very expensive as merely experimental, for experimental it must remain for some years yet to come; and therefore I cannot but quite agree with your Committee in their present selection of the two books for translation into the vernacular languages, as the first step to prepare the soil for the reception of the seed, and for the operation of the future labourers in the field. To these also I would add, if our financial position admit, the Compendium of the Theological Writings of Swedenborg,' by the Rev. S. M. Warren, which appears to me, from a notice which I have seen of the book, published in the Messenger, though I have not seen the book itself, to be a fit work for translation, as it is supposed to give a short and clear insight into the voluminous writings of Swedenborg at one view.

"At the same time I beg here to state for the information of your Committee, that as translators of such works, as are now and may hereafter be proposed, are expected to be men not only well versed in the English language and Christian theology, but they must be men well known as elegant writers in their own vernaculars, possessing a thorough knowledge of the philosophical and theological terms in vogue in the writings of their own sages-a qualification which is very rare, indeed, in our present English educated men. Hence your Committee will at once perceive that the task of translating such works is by no means so easy as they may have been inclined to suppose. The rate at which common translators of native documents in the courts and Government offices are paid is one and a half rupees, that is, three shillings per folio (ninety words). A good and learned translator will no doubt ask more. But even at this rate the Heaven and Hell,' if translated wholly and thoroughly, will cost about 2800 rupees, besides the charges of printing and binding (2000 copies), including which the whole expenditure will amount to, say, about £400.

"Under these circumstances, if your Committee should consider this not to be a very exorbitant outlay for getting up so large a volume as the Heaven and Hell' in an Eastern language, I would gratuitously offer my humble services to superintend the execution of the whole work under my own eyes. But, on the other hand, should the consideration of expenditure deter your Committee from undertaking the work, I would beg to suggest, if they approve my plan, that instead of rendering the whole work as it is into a native language, some choice selections and extracts from this and the Compendium,' such as I think will prove peculiarly interesting and instructive to the natives of this country, may be made, and the bulk of the books be reduced so as to prove both economical and useful. I leave the question of deciding on either of these two points to the consideration of your Committee.

"In connection with the above statement I beg also to inform your Committee that rendering a version from one of the Indian languages into another is comparatively an easy work, and therefore much less expensive. Marathi and Gujeráthi being the chief and widely-spoken languages of the Bombay Presidency, I should fix my choice on the first, as the standard language of our translations, it being my mother tongue also.

"As to the best means of putting the completed work into circulation, I, in conjunction with some of my native friends here, will see to it, and let you know the result from time to time. In the meantime your Society shall co-operate with me by inducing such of the members of your Church there as may have their friends and acquaintances (Europeans) here in India to help us in the matter.

"If your Society has published any easy or small books to be used as tracts for initiating young people into the doctrines of the New Church, these will answer our purpose still better to begin with. Some of my European friends who have read my 'Reflections' say that it is the best book that they have yet seen to give to the uninitiated an insight into the doctrines of Swedenborg. But for my part I do not think so. My little book slightly touches only a few prominent points in those doctrines, and supports them in a Hindu philosophic point of view against the attacks of people who are pleased to call themselves Anti-Swedenborgians. However, the 'Re

flections' (the probable cost of its translation and printing will not be more than between £35 or £40), together with one or two small tracts which I expect will be sent to me by your Committee, shall, I beg to propose, be our first step, provided your Committee approve such proposal.

"I shall feel much obliged to you personally if you can furnish me (and continue to do so in future) with all the papers and pamphlets in which notice has been cr will be taken, whether favourably or unfavourably, of my pamphlet. This I fully know will put you to some trouble; but by the help of some of your friends there you may, I trust, be enabled to comply with my request. Pages, and slips cut out, with names of the papers from which they have been cut, will answer the purpose as well and save the postage besides.

