works of Emanuel Swedenborg were written by command of the Lord we cannot doubt," but on referring to a quotation from the "Sketch of a History of the New Church I notice that Swedenborg says, Upon all my books in the spiritual world was written The Lord's Advent. The same I also inscribed by command on two copies in Holland," from which it would appear that the words written by command apply to the inscription and not to the book. I am anxious that information should be given on this point, because if the inscription were "written by command," (and by whose command but the Lord's ?) it is somewhat painful to find it called a "slight jotting," and attempts to confirm doctrine by it "very unfortunate," as is done by the editor of the Intellectual Repository. Requesting the favour of a few remarks on the subject, which is of the deepest interest to all genuine New Churchmen, I remain, very truly yours, W.

[Our correspondent is unquestionably in the right in his understanding of the words scriptum ex mandato (written by command). It refers to the inscription and not to the book. Even without the confirmatory passage from "The Sketch of Ecclesiastical History" there is no possible room for mistake; because the inscription being Hic Liber est Adventus Domini, the word following would, if it referred to the book (liber), require to agree with it in gender, and consequently be in the masculine form, scriptus; but as it refers to the inscription, and to show that it refers to the inscription, it is correctly put in the neuter.]

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

The public lectures on theological topics, which it is customary for the Rev. Dr. Tafel to deliver at the New Church College, Devonshire Street, will, we learn, be begun for the present winter on Thursday, November 14th, at half-past seven o'clock. The subjects selected for consideration are the representative character of the countries, places, and persons mentioned in the books of Genesis and Exodus; and will thus go over the same ground as the "Arcana Coelestia." The value and interest of former series were so great that we feel sure that it needs only to be more widely known that these lectures are open to all-ladies and gentlemen-and that they are given on the second and fourth Thursday in every month, to secure for them a much larger attendance than they have yet received. Those, therefore, who are desirous of sound scholarly instruction in the correspondences of Swedenborg's great work, and that, too, under one of the professors best qualified to give it from his thorough researches in and long and profound study of all the Writings of the New Church, published and unpublished, those may know that they will be heartily welcome, and that the.. attendance will afford pleasure to the professor and the College authorities as well as profit in an increased understanding of the Writings to themselves. The subject for the opening evening will