"Permit me to hope that long ere this copies of my 'Reflections' have been sent to the gentlemen mentioned in my letter, dated 16th August last, to your exPresident the Rev. Mr. Presland, viz. five copies to the Right Hon. Sir E. Perry, one to Professor Max Müller, one to Professor Monier Williams, one to Professor J. Muir, D.C.L., LL.D., and one to Colonel H. Olcott. "With my best wishes and great respects to President Dr. Tafel, and my thanks to the Rev. J. Presland for his kind and long-expected reply, I beg to remain, dear sir, yours very truly, Dadoba Pandurung."

The letter was sent to the Rev. A. Clissold, who at once generously offered to subscribe £200 out of the £400 named by Mr. Pandurung, if the remaining £200 could be obtained. Mr. H. R. Williams, by a liberal offer of £100, at once removed any difficulty out of the way of the Committee's accepting Mr. Clissold's offer, and the further sums of £30 from Mr. R. Stocker, and £10 from Dr. Stocker, has practically enabled the Committee to undertake at once the translation and publication of one of the most important works of Swedenborg into an Eastern language. The additional subscriptions required will, the Committee has no doubt, be obtained when the letter of Mr. Pandurung is more widely circulated. Those friends who take an interest in the welfare and prosperity of our Indian empire have here a golden opportunity. The efforts which have been made in all sincerity by the Church and Dissenters in this great field have been and must be comparatively fruitless, for the one great reason that the principal doctrines their missionaries teach are opposed both to Scripture and to reason. A grand future is therefore open to the New Church, whose doctrines are not only consistent both with Scripture and reason, but are peculiarly fitted to satisfy the subtle intellect of the educated Asiatic. The Brahmo Somaj movement has already brought a great number of the higher caste Hindus out of the superstitions in which they were educated; the central idea which animates their new belief is the Oneness of the Creator-but it is Theism simply, not Christianity, still less a belief in the Lord Jesus Christ as the one only object of worship. T. H. ELLIOTT.

ON SOME OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRESENT AGE.

A

IL-AN AGE OF SCIENCE.

NOTHER characteristic of the present age is that it is a scientific age. This is a result flowing from free-thought that science has now attained, a power unthought of and undreamed of in times past. When the free expression of thought was forbidden the mass of men had no stimulus for scientific study; and even those few who still persisted in spite of all discouragements, when they had arrived at some scientific truth were afraid to make it known, for the world at that time was ruled by a watchful Ecclesiasticism which had its own cut-and-dry theory of the universe, from which it was treason and heresy to depart, and whoever was bold enough to depart from it did so at the peril of his life. Witness Copernicus, who, when he had arrived at the truth that the earth moves round the sun, instead of the sun round the earth, that the distance of the fixed stars is infinitely great, and that the earth is a mere point in the heavens, afraid that he would bring on himself the punishment of the Church, refrained from publishing his book for thirty-six years, and it was only on his deathbed that the copy of it was brought to him. Witness Galileo, who, espousing the Copernican system, also asserted that the earth moved round the sun; and, convinced in his own mind of its scientific truth, was yet on his knees, and with his hand on the Bible, compelled to curse the doctrine of the earth's movement, and even after he had done so was thrown into prison, where he was treated with remorseless cruelty during the remaining ten years of his life, and after his death was denied burial in consecrated ground. Witness Gionardo Bruno, who, because he maintained the doctrine of a plurality of worlds, as well as other scientific and philosophic doctrines contrary to the Church, and who did not hesitate to expose the ecclesiastical evils and errors of his time, was imprisoned for two years, then tried and excommunicated, and on his refusing to recant was handed over to the secular authorities "to be punished as mercifully as possible, and without the shedding of blood." This meant that he was to be burned at the stake, and burned accordingly he was.

During the dreary night of the middle ages science might almost be said to be in abeyance. There were plenty of weeping statues and winking Madonnas; the bones, the teeth, the hair, and even the toe-nails of saints were superstitiously cherished; and even said to work cures and miracles; there was plenty of logical hair-splitting and endless disputes about words by the scholastics of that time; but for solid, useful, and progressive science there was hardly any of it to be found. For what little of it there was we are indebted to the Jews and Mahommedans. The Mahommedans, low as they have now sunk, were the scientific lights of the middle ages, and many of our scientific substances bear Arabian names to this day. The Catholic Church, however, was the enemy of science, chiefly because she started with the doctrine that the Bible is a Divine revelation, not of religious truth only, but also of scientific truth as well. Now, whoever puts the Bible in that position mistakes its use altogether; its use being to educate the conscience and to instruct man in those Divine and spiritual truths which he could never have learned from nature. Man learns the secrets and mysteries of nature by observation and experiment, and any Divine revelation of science would not help, but altogether thwart, man in his search after scientific truth, for who would search after what has

already been revealed? The Bible, when it treats of chronology, cosmology, or astronomy, does so in a general and popular manner, employing the scientific language of the time in which it was written; but it does not treat of them in a scientific manner, simply because it is not the province or intention of the Bible to deal with scientific truth at all. Its province is a much higher one-to "justify the ways of God to men," to tell us of the relation we bear to the unseen and eternal, and to reveal a system of spiritual truth which is eternally binding on the hearts, consciences, and lives of men. It is because the Catholic Church failed to see this that she placed herself in antagonism to science, much to her humiliation and defeat; for she has never come in contact with science without suffering disaster, with the melancholy fact superadded, that on opposing science she has also been opposing truth, progress, and the welfare of mankind. The invention of printing, however, and the Protestant Reformation broke in upon the "dull cold ear of death." Books were no longer painfully transcribed by hand and kept locked up in monasteries, but they were diffused through the laity, who were perishing for lack of knowledge. The Reformation, too, like the trump of doom, rang through the land waking the human mind to a glorious resurrection, and boldly standing up for God, liberty, and humanity, proclaiming its watchword to be an open Bible, and that every man should interpret that Bible according to the guidance of the Divine Spirit working in his own heart and conscience; and if since the Reformation that liberty has ever been interfered with, it is because men have so far departed from the spirit of the Reformation and imbibed the authoritative spirit of Catholicism. The Reformation thus enfranchized the minds of men, and thus left them free to follow scientific inquiry, and the result was shortly seen in the introduction of what might be called a new method in scientific study. This method, which is called the inductive method, was not altogether new, for it was followed by Aristotle in the school of Alexandria. Aristotle may thus be called the father of science, as Plato has been called the father of philosophy. Aristotle did not altogether, however, quite follow out his own system, being inclined sometimes to dogmatize. As when he asserted that a vacuum could not exist, for that nature abhorred a vacuum, he affirmed that only in man we had the beating of the heart, that the left side of the body was colder than the right, that men have more teeth than women, and that there is an empty space at the back of every man's head. Bacon was, however, the principal introducer of the inductive method, to the following of which modern science is chiefly indebted for the great result it has attained. The old method was to start with some theory in the mind, some preconceived idea, and then to examine into the facts of nature, and, if possible, so explain them as to make them agree with and support that theory; but the inductive method divested the mind of all theories and preconceived ideas, and came to the observation of nature in a childlike and teachable spirit; it carefully observed the facts of nature, observing them and experimenting on them, believing that "facts are chiels that winna ding and daurna be disputed,"-it collected these facts, and when a sufficient store of them had been collected it compared them with each other, and embraced that theory to which these facts pointed, and which alone explained the nature of the facts themselves. And not only is a theory thus cautiously accepted, but after it is accepted it is again tested and verified by experiments, and if it cannot submit to such verification it is at once rejected. It was by carefully studying a multitude of astronomical and other facts, which

with Scripture, as a collection of all the Scripture passages which refer to the angels and the other life conclusively prove (see "The Angels," by a Bible Student, passim). But was it ever suggested in Swedenborg's lifetime that he was insane? Never; it never seems to have suggested itself to those who met him or who read his books. Such a report did arise, but only after his death, and the complete absence of grounds for the charge is shown conclusively in Dr. Tafel's "Documents concerning the Life and Character of Swedenborg" (vol. ii. pp. 581, 1304). That Swedenborg's writings are not justly called morbid is not proved above, for many persons write morbid works who are not insane; but as the editor of the Family Herald has circulated charges which are baseless on the point of Swedenborg's insanity, it may, that being found groundless, safely be left to an impartial public to form their own opinion respecting his credibility and their truth. It is rather an extraordinary objection, if advanced as an objection, to say that they are doctrines "of a nature to relieve the anxiety of minds troubled with the fear of death." This is, we think, a thing genuine Christianity should do and does; and our system more thoroughly than others, because we have a fuller knowledge of the other life. But coupled with "the fear of death" is "and final punishment," which if it means anything, implies that we don't believe in the existence of hell and punishment hereafter. This too is incorrect. We believe in the eternity of hell and in the unchangeable condition of the wicked, but we don't believe in the infliction of vindictive punishment, as is commonly believed, or in the infliction of any punishment at all, except to serve a good end both for the evil spirit himself and for those around him. In fact—and we say so from a large knowledge of Swedenborg's works-the writer of the notices in the Family Herald has little, we might almost say no knowledge of his subject, and is pronouncing judgment before he has heard the evidence. We should add that in his last issue he gratefully acknowledges a communication in which his opinions are indorsed, but even though indorsed, as it likely would be, by a majority, the editor should be aware that it does not thereby become true, and that after all the case must be met on its merits.

Some friend kindly sent a copy of "A Hindu Gentleman's Reflections" to the editor, but respecting it he has to say that the author has imbibed so much Christianity that he is no longer able to form a correct judgment respecting the ancient religions of India! However, if we may take the opinion of Orientalists and the evidence of the Secretary of State for India (and we think we may) rather than the judgment (?) of the Family Herald, the scholarship of Mr. Dadoba Pandurung and his acquaintance with the religious classics of his country must be great indeed to receive the public recog nition it did direct from the Secretary of State. We cannot but think that to maintain its opinion the Family Herald has blindly tried to depreciate a writer's knowledge of a subject which it was unaware had been publicly acknowledged by the State.

BRADFORD NEW CHURCH.

BAZAAR IN AID OF THE BUILDING FUND.

J. S.

HE Bradford Observer of December 13 contains the following notice, which we supplement by many additional particulars : Yesterday morning, a bazaar in aid of the building fund of the New (Swedenborgian) Church, Drewton Street, was opened by the Mayor of Bradford (Mr. Angus Holden), in the saloon of the St. George's Hall; the opening ceremony being attended by a large number of ladies and gentlemen interested in the welfare of the church. The object of the bazaar is to raise the necessary funds for purchasing the premises in Drewton Street, which up to the present time have been rented by the congregation. About £650 is required for this purpose, and it is hoped that ere the bazaar closes the requisite amount will have been raised to enable them to complete the purchase. The fact that the congregation is a small one appears, with regard to the bazaar, to have operated rather in its favour than against it, for the lack of numbers has been made up by the zeal displayed in bringing the affair to a successful termination. The lady members of the church have for several months been busily at work preparing articles, and their exertions have resulted in the production of such a collection of fancy needlework as is seldom seen at a bazaar. One of the most noteworthy features is a very beautiful assortment of needlework of a somewhat novel character, in which great taste and originality of design is displayed. The designs consist of representations of familiar subjects, tastefully worked in dark-coloured silk upon some light material. This work, we understand, was executed by various lady friends of the church, and as an example of what may be done by ladies with the aid of the needle it is well deserving of attention. Amongst other articles of a special character are two screens, which also attract notice by reason of the beauty of the design and the excellent manner in which they have been executed. The first of these, a fire-screen in oaken frame, contains a representation in crewel

work of a stork and the lotus flower. The colours are well defined, and the design is altogether very effective. The design

of the second screen is similar, the representation in this case being of birds and flowers. The former was the work of Mrs. Holme, and the latter of Mrs. Rendell. One stall is devoted to the sale of Japanese works of art and toys, and there is also a well-supplied refreshment-stall. The following ladies officiated at the stalls: Mrs. Holme, Mrs. Goyder, Mrs. Rendell, Mrs. Reaney, Miss Parkinson, Mrs. and Miss Shalders, Mrs. and Miss Stephenson, and Miss Aspinall. The bazaar was opened by prayer, after which Dr. D. Goyder gave a short explanation of its objects. The worshippers at the New Church, he stated, had hitherto met in a building in Drewton Street which had not belonged to them. An opportunity had occurred of purchasing this at a very reasonable sum, but as they had not the wherewithal to make the purchase the ladies of the Society had set to work, and the result was what they saw before them. In conclusion Dr. Goyder expressed a hope that the bazaar would be successful. The Mayor remarked that, when passing down Drewton Street, he had frequently noticed on bills the name of the New Jerusalem Church, and a momentary curiosity had arisen in his mind as to what this church could be. He had never had curiosity enough to inquire further about the church until their respected minister called upon him to ask him to take part in the opening proceedings at the bazaar. As the result of some questions which he then asked, he found that there was nothing very peculiar or extraordinary about this New Church; and that the Society differed only from other Christian denominations on some non-essentials in their common Christian faith. It was satisfactory to contemplate the fact that, as Christians, they united in one object-the spread of their common Christianity; and he had no doubt that they, with other sections of the Church, were endeavouring in their way to do as much good as they could for their fellow-men (applause). This being the case, they had his entire support, and it was with the greatest possible satisfaction that he opened the bazaar that morning (applause). Bazaars were very useful for raising funds for such objects as they had in view, and he sincerely trusted that their efforts would be completely successful (applause). On the motion of the Rev. Jas. R. Rendell, the pastor of the church, seconded by Mr. Aspinall, a vote of thanks was accorded to the Mayor for his presence. The Mayor having acknowledged the vote, the preliminary proceedings terminated. The receipts yesterday amounted to about £300."

In addition to this notice, long and favourable reports appeared in the Chronicle and Mail and the Daily Telegraph. On Thursday the large room was full of purchasers from the time of opening to the closing hour. On Friday and Saturday a keen frost interfered with the attendance, but in the evening of both these days the bazaar was crowded. The result of the effort made by the Bradford Society has been very gratifying. It is only a year ago that it was resolved to make an effort to purchase the building used as a place of worship. Towards the purchase-money of £650 more than £450 have been raised. The accounts are not yet balanced, so that the exact sum raised cannot be ascertained at the time of going to press.

It is hoped that the bazaar has proved useful not only in raising money, but also in making the doctrines of the Church known to many who had never heard of them before, for Mr. Stephenson, who had charge of the book-stall, succeeded in selling many volumes illustrative and explanatory of the New Church doctrines. In the Society itself the labour attending the sale has been useful in encouraging and strengthening the friends in their efforts that the Church may prosper.

The bazaar has also been the means of cultivating a taste for work of real artistic merit. The ladies have spared no trouble to procure examples of the best Indian, Japanese, and European needlework. These were used as models, and the result of their labours was greatly appreciated by the ladies of the town, many of whom travelled long distances to see the art needlework. Some specimens of work were sold three times.

The proceedings of the bazaar were terminated on Saturday evening at 10.15 by singing the last verse of the evening hymn.

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

The Paisley Daily Express of December II contained the following notice of our Greenock Mission: "Mr. G. L. Allbutt, minister of the New Jerusalem Church here, delivered a lecture in the Temperance Institute, Greenock, yesterday evening, on the subject of 'The Remission of Sins.' There was a very fair meeting, and the audience displayed marked attention to what the lecturer advanced. Mr. Allbutt took as the basis of his remarks the words of the Lord in John xx. 23, 'Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.' He showed that this passage was never intended to be taken literally, as giving authority to mere men to forgive sins, but

that, like every other portion of the Word of God, it has an inner or spiritual meaning, applicable to every human being. When the Lord addressed the apostles He addressed them as representative characters, as typifying the various graces necessary to influence the soul before the heavenly kingdom can be established therein. It is therefore the heavenly virtues of faith and love, with all their minor or subordinate virtues meant by the word 'ye' in the passage cited, that have the power of remitting sins. When we get these virtues to influence our hearts and lives, sins must of necessity be remitted, because all opposition to the laws of divine order is then removed. If, however, we refuse to accept their influence, sins must be retained, because we are unwilling to part from them."

In a book written by Miss Williams Wynn, a lady who held some office at Court about twenty years ago, it is stated that the Prince Consort had a strong presentiment of his early death, and he strove to make the Queen acquiesce in the thought. He held to the belief that in a future state of existence he might be able to work without the limitations with which he was encompassed in this world; that the other life is full of greater opportunities, nobler aspirations, and worthier work than this. That we do not pass at death into a land of shadows, but into a life of more true realities and more effective unselfish efforts for the good of others than can ever be experienced here.

Mr. Gunton paid his quarterly missionary visit to Ipswich on the 1st December, having satisfactory congregations at both services on Sunday, and at the service on Monday evening. Most of those present on Monday evening were strangers. The subject was "The Origin, Nature, and Duration of Hell." Several questions were asked, and some books sold. A satisfactory account of the lecture appeared in the East Anglican Daily Times.

The Wigan Examiner of November 22 has the following: "We are glad to notice that Miss S. A. Woolley, pupil-teacher at the New Jerusalem School, has successfully passed the examination for admission into Training Colleges, and has obtained a First-Class Queen's Scholarship, being No. 147 on the list. There were 637 names in the first-class list, 1145 in the second, and 118 in the third."

Under the heading of "City Facts and Scraps" the Toronto Evening Telegram of November 15 has the following: "The monthly meeting of the Literary Society of the New Church in Elm Street was held on Thursday evening, when an essay was read by one of the members on a subject of deep interest in these times: Fixed Laws for Social Life; or, A Criticism on Herbert Spencer's Social Statics.' The speaker developed the natural laws of Herbert Spencer into the higher sphere of the spiritual, touching not only on the rights of women but of children. The discussion which followed was full of animation. This literary society is exceptional, in that it admits ladies to its membership.”

"An old truth came to me like a revelation in a sermon I heard two weeks ago. It is that God reveals Himself to us as we are able to receive Him. Your mind may not at first realize the thought. You will set it, as I did, in narrow limits; but the boundaries will enlarge until their greatness will surprise you. Not to the novice in Christian life is God made known. Wisdom and experience must go hand in hand to receive Him; and even then, when can a finite being say that God is revealed? Infants are most of us, stumbling along God's way; groping in dimly-lighted valleys. He leads and satisfies us. We begin to climb over rough stones in grief, sometimes almost despairing. Yet courage, patience, humi. lity, all increase; and as they grow our souls expand. It is a greater God that we know on the hillside. Still ascending, we reach the mountain-top, and with it a yet higher conception of our Lord. As we are able to receive does He give Himself to us. There are heights above us whose glories our eyes are not yet able to bear. Life alone limits the growth of God in us. Life limits, do I say? I believe that life is but the beginning of our journey, the opening of our school. Most of us are using God's primers here. There is an eternity of development awaiting us. This we cut from the Chicago letter of the Home and Farm American Journal.

This is from an article in the Pall Mall Gazette, headed "Modern English Theology:" ""How is it that a large number of us have these ignoble experiments [the frivolities of the Ritualists] on popular bad taste forced upon our attention, when the nobler questions for which men fought and overturned thrones and died in the seventeenth century are hardly so much as spoken of among us? Predestination, universal redemption, reprobation, irresistible grace, and final perseverance are topics of supreme importance; but on what foundation do they stand? If they were declared in the scriptural writings in terms which leave us as little doubt of the intention of the writer as the story of the Resurrection and the commandment Thou shalt not steal,' we should all know what was at issue when they were affirmed or denied. But in point of

fact these broad and trenchant doctrines are all derived as inferences from a text here and a text there, from a line in this book and a line in that. In order that they may be supported, the verbal inspiration of Scripture must be literally and unreservedly accepted, and conclusions built upon its words by ordinary logical process must be received as declarations of sacred truth. Nothing, in fact, was in dispute in the first half of the seventeenth century except the sense of the scriptural words and the legitimacy of the reasoning by which the inference was reached. All were agreed that the words themselves in some sense or other were literally and of divine right true. Now the whole of this way of regarding the language of the Old and New Testaments has passed away; the very statement of the Oxford Regius Professor of Divinity, that 'many popular notions of the books of the Bible are erroneous,' is fatal to the old view.”

The Bishop of Carlisle has withdrawn the licence of the Rev. M. Haslam, curate of Maryport, for having protested vehemently in the parish (not having been allowed to preach a sermon he had prepared on the matter) against the impropriety of fruit having been placed on the Holy Table at a recent harvest festival. His Lordship wrote: "You have left me no choice, and I am compelled most reluctantly to withdraw your licence. This I accordingly hereby do. You have an appeal to the Archbishop. As I observe you have an unfortunate propensity to send my letters to newspapers, I confine myself to this bare notification of cancelling your licence.'

No prayer is sincere that is not accompanied and followed by corresponding endeavour to achieve the result for which there has been an expression of desire.

The last of Mr. Potts' double course of lectures in Glasgow and Greenock was delivered on Sunday evening, December 8th, to the largest congregation of the series, there being between three and four hundred persons present in the Glasgow church. The whole of the nine lectures have thus been attended by full houses. The same people have come back again and again. In the case of Glasgow no special effort was made to advertise the lectures except the circulation of a handbill at the first. The receptivity of the strangers has appeared to be wonderfully great. This has not been owing to the circumstance of the doctrines having been presented in such a way that the people could not see them. The gratifying fact is that the light has been set on the candlestick and has been appreciated.

SUNDAY-SCHOOL LESSONS.

JESUS GIVETH CHARGE TO HIS DISCIPLES. December 29, Morning.—Matt. x. 5-15. The several qualities of goods and truths cannot be received by those who are in evils, nor by those who are in falses, but only by those who are in the good of charity, and thence in faith (vers. 5, 6). With all who receive them they effect conjunction with heaven, impart spiritual power over the hells, deliver from the profanation of truth, infuse spiritual into natural love, reject the falses of evil, and all from pure mercy, without any idea of merit (vers. 7, 8), and confess all to be from the Lord alone, and nothing from themselves (vers. 9, 10). When they flow into a man's understanding they examine closely whether they shall be received, and abide there or depart accordingly (ver. 11); and when they flow into a man's will they make the same examination, and communicate heavenly joys and eternal life if received, but if not received the loss of these is the consequence (vers. 12, 13). The evils, which reject goods and truths, adhere to those who are in evil, but not to those who are in good and truth (ver. 14). Those who are in ignorance and in evils of life are more excusable than those who know the truth but yet do evil (ver. 15).

DAVID SMITETH THE PHILISTINES.

December 29, Afternoon.-2 Sam. v. 17-25. The assaults and troubles of the Jews were mainly caused by the Philistines; and when we recollect that the incidents of their history are typical of the events and temptations and troubles of every Christian, we can see at once that whatever the Philistines represented is something in us that will give us the same trials, the same troubles, that they gave the representative people of God. They represent the natural man with all his lust, who, though apparently subdued, though we have even anointed David king in our hearts, still rises up time after time and assaults us in another place, in another form. David's hearing of the invasion of the Philistines and inquiring of the Lord denotes anxiety of the spiritual man at the presence of evil and reliance upon the Lord. The sound in the mulberry-trees typifies perception and influx from the Lord, which, when we receive, enable us to rout our spiritual assailants.

Printed by MUIR AND PATERSON, 14 Clyde Street, Edinburgh, and published by JAMES SPEIRS, 36 Bloomsbury Street, London, W.C.